The market dynamics of 2C were quite different from the Internet. But if you are convinced that 3G will be driven like the Internet, and we are, then you understand that 3G is going to be conten tdriven. For the 2G operators this poses a problem. There are only four of them in the UK today, making it a far less competitive environment than the Internet. The danger is that they will simply become carriers, competing to deliver cheap bandwidth, while others reap the rewards of 3G by selling the services that people actually want to use.
Mobility is the ability to consume on the move, but it's also the ability to consume anywhere.
He says that 3G operators could buy in their network infrastructure from Crown Castle on a wholesale basis, leaving them free to focus on developing and delivering services. This would he cheaper for them, he says. To build a 3C network from scratch would cost 2.8bn, plus 450m a year to run. Sharing the cost of the infrastructure could save a new operator 1bn. Much of that cost would go into acquiring the number of sites needed to cover the UK, which Davies puts at a minimum of 12,000, or from 20,000 to 30,000 for TV-level reliability.