Dreaming of a 3G Xmas
The prediction that 2004 would be the year of 3G was given a late boost as many operators made a dash for commercial launch to catch the Christmas market. Even one that didn't, O2, produced an eye catching announcement that on first sight suggested it had launched HSDPA services before it had announced a 3G launch!
First, and answering most expectations, was Vodafone, which surprised nobody by choosing to keep the launch of its consumer 3G service as Vodafone live! with 3G.
Vodafone launched with 10 handsets announced across all its territories, although not all handsets will be available in every country, although nine of the ten will be available in Europe. Seven phones are exclusive to Vodafone.
The operator has also given its portal a bit of a touch-up, changing the front end to make popular services more easy to access
Vodafone chose to market video calling, video and picture messaging, gaming and full track music download as its headline services. It added to this a selection of mobile TV and entertainment content including a specially created mobile version of TV series "24".
Vodafone also indicated that it is sufficiently confident in its billing systems to charge customers per event, eg download or transaction, with web browsing included free or in a service bundle.
That was probably the greatest contrast with Orange, which revealed that it is sticking with a per-byte pricing model. Although launch publicity indicated how many video clips constitute a MB and so on, the pricing mechanism will still require the consumer to work out the cost of each transaction for himself.
More than 2,000 consumer trialists have been using Orange's 3G network since July 2004, and over 10,000 people have already registered their interest in Orange UK's 3G consumer services, the operator claims.
Bernard Ghillebaert, Executive Vice President of Orange UK, said that the operator had been working hard to make sure the service was ready for launch, but that there was still a way to go in 2005. "This is just the start of the 3G evolution. Throughout 2004 we have been making sure that the building blocks are in place so that 2005 opens up a new world of mobility for our customers. Our customers can now access more services faster, and keep in touch in more ways than ever before."
Orange has announced six handsets in its launch portfolio -- the LG U8150, the Sony Ericsson Z1010, the Sanyo S750, the Samsung Z107, the Nokia 6630 and the Motorola C975. The LG, Sony Ericsson, Sanyo and Samsung phones will all be available through direct channels only at launch, with the others to follow later.
The range of content available through the Orange World portal is roughly comparable to Vodafone's, albeit with a range of different news and information services.
Reaction to Orange's launch hinted that the operator was being pressured into an earlier launch than it was technically comfortable with. One example was the low key nature of the launch, allied to the limitation on the availability of 3G packages through third party retailers. Some also took the per-byte pricing policy as evidence that the operator did not have the billing systems in place to offer event based billing.
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