Innovationsight

Under the heading third generation, 3G, the mobile telephony industry brings together a set of new procedures and technologies that will enhance and multiply the services available in mobile telephony.

3G will include a multitude of new services such as videoconference and enhanced voice, access to the Internet, electronic transactions with banks and outlets, locating, video games, music, and endless solutions that will combine the characteristics of the personal computers connected to high-speed networks on the Internet, with those of ubiquity, portability, and penetration into the mobile telephone population.

But 3G is something more than multiple technologies and new services. It represents the decision of an industry, on the basis of vast investment, to make a qualitative leap in the use of mobile telephones..

Perhaps encouraged by the overly optimistic expectations regarding the Internet, in

2001 a lot of the firms in mobile telecommunications invested heavily on the basis of predictions for the consumption of services by future users.

The mass media attributed special significance to the astronomical figures reached at the auctions organized by the governments of some countries in the 3G radio spectrum, the channels by which this new generation of telephony would reach the customer.

Also, the success achieved in mobile telephony data services in some Asiatic countries, such as Japan and Korea, has greatly excited the optimism of European and American operators in regard to these services.

And now, following great expectations and heavy investment, we come to the moment of truth, the start of third-generation telephony services. The dilemma at this point lies in how we must manage all the related complications, such as technology, design of terminals, business models, invoicing models, and critical masses where clients are concerned. We have to make sure we do not come up against another bubble, as in the case of the Internet.