3G what?

Computerworld Australia has this article on a recent report from Warren Chaisatien of IDC and states that "….IDC’s latest findings are discouraging but hardly come as a surprise considering 3G has been strongly associated with cheap voice calls in the past 12 months".

 

Unfortunately for Australia this has been very true as the first 3G carrier in Australia, Hutchison 3G Australia, has led the battle for subscribers with voice capped plans. Although this stratgey has done a good job of dropping overall  mobile costs, it has brought in a large group of subscribers that do not understand how to use the 3G components of the devices.

 

The failure to entice people to engage with 3G services early in their usage cycle will cause major churn once the other carriers release their 3G networks. This Christmas in Australia will be a huge opportunity for consumers, but a blood bath for the carriers as they drop prices to attract new & keep existing subscribers.

 

Another interesting finding from the report is that at the end of 2004 there was an estimated 11.64 million mobile users in the Australian market with 90% belonging to the top 4 carriers (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone & Hutchison).