Al Javed, cheif technology officer at Nortel Networks told the press there are many ideas for new 3G applications, but most of them would not come about unless 3G services start to generate profits at the start. And the way to do it is by cost reduction. In the future 3G phones will come will multiple antennas to boost effective use of the spectrum and new modulation schemes will be developed to give us higher bandwidth when the users are close to the base-stations, he said. Javed claims 3G will start in early 2002, but most of those technology like multiple antennas would not come out, unless operators can find ways to make profits from 3G. There are ways to make the service cost effective to drive down user cost.
Power amplifiers can improve by better liner performance like the lees pricey DSPs.
Base-stations can migrate from 1 million gate ASICs to more highly integrated 10 million gate chips. Some operators have already taken steps to reduce long-term cost such as installing all new IP that can efficiently handle 3G services. There are lots of ways to reduce network infrastructure cost that could increase service revenues. We're not seeing any hurdles.