Page 15 - Sphere No.8 (Mar 2003)

SPHERE
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3 THE
DIFFERENCE
In a global economy battered by recession many 3G players have ducked out, but next-generation
mobile services have arrived in the UK and Italy under the 3 brand.
By Mark Caldwell
massive impact on the way people interact with each other and
the world.
Until now, the PC and the mobile phone were two very
different creatures. One carried voice and was mobile, the other
carried data and was desk-bound, but both were great
communications tools.The inevitable convergence manifested in
3G represents a brand new era.
Not only does a 3G handset combine the functions of a PC
and mobile phone, it incorporates many other useful “devices,”
such as a digital video camera, music player, web browser, e-
mailer, games console, global positioning device and more.
“It is part mobile, part TV,” said Italian weekly magazine
Panorama after a sneak preview of the 3 handsets.
It can also “double” as a newspaper, radio, tape recorder,
electronic wallet, barcode reader, word processor, spreadsheet, or
personal organiser, to mention but a few.
“It’s almost what happened for media,” saysVincenzo Novari,
Joint CEO of the Italian operation. “First, silent films, soundless
images, then the burst of the commercial radio – sounds, without
images. Finally television – sound and images together – and later
even colour TV: a natural evolution that in time has become a
true revolution.”
The new 3G technology paves the way for what 3 calls “the
natural next step” whereby usefulness and entertainment are
brought together in a single package. Never before have so many
devices offering so many functions been so conveniently merged
for modern man on the move.
“There’s a shift from voice telecom operators to media
information-technology companies,” observes Phil Roberts,
director of consulting group Mason Communications Ltd.“With
3G, it’s a complete fundamental change in mindset.”
Hutchison’s Group Managing Director Canning Fok
concurs: “These are not telephones. They are powerful multi-
media handsets that focus on the eye as well as the ear. There’s
nothing like 3G on the market at the moment.With 3, life will
never be the same.”
BUCKING THE TREND
Despite the huge potential, 3 has rolled out against a backdrop of
disconsolate industry sentiment.
It has not always been so.
W hen Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 51BC, he
made formidable use of carrier pigeons to
communicate with his home base in Rome. For
Caesar, a man very much on the move, the birds
represented a cutting-edge advantage – and mankind has been
honing his mobile communications capabilities ever since.
On November 26, 2002, mobile communications took
another giant leap forward. Calling from Rome, Italy’s Minister
of Communications, Maurizio Gasparri, made the first public
person-to-person videocall via ‘3’ handsets over the UMTS
commercial network of 3. He spoke to Guido Gentili, Editor-in-
Chief of business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore in Milan, and to
Hutchison Whampoa Group Deputy Chairman Victor Li in
London. Not only were they able to talk to each other, they
could see each other as well.
The event was another significant milestone in the rollout of
Hutchison Whampoa’s third-generation (3G) mobile multi-
media global network, under the 3 brand.
Combining the convenience of mobile telephony with the
power of the PC and the depth and interactivity of the Internet,
3G technology is a quantum leap in mobile interconnectivity. In
every respect, speed and mobility are the key. Data transmission is
much faster now, allowing us to download video clips in mere
seconds. It has taken Hutchison less than three years to build its
flagship networks, to bring together a rich brew of content
offerings, and to provide the revolutionary new mobile devices
that are the window to a bright new world of mobile multimedia
communications.
The time span between that first videocall and the
commercial rollout of the 3 service is itself indicative of the
21st century pace that applies to the “3G race.”
Consumers in the UK and Italy have just begun to
experience the world of 3 first hand and the brand is poised
to migrate across the globe.
It is today’s equivalent of Caesar’s carrier pigeon overtaking
the foot-messenger.
THEN AND NOW
In the past two decades the mobile phone and the personal
computer (PC) have swiftly and simultaneously become essential
modern-day tools.The emergence of the Internet, too, has had a
3G