3UK To Downplay Emphasis On Content
By James Quintana Pearce - Thu 10 Apr 2008 03:19 PM PST
Ovum has interviewed Kevin Russell, the CEO of 3UK, who said that he’d been with 3UK since 2001 but “only now are customers entering 3 stores to ask specifically for data products”. The implication being that the increased data speeds and better handsets have finally got the industry over the tipping point where the mass market realises mobile phones can be used for things other than voice calls. Russell thinks that at some point in the future data plans will be unmetered, which would create issues for the business model of telcos. 3UK apparently sees VoIP, e-mail and IM as the key services where it can add value, and a revealing comment is that ”the emphasis on content is to be downplayed moving forward”. Ovum reckons this sounds like the business model of a fixed broadband ISP, something the mobile operators have spent a great deal of effort trying to avoid.
Posted in: Companies, Operators, 3, Countries, Europe, UK, Technologies
Tags: kevin russell
