Do It Show: Question #3 - About 3G

Mobile broadband in the Netherlands began in 2004 with all three carriers starting to provide UTMS service. By 2006 and early 2007 all three carriers provided HSDPA service. In the beginning, 3G was not widely adopted, mainly because the devices supporting them were not very popular or user friendly. (Remember windows mobile 5 and 6 or the older Nokia devices?). With more user friendly devices and all carriers providing very cheap 3G service, 3G adoption increased very rapidly. Often, unlimited mobile broadband was offered for a low price of €2,50 or €5,00 a month or even for free with a 2 year contract.

In oktober this year, the Netherlands had 6,5 million broadband connections, which is over 30% of all mobile connections. Together, all of these users use 1000 TB of data each month. This huge amount of data sent through the mobile network has forced the carriers to stop providing unlimited data connections for mobile devices; they were losing money on the data connections. Now, all new 3G contracts have a data limit of 100 MB or 1 GB and are significantly more expensive than they were a year ago.

With regard to the third question posed, right now, there are no problems with the 3G service in the Netherlands. All three carriers provide a good service level. Before, (pre iPhone 4), T-Mobile was the only carrier able to sell iPhones with their contracts. This made T-Mobile very popular, but many people complained about the coverage and speeds because there were so many people using it. Nowadays, all carriers sell iPhones, so this has become much less of a problem. Also, the data limits imposed on new customers make sure that everyone can enjoy good service.

Whatever the Technology used 3G, 3.5G, unlimited data remains the key success factor in today's French telecom industry (In France, 3G became popular with unlimited data, it was too expensive before to be widely in use). Consumers are not confortable with the idea of having in limited amount a feature whose consumption is by definition are to follow. The key issue for telecom companies in the near future is hence how to cash back providing such service (the new formats and their every day faster adoption will require enormous amount of data space which will cause data hosting costs to reach all time high).

C.

Thanks for Laurent, Patrick , Joern and Dean to reply about Apple and iPhone.
In my opinion,
the most important strategy for Apple is that they want their customers to have great user experiences when using Apple's products.
That is why, although Apple is a computer company, they put a lot of efforts on design, marketing and HCI(Human Computer Interaction).
As we can see in history, Apple is always not an early adopter in technology developments.
Like iPod(mp3 player),iPad(Tablet PC) ,iPhone(smartphone), before these Apple's products were invented, similar products had been appeared for a long time.
Therefore, I think Apple is not afraid of their competitors to use the latest technolgy ,like 4G,
because Apple always think they can find some ways to beat their competitors by making their products better and becoming more user-friendly.

Thanks for all the prior discussion of the 3G situations in all your countries.

And here I'm trying to extend the question.
How about the main internet service providers(for 3G or 3.5G) and data plans are in your countries?
Like as some information of those ISPs and most popular data plan you adopted...

Besides, is unlimited data plan common there?

Well, I admit that this is really one thing that you African should be proud of~

dean.fredericks wrote:

Xiaowei Wen wrote:China launched the 3G service in 2008 ...

Btw, many Chinese adopted 3G when IPhone4 came with a “tied-up” business to China Unicom’s WCDMA(3G), so though “slowly” from some perspectives, iPhone really played an important role in developing Chinese 3G business.

Wow 2008!!! That's really interesting considering South Africa had its first 3G video call in 2004, and mass adoption already well before iphone4! Who would imagine an african country would ahead of a global superpower in terms of mobile technology adoption.

In Germany after launching 3G network, there are 4 big competitors responsible for that: Vodafone, O2, Telekom and E-Plus. I want to give you some information about the network coverage in Germany.

The quality of the mobile internet access over the 3G network of Vodafone is very good, users can surf the web just like over WiFi and stream music without any problems. In cities, O2 Germany is offering UMTS and HSPA coverage, as well. In rural areas without 3G network coverage, Vodafone is usually offering EDGE coverage while O2 Germany often provides only GPRS speeds to its subscribers. E-Plus has just started expanding its 3G network with HSPA. As already mentioned, Telekom has been facing problems with its mobile internet access via GPRS or UMTS so that we could’nt gain any experience here yet. In gerenal, users should check the network coverage of several providers at their residence since there might be great differences. Telekom, Vodafone and E-Plus are not allowing voice over IP in their iPad price plans. Instant messaging is possible, but prohibited in the Telekom network.

So as it can be seen that there are exist a lot of differences and I agree that 3G has a popular reputation mainly because of the Iphone.

