September 3, 2005
PluggedIn: Voice, not video, is mobile firms' calling
Some 20 million Europeans have signed up for subscriptions on the high-speed 3G networks rolled out by companies such as Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa, reports Reuters . "But, compared with features such as music downloads, video calls have failed to take off, and voice still generates the bulk of their revenues.
"I think it's a generational question -- it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks. I don't believe people above 30 will take this to heart in great numbers, but it will be born out of youth culture," said telecoms analyst Hakan Persson of Kaupthing Bank.
"But even 3G operators primarily market voice telephony, and then they, of course, try to sell any other services they carry," he said.
Other analysts point to a lack of handsets and too few users as being the main problems for video calls, rather than the weak picture and voice quality and questionable value of being able to see who you are talking to.
... In Japan, NTT DoCoMo has promoted video calls since 2001, but take-up has been slow even as video traffic has increased steadily.
Research group Gartner said video calling was still a long way from gaining a wider following. "We have a report on this coming out in a couple of weeks and it's pretty much the same thing across the world," said Gartner industry analyst Carolina Milanesi."
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