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Sunday, December 12, 2004

Wireless Industry Growth Depends on Rich Data Services

Read what John Pallatto has to say on mobile content :

The sale of data services is going to drive the growth and profitability of the wireless telecommunications industry as voice services continue to come under increasing price pressure, said Paul Jacobs, president of Qualcomm Corp.'s wireless and Internet Group.

"Our industry is going through a fundamental change" because it is moving from selling voice service that has been commoditized to selling data services that provide added value and differentiation to operators' offerings, Jacobs said in his CTIA Wireless show keynote here on Tuesday.

"This change is rippling all through the industry" and will continue to gather momentum, he said. Wireless carriers are adding as many new services as they can, including ring tones, games, e-mail and instant "press to call" services, he noted.

Many wireless phone operators, especially those in Asia, are making plenty of money, but data services is what is going to keep them going, Jacobs said. "Voice is still a very important service, but data is going to be the thing that drives an operator's service … at a time when voice revenues are under pressure, he said.

Jacobs predicted that data services will generate as much as 25 percent of wireless operators' revenues by 2008.

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