In past years at 3GSM, the mobile world's global trade show, Siemens hired a boat and anchored it off the coast of Cannes with a huge logo on its side. But with the shift to Barcelona this year, the German tech giant has had to opt for a truck outside the conference centre, somewhat reflecting the scaled-down nature of its position in the mobile market.

Last year Siemens sold its handset division to Asian manufacturer BenQ after admitting it was losing about €1 million a day and had missed the boat on 3G phones. However, Siemens' new vision as a supplier of the picks and shovels of the mobile gold rush is, if anything, ambitious.

Siemens group president Thomas Ganswindt threw down the gauntlet to Nokia this week at 3GSM, saying he wanted his group to overtake the handset giant in the provision of internet based networks for mobile phone infrastructure.

According to Ganswindt, Siemens' share of the business rose to about 11 per cent last year while Nokia's dropped to about 12 per cent, from 13 per cent. The undisputed leader is Ericsson.

Siemens was doing its best to demonstrate its technical prowess at the conference, performing live demonstrations of mobile television over DVB-H (digital video broadcast-handheld).

The company also launched "call and share" technology designed to enable operators to pump up the volume of data traffic over the wireless network by allowing consumers to share videos.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Ganswindt said: "The shift to IP networks is fundamental."

He says Siemens effectively wants to ape Cisco's success in the fixed internet space in the mobile arena. He is also conscious that no one has the monopoly on the new internet-based thinking.

Ganswindt is upbeat about the sale of its handset division: "Looking at the business today, not having a handset division creates opportunities to talk to several handset vendors."

While Nokia provides both infrastructure and handsets, he thinks this dual approach will become a "weakness" over time.

"GSM is coming of age. The no-frills phenomenon is typical of a mature industry that is moving to a new technology. The prices of voice will remain under pressure and growth will come from the data business."