According to the story, 3G has been disappointing, not just to Zafirovski but also Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO Designate of Nokia Siemens Networks.
Nortel CTO John Roese has written his personal reflections on 3GSM at his blog. He comments:
As I described it to a few folks, the industry focuses on ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) as a measure of opportunity. The problem with that is that in most markets today the assumption is that there are few, if any, users who are not already on a mobile network, which means the only way to grow is to charge each user more for the use of the network by their device. Obviously, mobile phone plan prices are not cheap, so the ability for the customer to pay more is pretty limited. On the other hand, if you focus on hyper-connectivity, you create a system where, in the ARPU equation, the U (user) value can grow dramatically as you add entirely new classes of devices to the mobile network.
I’ll add that increases in the R (revenue) value of ARPU may be tied to the degrees of freedom service providers have in developing creative business models to monetize the additional device connectivity.
Will bounds be placed on creative freedoms tied to Net Neutrality, especially as the debate migrates to wireless networks? Carriers and infrastructure suppliers will need to participate actively, articulating a vision for policy makers.
The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit will feature a keynote address from Simon Beresford-Wylie on Tuesday June 12. John Roese, will deliver the closing address on June 13.
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