Europe's leading mobile phone operators this week blamed handset-makers for delaying the full launch of third-generation (3G) networks until the end of this year.
Mr Arun Sarin, Vodafone chief executive, told the 3GSM summit in Cannes that the networks of Europe's biggest operator were ready for 3G but the phones were not up to the job. His comments were echoed by Germany's T- Mobile and MMO of the UK
"We have deployed 3G, made sure our products and services are there, and we are waiting and waiting and waiting. We can't turn the future on until we have handsets that are at least as good as the 2G and 2.5G ones we have," Mr Sarin said.
"[Third-generation phones] are bulky, they get hot, they don't have battery life. The experience today is unacceptable to our customers."
Third-generation represents the biggest bet made by Europe's mobile operators, with billions of euros spent on licences. But while most technical problems have been overcome, handset limitations have continued to frustrate operators, who hope the data-intensive multimedia phones will boost revenues per user.
Mr Sarin said Vodafone was closely monitoring the progress of handset makers, including Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, and was confident it would have millions of low-, mid- and top-tier phones available for a "proper 3G launch" in the fourth quarter.
Vodafone has confined itself to launching 3G products and services in seven countries this month, only making them available on data cards for laptop computers. Mr Sarin said it would be the fourth quarter before millions of suitable handsets would be delivered.
Mr Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, said its 3G networks were running in Germany, Austria and the UK.
"But we still don't have the devices at hand, so we did not think it was good enough to launch. We cannot disappoint our customers by introducing inferior devices," he said.
MMO is expected to announce a launch date next month for its German and Irish 3G services but its chief executive, Mr Peter Erskine, said yesterday that services would start in large UK cities in autumn. However, 3G would not "get real" until 2005, he said.
Mr Thierry Breton, France Telecom chief executive, was more upbeat on Monday: "The terminals are finally here that we finally like."
But he added that Orange's launch would go "slowly but surely", with coverage available in 20 cities in France and 10 in the UK by the end of the year.
Analysts said operators repeatedly had to push 3G launches back as they waited for handsets. Mr Michael Woolfrey, research director at the EMC consultancy, said he expected 26 networks to launch globally in the last quarter of this year, compared with six in the first three months. - (Financial Times Service)
