COMMENT From quiet expectation to too much going on at once. The first day proper of this year's 3GSM conference had it all.
Everyone and their dog (more on said dog in a moment) had something to say about HSDPA, as predicted (see yesterday's column). Everyone wants it to arrive just as much as they seemed to want the W-CDMA form of 3G mobile network it beefs up. But what the hell is it?
Think of it as good news for end users, in practice an upgrade to how fast data can be downloaded. (Better uploading comes later.) Yet each vendor and operator seems to have a different idea of how fast speeds will be. Nortel even got in a comment about the thing a day before its main press event.
Excuse me for not quite buying those calling it a fixed broadband replacement. I've heard it all before, about the 3G we have now, and guess what - our definition of regular, fixed-line broadband is now a bit healthier than some paltry sub-500Kbps level.
So on the one hand, we get a fairly realistic (I'm guessing) prediction of 1Mbps from Orange (more of them too in a minute) and a pie in the sky "40Mbps maximum" from Ericsson CTO Hakan Eriksson, speaking in a keynote first thing this morning.
The man wasn't bleary-eyed - he was talking theoretical highs - and was clear along with several other CTOs of the directions their networks are heading in.
In fact, he even came out with the honest statement: "We have an acronym problem." Too right.
So that dog? Imagine my surprise to find the media centre at this here event guarded by a Doberman or two when I rocked up on the first morning. There to protect us or attack us? I'm not sure.
Of course they might have made for worse news from Siemens. For those that don't know, the communications arm of the German giant currently tells a story that, put simply, goes: networks business good, handset business bad. And part of some well-orchestrated good news released today was a partnership with Orange for machine-to-machine (make that 'M2M') services.
Siemens Communications CEO Lothar Pauly informed us that it's possible to plot much of the usage of said technology according to two factors - the rate of break-ins an area has combined with the number of vacant holiday homes present. Is that why the fearsome dog was given a new place to guard? Barking.
Good intentions of the day should go to the GSM Association, which with its 'Ultra-Low Cost' mobile handset initiative is seeking to bring mobile communications to parts of the world where, mainly because of price, they aren't an option. Yes, such places do still exist - and stop those negative thoughts about 'seeding future markets'.
Motorola is the first vendor on board.
"It is the right thing for us to do as a good global citizen," said Motorola CEO and relative newcomer to this cellular communications malarkey Ed Zander in a statement - after giving us the slightly more dubious line: "Connecting the unconnected with new Ultra-Low Cost, high quality, beautifully-designed handsets is a critical component of Motorola's growth strategy."
Alongside that rather positive move forwards was the most winsome announcement of the day. Or at least the most winsome of the several hundred I came across.
"Huawei wins respect at 3GSM World Congress 2005 with innovative technology and products," it read. Good for them. And if you're interested, the rather-rapidly-up-and-coming Chinese equipment maker went on to add a bit of flesh to that, including the elegant phrase "UMTS Distributed NodeB Solution". Even if I knew what that meant, I wouldn't tell you.
One thing I will say, however, is that those fellas over at Orange are a confident bunch. France Telecom's favourite son - the one that puts most money on the table at the end of each week - is nothing if not confident. A series of presentations by orange-tied execs in both English and French included lines such as "we do get closer to our customers than anyone else does" and, equally modestly, "we believe we have the best team in the world".
Figures, especially for 3G take up in France and the UK, looked good, as does future strategy - just don't get me started on their 'beyond broadband' hyperbole.
The piece de resistance, if I can use that phrase, which I think I can, here, was a trailer for Star Wars filmic episodes, Orange holding the rights and all with LucasFilms. The assembled Orange people cheered loudly. It's not as if you made the damn things, thought I.
Still, they showed me as I was chased from their seafront tent by storm troopers (see photo below).
And finally, something to think about. The guys over at Qualcomm have been comparing the power of today's advanced mobile handsets to PCs of the recent past (and not just because pundits often compare the San Diego-based company and their silicon designing ways to those of Intel).
Senior VP marketing Jeff Belk said a handset is now "a PC minus about six years". Think back to the memory, disk space and processor - probably a Pentium Pro, MMX or Pentium II - in use back then. Sounds about right.
Then his boss, father of CDMA Irwin Jacobs, notes that in two years, your phone is likely to be powerful enough to be your main computing device.
Does this mean our PCs of four years ago were good enough? I reckon they might just be onto something.
More tidbits tomorrow, as I again no doubt try to attend several hour-long press conferences spaced half an hour apart. Work that one out.
