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Asia Pacific mobile

phone use seen rising

on new tech wave

SINGAPORE: Mobile phone use in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to surge as user-friendly technology and speedy Internet access within the handled units becomes more common, leading telecom players and analysts say.

The speed at which third generation (3G) technologies are developing whether among network operators, Internet providers or equipment manufacturers, would also boost the rate of mobile phone use not just for voice calls but for other applications as well, they added.

Swedish telecoms provider Ericsson estimates the number of phones operating on the digital global system to reach 100 million by 2001 in Asia Pacific.

Half of these phones were expected to use wireless application protocol (WAP) technology. WAP is the first step towards mobile Internet and 3G technology, which combines to high-speed access to the Internet.

Users will have access to video and be able to browse the Internet on the units.

Also contributing to the increase is mobile electronic commerce, which is picking-up in the Asia-pacific.

According to a report by US-based researchers Meridien Research, Asia-Pacific will account for 12 million subscribers of wireless financial services in 2003 Ñ ahead of eight million subscribers in the United States and below 19 million subscribers in Europe.

Some WAP-enabled mobile phones are already in use, providing access to stock quotes and bank account details.

"A reason why these numbers will go so high is that we have a very fierce strategy to place WAP into all our phones," Philip Rambech, vice-president of Ericsson product management, Asia Pacific, told AFP.

Finnish rival Nokia is similarly bullish, with its latest WAP handphone already available in Australia, Hong Kong and soon to be available in Singapore.

"We believe 10 to 15 percent of handphones sold globally this year will be Internet-ready," a Nokia spokesman told the Business Times.

US-based Motorola is engaged in 3G technology research and development with China's Ministry of Information Industry, with an eye on the massive Chinese market.

The world's biggest cell phone company, Japan's NTT DoCoMo, has launched field trials of 3G mobile services with South Korea partner SK Telecom.

"In Japan there has been explosive demand for cellphones, and there's also been explosive growth in this in Hong Kong," said Andrew Shipley, Tokyo senior economist for British investment bank Schroders.

The demand will remain "as long as new services are being provided, as long as consumers have new uses for their cellphones," he said.

Goldman Sachs in its latest telecom report said "a new competitive landscape for cellular services" will be created as mobile phone networks in the region upgrade to 3G technology.

The report said this could occur in Japan during 2001.

Just last month, the industry buzzed with an announcement by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) that it was holding talks with Britain's Cable and Wireless on a proposed 60 billion-dollar merger between SingTel and Cable and Wireless HKT Ltd.

Some observers say the deal is nearly done.

SingTel has said before it was holding talks with German phone giant Deutsche Telekom to create the largest mobile network across Asia.ÑAFP