Hi everyone,

The launch of 3G in France was done in 2004 s the two main operators SFR and Orange wanted to launch it before Christmas in order to increase sales. Therefore, the way 3G was marketed was linked to the image of a brand-new technology that would be the "thing" to have for Christmas because it enabled people to do so much in less time.
yet, to me, the awareness of G is due to the innovation in the phone industry. Indeed, I'm pretty sure some people in France and abroad do not make the difference between the network that is using 3G and the phone (the device) which enables 3G. That's why to me the revolution of 3G was more linked to the new types of phones. And that's also why I think the iPhone spearheaded the change. I agree with Dean with the fact that Apple was and is still lagging behind in terms of 3G, but that is because Apple does not want to launch something if it's not perfect, they really focus on quality, and they must think that 4G and the way it is connected through the device is still not good enough to be launch on an Apple product. And in the same time, they overcome this by building very fluid and easy-to-use platforms and devices so that the speed is still high.
Nevertheless, it is clear that people became aware of 3G thank to the iPhone 3G, just because it has "3G" in its name and because the iPhone was the first browsing-revolution on a mobile device. In addition, the 3GS was launched by advocating that it was faster, which is true, but it is faster thanks to the device and not the network. But people were still keen on buying it, thinking they could search on the internet more quickly.

Yet, I think it is now confusing to have the iPhone 4, and 4S, as it is clearly not using 4G technology whereas it should be. The Android devices do.

Xiaowei Wen wrote:China launched the 3G service in 2008 ...

Btw, many Chinese adopted 3G when IPhone4 came with a “tied-up” business to China Unicom’s WCDMA(3G), so though “slowly” from some perspectives, iPhone really played an important role in developing Chinese 3G business.

Wow 2008!!! That's really interesting considering South Africa had its first 3G video call in 2004, and mass adoption already well before iphone4! Who would imagine an african country would ahead of a global superpower in terms of mobile technology adoption.

China launched the 3G service in 2008, and the TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and CDMA2000 were given to 3 telecommunication industry’s giants respectively soon after the 3G network was laid all over the country. For eg, if you are a 3G user in China, You can send and receive emails whenever, and use the Skype on your phone to call friends at any time. It’s really convenient; however, the fee for 3G service is still a little high that not everyone can afford it, so it's still not widely adopted.
I was first introduced to 3G when I was working in a company and given a CDMA-EVDO（3G上网卡） for work convenience. This really made my work easy and also my life convenient (like, I could watch a movie online with friends when taking a train for graduation trip!)
Different from Taiwan, Chinese 3G quality wasn’t decreased. Instead it’s improving, perhaps due to the fierce competition in the telecommunication industry and there are still many latent markets that are waiting to be developed.

Btw, many Chinese adopted 3G when IPhone4 came with a “tied-up” business to China Unicom’s WCDMA(3G), so though “slowly” from some perspectives, iPhone really played an important role in developing Chinese 3G business.

dean.fredericks wrote:I dont think Iphone had anything to do with 3G. The first revolutionary iphone was a 2G phone. Apple did not have a 3G device until June 2008. Apple 2008 iphone was the slowest 3G standard available, Nokia's were already using HSPDA+.

Even today, Apple continues to have the slowest data speed of all phones in the market... there brand new Iphone4S is not 4G, while Andriod devices have had 4G speeds for over a year already

Apples has a fast and fluid user interface - but we are talking about network speeds now - pure download speed - thats different... and Apple is lagging at the VERY back of the field.
iphones are both the exact same size and weight... no evidence at all 3G enabled phones to be smaller.

Well, truly Iphone was a late adopter of 3G. I am still using my Iphone1 which only allows EDGE :-)
But nevertheless I think that there was no huge demand for UMTS services before the introduction of the Iphone. As Joern has already pointed out, statistics proved that Iphones are used more often than other devices. I am not a big supporter of Apple, but I think that Apple has risen the demand in Germany for mobile internet and thus providers installed more antennas. It might be true that other vendors long had UMTS integrated. But who used it?

Technologies might have been mature already. Apple is known to be late to the game with new technologies. The point is, that they managed to introduce the hand-held device with internet capabilities to the masses. The iPhone plays a significant role in the development of smartphones and mobile internet we know today. Although I'm no big fan of the company, their achievements should nevertheless be granted credit. But it's less about a brand but more about a new medium that is created.

