However, Neil Montefiore, CEO of M1, expects the take-up rate of 3G services to increase by the end of this year when improved 3G mobile phones are available in the market. The current 3G handsets, he added, appeals primarily to early adopters.
Speaking at the company's announcement of its financial results for the first half of this year, Montefiore said the target is to have around 1 to 2 percent of its total subscribers hooked up to 3G by the end of 2005.
M1 registered a net after-tax profit of S$80.2 million (US$47.5 million) for the first half of this year.
The telco is not expecting significant revenue contributions from 3G services this year. "Net profit margin remains under pressure as we are incurring 3G network operating costs...while 3G revenue will not have meaningful impact in fiscal year 2005," Montefiore said in a separate media statement.
Currently, M1 has more than 1.2 million subscribers in Singapore, after an increase of 47,000 customers during the second quarter of this year. A majority of new subscribers, Montefiore said, were pre-paid customers who signed up for the company's M Card.
On wireless broadband access (WBA), Montefiore said M1 is now reviewing options on how it will deliver wireless broadband services. For example, it will decide whether to offer WBA services island-wide or within limited geographical areas in the country, he added.
Play video
Once again, M1 has missed the mark. Given that the new Sony Ericcson 750i and 3G 6680 have about the same features and offered to the public at about the same price, more people are buying the former, customer still subjecting themselves to the 2.5G platform. (This conclusion is made by visual observation, discussion with retailers and confirmed by the article here).
It goes to show that people are not enticed by the handset alone per se but also by what they can do with the handsets and the increased bandwidth.
The latest salvo by M1 with its 3G drama serials is the right direction but has used a very bad vehicle. Generally people on the move wants information and if there's news and sports information video, all the better. Entertainment will be last.
Personally I am waiting for these changes before I will contemplate getting on 3G:
a) a 3G equivalent of a unlimited plan akin to the wired broadband services. Because of the 3G content will be smaller than full-fledged internet content, I expect the charges will be much cheaper than the net's.
Better yet, a fixed subscription fee for information without charging for downloading content (see three.com.au to see what I mean).
b) Better information offering. Even if there are information services being offered, the exhorbitant content downloading charges will hamper the adoption. And also there are no efforts whatsoever to promote the information services provided (All Telco are culpable of this)
c) Ultimate 3G Tool: A 3G enabled PDA. Given the latest HP Navi PDA, I was still not convinced to spend the money on it since downloading things via 2.5G is a hassle by itself. And how is it enjoyable when watching a video on the tiny 3G phone??
d) Services to enticed overseas 3G users to use their handsets in Singapore. In the meantime, Australians 3G handsets are not able to configure to local content. Even if there are services to do this, I am finding it hard to do so. Think about the millions of tourists that can actually make use of the 3G content to know of local tourist destinations but because of technical difficulties, could not do so.
In a connected world, such lack of initiative will surely spell doom to local telco scene. I-Mode is coming soon, 3G providers better pull up their pants.
In the meantime, I changed my OZ Motorola A925 to a Nokia 6670 because of the above reason. Being a adopter myself, the local 3G scene is really disappointing. Hope to see huge changes within the year.
Posted by Wilson Wong on Thursday, July 21 2005 12:32 PM