When is a cellphone considered obsolete?

Recently I started to wonder why Sweden has come such a long way with computers and internet access but still ignore internet on cellphones - it is as if it doesn't exist. What I would like to know is, if the situation is the same in other parts of the Nordic region and what about Europe? 

Reports have shown that the operator Three has the highest score for the category "income per subscriber" in Sweden, which should come as a wake-up bell you would think for other cell operators. But I'm not too certain that they care about how much their neighbour makes on mobile services since it doesn't affect their own customer base or price setting strategy. Leading the list on "income per subscriber" only says for a telecom competitor, that they have a higher attraction on the stock market for those wanting to invest in the possibly lucrative future of mobile telecom services.

Will GPRS get shut off anytime soon despite the GSM market continuing to prosper? Doesn't seem like it will. I look at my friends cellphone usage habits and see a pattern in the way they look at their mobiles. Very easy: it's a phone to them, it's a phone just like their first cellphone they bought in the late 1990s. However, about two years ago they saw low-budget cameras get built-in and so now they know their device under the name "camera mobile" even though I know it's called "camera phone" in other places of the world. It's interesting, actually. I do find it very interesting. Is the GSM industry aware of their customers' perception of the devices they promote and are they feeling satisfaction over the situation? If they are very satisfied it means that they have reached their goals and know their prosperity is deeply rooted in how customer habits work.

So, seeing as the telecom industry keeps spitting out new GSM phone models on the market in Northern Europe I continue to wonder: will profit, technology - or both - drive the decision to evolve the European mainstream cellular market? Today the 3G handsets keep maturing every year and more customers turn to these mobile devices. But ... when will it break in with 51 % market share? 

Sony Ericsson probably aren't going to stop producing GSM phones anytime soon, as their CEO Svanberg have witnessed growth take place in new markets. I believe that means they are going to continue manufacture and sell those very phones not only in new markets but also established ones to profit further. Will Apple speed up the cellular service market with their 3G iPhone or will instead Nokia single-handedly take care of the evolution? We'll see in a not so distant future!

Telecom Killer app for 2008? National WiFi coverage

When the telecom market's customers have signed their loyalty contracts to the respective telecom companies, those same companies need to find new ways and innovate to dig up a new path for customer growth to happen. At the same time, not only the telecom business realizes the potential of WiFi. There is a trend towards wireless internet as a whole and that most likely will benefit the consumer in terms of prices and availability. But which kind of people do they target? That's the question. I'm thinking that only bigger cities will see competition in this area while other places on the map will have to trust only the telecom operators to serve them.

Here I present to you, some information on where we were yesterday and where we are today:

Early 1990s to mid-1990s

Analog voice

NMT 450

NMT 900

Mid-1990s to 2003

Digital voice

GSM 900

GSM 1800 (only avail. in big cities)

2003 until today

Digital data

WCDMA (very high speeds, shorter range - requires denser tower placement)

NMT CDMA450 (long range coverage - handles good speeds)

Here in Sweden, the national coverage of GSM met the goals several years ago. For as 3G goes, the telecom companies met their goals as late as June earlier this year. Because of the fact that the population saw a growth in-between the coverage agreement papers and the population numbers, they only have the requirement of covering 98 % of the people since that number translates to nearly 100 % of the older population numbers. That might sound weird to you, but a signed agreement is a signed agreement after all. That said, the operators can volunteerly expand the coverage all they want, IF they want to. They just don't need to in terms of regulations set with the government.

I wish to see an expansion and upgrade take place as soon as possible to make sure innovations will keep coming.

Cellphones of yesterday and today: my own experience

My first cellphone ever was a Nokia 2110i which connects to GSM 900 networks. Back in those days, all you could do with a prepaid subscription was call landline and other cellphones. My operator of choice at the time, Telia, initially didn't allow sending SMS - only receiving them. For that to work with Telia you had to sign up for a bill-based subscription paid monthly. Of course, you also had to be 18 years old or above that age. Things were very different back then from how things are now. The most significant difference is that the average Joe did not see the need to own and carry a cellphone with them everywhere they went.

History
Since I belonged to the early adopters, from time to time I always heard from people when they saw I possessed a cellphone, "why do carry one of those? what's the need anyway?". It was as strange for them as carrying a tool with you such as a hammer for no obvious reason. For me it was all about learning the technology and getting used to the features, menu systems and things like that. I kept up to date with which models Nokia and Ericsson had in stock for both standard consumers and business users. As months went on, I noticed around me how other people more and more were getting exposed to cellphones and considering to get one of their own. Numbers of subscribers grew and so did the coverage with GSM 900 cell towers around the country. Call rates were high up in the sky but it didn't scare off regular people to call from their cellphone. The convenience and status it meant to own a cellphone made up for the expensive bills it seemed.

2001 - the year we made contact from cellphones
As I remember it myself, 2001 was the year when people in Sweden and Finland had accepted the fact that cellphones were simply part of our everyday lives from now on. There was this documentary on television that confirmed this as well. They claimed that the success in Finland came from the fact that they are seen as shy people, so a phone call was more comfortable than meeting someone in person. I do not know to this day if that was the reason for the success over there, but here in Sweden I have a theory about how the idea of having a personal phone with you everywhere was an advantage not because it meant fewer person-to-person meetings, but rather an advantage in the sense you could be reached even if the household landline phone was busy. Also, being able to call someone directly in a more private manner rather than calling the family household phone and asking the person answering the phone, "may I talk to ?".

2004 - The price wars
After the market penetration got high, startup carriers/operators wanted to take part of the potential profits out there, steal some market share from the leading companies. How do you steal customers from a competitor? The most common method is to compete in price, so they did! For me, the most fascinating thing was not that the prices fell lower and lower, but that they fell lower and lower for so long! When you thought they had hit the bottom low, another competitor set it even lower. This kept on for TWO YEARS in a row, as far as I can tell! Not until 2006, last year, did I see the market stabilize around the prices.

What happens next?
In a market where there are enough competitors already and hard to squeeze prices (as profits is a sensitive thing), the only way to compete with better prices is to offer something new. The first serious attempt I have seen in this area is X-series™ from Three, which is an operator that operates services over 3G and HSPA (3.5G) networks. Even though they target mobile internet customers, the bundle includes Skype calls, too. This means you can initiate and receive calls for a very attractive price. You can expect more telecom companies to start offering either same or similar services in the future, if they see a need to get a piece of the market there.


I follow the telecom market closely every week. If you're interested in updates on the industry as it is today, you can always go to places such as Google News and search for HSDPA. For an insight of the progress of 3G networks, I suggest searching for HSUPA instead, as that will be the missing piece of HSPA in 3G technology.