O2 3G Services Unlikely Before End 2005

spongebob

Despite the fact that the useless Comreg consider O2 to have launched and that they are therefore compliant with the licence I know of nobody who has seen this beast in the wild yet.

That could be explained by the fact that they are not really going to launch it in the UK until the end of 2005 according to this article on The Reg today.

The company will offer business data services but does not believe the technology will be ready for mass adoption until late 2005

That means no voice or sms or video clips and stuff until then.

M

jesus_thats_gre

Its pretty amazing the stance they are taking considering how their competitores plan to offer full services before this Christmas with Vodafone being the perfect example.. While Vodafone will be the only company offering 3G services here, there are quite a few competitors in the UK who plan to launch soon or have done already, the same is likely true in other countries around Europe..

spongebob

O2 are taking a calculated bet along the following lines (and in no particular order)

1. The technology is unstable and this will reflect badly on Voda and 3 ..but not O2 of course
2. The supply of handsets cannot be guaranteed so if there is a shortfall it will .....reflect badly on Voda and 3 , you guessed.
3. 3 may not be around by end 2005 , although that is unlikely
4. 3 prices for voice are murdering margins in the UK mobile industry, do remember that O2 carry 3 UK services where 3G is not available and would know more than any other carrier about 3 and what has/has not worked for them. I believe Voda will be the 2G roaming partner for 3 here while O2 is partnered with Meteor .
5. O2 do not have a 3G billing system in place , the other appear to have something ready .

M

vibe666

i had a hint from someone on the inside at o2 that they were thinking of launching 3G here in Nov this year. i know they are doing extensive testing at the moment and even have a live 3G antenna on baggot st. for that purpose (although it's not open for public business if you get my meaning). he even showed me it working, although he was just using it for data transfer, not calls.

but who know's. they change their minds like most people change their socks.

Barrie

When they come out on o2 will there 2g handsets drop in price as being old news?

And also on vodafone does any1 think?

jesus_thats_gre

2G handsets will slowly disappear in the same fashion that camera phones have become the norm and prices have remained somewhat the same..

Vodafone will definetly be launching the services before Christmas with a date before the 1st of November being the most likely..

O2 seems to be taking a fair bit of a risk. This sort of reminds me of when MMS first made its appearance 2 years ago.. They released MMS but did not push it to the same extent as Vodafone did at the time. Vodafone basically blitzed Europe with a massive marketing campaign and have reaped the rewards.

Someone recently told me that 3 are six months away for launching with O2 even further away..

flywheel

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

This sort of reminds me of when MMS first made its appearance 2 years ago.. They released MMS but did not push it to the same extent as Vodafone did at the time. Vodafone basically blitzed Europe with a massive marketing campaign and have reaped the rewards.

with 'rewards' like this not sure all that 'reaping' is much to write home about, MMS Is (Like) a Joke

BrianG

jesus_thats_gre

If you say so.

flywheel

just referring to a pretty detailed article that popped up last week discussing MMS and it's less than 'rewarding' roll out - the fact Vodafone IRL slashed the cost of MMS here by just under 50% in June does seem to go along with the thrust the article

BrianG

jesus_thats_gre

I didn't make it clear that I meant their Vodafone Live service which includes MMS, colour browsing and value added services. Apologies