Modern smartphones provide new possibilities and reasons to consume content on the go, this stands in correlation with mobile content creation and the data transmittance technology.

joern.esdohr wrote:Patrick described the network situation in Germany pretty well, I have nothing to add there. I also strongly agree with him that the iPhone is a major driver of the mobile internet development and consumption. Specific device specs do not matter here. It is a very popular device and its users do use the mobile internet significantly more often than other devices'. You can find various statistics that iOS devices generate the major part of mobile surfing, e.g. a statistics of NetMarketshare signifying iOS and its Safari Browser with a 62% market share: http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=1

Ok, so if the iphone is a major driver in 3G adoption, why was the first iPhone 2G ? Also why were 3G Networks already established in MANY countries well before the luanch of the iphone? 3G was already pretty mature WAAYYY before iphone 3G launched in Jun 2008! Doesn't add up to me. South Africa is already on HSDPA+ in 2007 (3.5G) over a year before iphone 3G was released. iPhone seems lagging behind to me.

iPhone users are the late majority in my opinion... the phones while with a beautifull user interface, lack the hardware and technology for hugh data access speeds... in 2011... Many 4G handsets exist in the market... however apples latest handset is still the old 3G. No sign of apple entering the 4G marker for atleast another year??

Patrick described the network situation in Germany pretty well, I have nothing to add there. I also strongly agree with him that the iPhone is a major driver of the mobile internet development and consumption. Specific device specs do not matter here. It is a very popular device and its users do use the mobile internet significantly more often than other devices'. You can find various statistics that iOS devices generate the major part of mobile surfing, e.g. a statistics of NetMarketshare signifying iOS and its Safari Browser with a 62% market share: http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=1

I dont think Iphone had anything to do with 3G. The first revolutionary iphone was a 2G phone. Apple did not have a 3G device until June 2008. Apple 2008 iphone was the slowest 3G standard available, Nokia's were already using HSPDA+.

Even today, Apple continues to have the slowest data speed of all phones in the market... there brand new Iphone4S is not 4G, while Andriod devices have had 4G speeds for over a year already

Apples has a fast and fluid user interface - but we are talking about network speeds now - pure download speed - thats different... and Apple is lagging at the VERY back of the field.

In Germany the federal state of Germany sold so called “UMTS-licenses” to the biggest Mobile Communication provider for roughly 50,8 billion ($ 70 billion) Euro in 2000. At the very beginning UMTS or mobile internet was something that was very expensive and exclusive for customers. It was more marketed to business customers to check their emails - mainly for companies’ salesforces. Although in the mid 2000s many devices supported 3G functions, I think the breakthrough came with the emergence of SmartPhones and cheap data plans, in particular the Iphone.
I think that the Iphone has contributed significantly to this trend, since never before the need to be online everywhere was marketed by providers. As there was a huge demand for these services, more mobile flatrates were offered. Today a mobile flatrate can be booked for roughly 10 Euros a month and is affordable for everyone.

Mere Technically, a 3 G cell is much smaller then a 2G cell and it shrinks the more user are using the cell to protect itself. Thus, in big cities you need a lot more antenas. In Germany I know that the provider come with special vans to big events with extra antennas to maintain the quality. Nevertheless I have experienced bad services, especially during sport events in the stadium. (everyone wants to check the other games going on…)
I think in Germany the main problem is that the country side is bad connected. So if you out of big cities you hardly have 3 G service as for the providers it is not profitable to maintain service there.

In South Africa 3G was marketed as all about video calling. And the ability to view each other face to face, while paying the same call rate at a voice call. Little was mentioned about the speeds of 3G internet. Nokia launched a few chunky phones with front facing camera's. A couple people bought the devices... found out that they couldnt use the video calling function because landlines, and other people with 2G phones couldnt receive the video calls... then forgot about the technology.

A bigger sucess in 2006 with the luanch of HSPDA... but not through phones, but with 3G usb dongles... for use with your laptop - laptop users flocked to the new 3G data only service, which finally allowed South African's to really use their laptops on the go. The campaign was clearly aimed at laptop users, and NOT phone users.

Before 3G appeared in our world, we only can use our phone to call and send SMS.
But With 3G, now we can easily use our phone to browse the Interenet everywhere.
1.How was 3G launched in your country?
2.How were you first introduced to 3G?

With more and more people used 3G in Taiwan, people said that 3G quality was decreased.
3.Is the quality or the service of 3G still very well in your country?