GSMA To Accelerate Development Of Mass-market 3G Handsets Under "3G For All" Programme
13 June 2006
Industry leaders line up for Asia's premier mobile event
13th June 2006 - New Delhi - At a meeting yesterday here in India, the board of the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association for mobile operators, approved a "3G for all" programme to bring 3G multimedia services and mobile Internet access to many more people in both the developed and the developing worlds.
Over the next few months, a group of operator members of the GSMA plan to establish a core set of common requirements for 3G handsets to create the economies of scale that will allow mobile phone suppliers to rapidly bring down the cost of manufacturing these high-tech devices.
Under the initiative, which builds on the success of the GSMA's Emerging Market Handset programme, mobile phone suppliers will compete to design a 3G handset that meets the operators' common requirements. The GSMA will endorse the winning handset, which will be widely deployed by operators participating in the programme. More details of the initiative, which is sponsored by the Hutchison Group, will be announced at the 3GSM World Congress Asia in Singapore in October*.
"Our 3G handset initiative will allow far more people to take advantage of the video clips, mobile music, Internet access, and many other multimedia services now enjoyed by more affluent users in the developed world," says Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA. "Our Emerging Market Handset programme is a compelling demonstration of how economies of scale can be brought to bear to accelerate falls in the cost of manufacturing mobile phones."
The GSMA's Emerging Market Handset (EMH) programme, which has hit its goal to reduce the wholesale price of entry-level handsets to less than $30, has catalysed the creation of a new segment of ultra-low cost phones. The availability of such low cost handsets has enabled many millions of people in over 56 countries to begin using telecommunications for the first time.
Motorola, the winning vendor in the EMH programme, is driving forward with it's vision to connect the unconnected through this program and expects to ship more than 20 million EMH handsets from launch in 2005 through to end of 2006. The EMH programme has helped bring the wholesale cost of GSM handsets in India down by more than 25% since last year, fuelling the growing use of mobile communications in rural areas.
Despite the fall in handset prices, the GSMA estimates that about a billion people worldwide won't be able to afford their own handset for the foreseeable future. Through its Development Fund*, the GSMA is looking at how to extend the many benefits of mobile communications to these people.
The Development Fund is financing a series of pilot projects in Africa and Asia that enable local entrepreneurs to set up payphone businesses or 'Internet cafes' where people can access the Internet, email or other data services.
In India, for example, the Development Fund has helped mobile operator Airtel launch a pilot project in the UP West region that equips local entrepreneurs with handsets specially-adapted to function as payphones. Other Indian mobile operators, such as Idea Cellular, are setting up similar pilot projects with the aid of the Development Fund. The GSMA is also examining how mobile networks can be used to give rural communities in India access to email and the Internet.
These projects could potentially lead to large-scale rollouts that have the potential to transform millions of people's lives by giving them access to information and communications technologies for the first time. For example, a telephone call, email or Internet search could save people from making long journeys to contact relatives, search for employment or find out which market is offering the best prices for their crops.
About the GSM Association
The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 690 GSM mobile phone operators across 213 countries of the world. In addition, more than 180 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.
The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association's members serve almost 2 billion customers - 82% of the world's mobile phone users.
Notes for editors
* For every handset sold under the EMH programme, Motorola and the mobile phone operators participating in the programme are together contributing 50 cents to the GSMA's Development Fund.
** See www.3gsmasia.com for more information.
For further information contact:
Mark Smith
GSM Association
Tel. +44 7850 229724
Email:press@gsm.org
or
David Pringle
GSM Association
Tel: +44 795 755 6069
Email:press@gsm.org
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