The holy hype around 3G

[Bugwart]

The holy hype around 3G

Have third-generation services failed the wireless industry? Martin Cooper, the man credited with inventing the cell phone, thinks so.

Q: What is the main point you want to get across when you get to Geneva?
A: I'm going to focus on this holy hype around 3G. The carriers have been promising this stuff for the last five years. But those of us who are engineers have known that the key things are just not deliverable.

So, what's your best estimate for when 3G hits the airwaves?
We were going to have 3G in 1999. Then 2000. Then 2001. Now carriers are talking maybe 2005. They keep moving away, because it's so far just not economical.

[GoodmanR]

I disagree. While 3g has rolled out much more slowly than expected, it definately is arriving, and succeeding. Look at the success of NTT DoCoMo, who now has a million subscribers to WCDMA outside of Japan. Although its certainly not taking off how we all expected it to, its far from grounded.