Indonesia, which has five 3G operators already, will be the third ASEAN country after Singapore and Malaysia to have WCDMA-based 3G services. We will be joining around fifty million people who already have access to this service around the world. But it's not clear what services the operators will offer. When the operators did 3G trials last years, they indicated that their services would be video conferences, video telephony and internet broadband connection only. According to an Ericsson Consumer Lab survey in Indonesia, video telephony -- being able to see the person you are talking with -- ranked only fifth in the list of services that users were interested in. Topping the list was radio entertainment, ...

Posted by Budi Putra on July 6th, 2006 No Comments »

Indonesia has five 3G licensed-operators. Yes, you got it right: Five. The problem is, none of them is actually operating. Telkomsel, Indonesia’s leading cellular operator, will launch commercial 3G services only later this year. Indosat and Excelcom, two other biggest GSM operators, did some trials in Jakarta last year, but we haven't heard much from them since then. What about the other two operators, Cyber Access Communications and Natrindo Telepon Seluler? Do not expect these new entrants to launch 3G services anytime soon. So far they have no broad existing subscribers, and they operate small coverage of cellular networks only. [3G] This post was originally published in Sarapan Ekonomi

Posted by Budi Putra on June 27th, 2006 1 Comment »

How much momentum has Asia's much-hyped 3G deployment garnered in this year? How potential this service to boost business and economic in this region? So how about other Southeast Asia countries who also run this technology? According to some industry observers, Third-Generation (3G) in Southeast Asia, namely Malaysia and Singapore--currently the only two markets where such services are commercially available--has seen starkly different uptakes. Figures from Singapore's industry regulator Infcomm Development Authority, indicate that, as of end-April, 8 percent of the country's 4.4 million mobile subscribers are 3G users--or over 360,000 users. Alayne Wong, Asia-Pacific communications research manager at IDC, calls these numbers very encouraging. In comparison though, Malaysia's rate of growth has been significantly slower. According to Wong, as at the first quarter ...

Posted by Budi Putra on June 23rd, 2006 No Comments »

Publicly listed cellular phone provider PT Bakrie Telecom, which operates the CDMA-based esia mobile phone service, plans to expand its coverage to 15 cities in Banten and West Java next month in a bid to carve itself out a bigger share of the mobile phone market. With coverage confined to only two cities -- Indonesian capital city Jakarta and Bandung -- at present, the firm hopes the expansion will increase its subscriber base to 1.3 million by the end of this year from about one million at present. The company, a subsidiary of the widely diversified Bakrie & Brothers, is still waiting for the results of its feasibility studies and the outcome of the ...

Posted by Budi Putra on June 22nd, 2006 No Comments »

Malaysia is one of the fastest growing 3G countries in Southeast Asia. Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd reported will expand its 3G mobile service to cover the whole country by July 15, said chief executive officer Datuk Shazalli Ramly. Its 3G service currently covers the major urban areas, such as the capital, Shah Alam, Johor Baru, Ipoh, Alor Star, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. There are 100,000 subscribers to the service now. Celcom wants to boost its 3G subscriber base to 150,000 by year end, and expects the expansion in its 3G coverage will help. [3G!] Link

Posted by Budi Putra on June 21st, 2006 2 Comments »

Smart move in accelerating 3G services in Malaysia. All 3G operators here will have to enter into interoperability agreements to widen subscriber base and coverage. They show that cooperation much better than mere competition. All 3G operators in Malaysia will have to enter into interoperability agreements to secure a wider subscriber base, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Practice Telecoms Research head Teyew Sin Siew said. Teyew said Malaysia’s current 3G operators Maxis Communications Bhd and Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd used only the WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) technology; thus there should not be any technical interoperability problem. He said 3G operators here had realised the importance of interoperability from the experience gained from SMS. “All operators (Maxis, Celcom, MiTV Corporation Sdn ...

Posted by Budi Putra on June 6th, 2006 No Comments »

France Telecom SA's (FTE) research unit in Beijing said Friday it is assessing China's locally developed third-generation mobile phone standard, which its parent company may consider using in Europe at a later date. China's Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access standard uses a different frequency spectrum for mobile-phone calls and data transfers than the other two 3G standards, Wideband CDMA and CDMA2000. [3G!]

Posted by Budi Putra on May 28th, 2006 No Comments »

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has announced the launch of 3G, having started testing the service in 2005. STC’s Al Jawal mobile operation plans to roll out the largest 3G network in the Middle East and will activate a full service including: voice and video calls, live TV and HSDPA technology, running at speeds of up to 1.5Mbps. The operator already has over 3,000 customers testing and using the service. Five hundred base stations are fully operational in 20 cities across the kingdom with a further 460 new base stations going live in the coming weeks, which will further enhance the coverage. Al Jawal plans to deliver 100% coverage in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam, and subscribers will be able to obtain and ...

Posted by Budi Putra on May 25th, 2006 No Comments »

Sri Lanka yesterday offered third-generation (3G) mobile phone network licences to the country's four cellular phone operators at US$5 million each. The 3G licences will allow the companies to offer high-speed voice and data transmission. The largest mobile company in Sri Lanka, Dialog Telekom, was already carrying out 3G trials, while two other firms - Mobitel and Celltel - were also keen. Dialog, which inked plans for a US$150 million two-year expansion drive last week, hopes to offer high-speed Internet access on mobile phones later this year. [3G!] Source: AFP

Posted by Budi Putra on May 23rd, 2006 No Comments »

SK Telecom proved Korea as the leader of third-generation (3G) mobile network technology with the kick-off of the world's first commercial HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) service. SK Telecom introduced today a first-ever 3.5 generation (3.5G) network HSDPA handset and announced the launching of the world's first handset-based commercial HSDPA network. The company has named the new service 3G+ (read 3G plus) to familiarize users with the HSDPA service. HSDPA, the upgrade of 3G WCDMA, is a global standard technology allowing video conferencing and high-speed, high-capacity data access to users. Together with EVDO, it is projected to expand to become the next generation network technology of SK Telecom. [3G!]

Posted by Budi Putra on May 22nd, 2006 No Comments »