OXFORD, United Kingdom—The newly floated European mobile operator mm02 confirmed its timescale for launching third-generation (3G) services is at least six months behind schedule. The company is now saying that it will launch high-speed services in its major European markets starting from early 2003 when sufficient 3G handsets become available.
The company’s chief executive officer (CEO), Peter Erskine, said that while small quantities of dual-mode handsets are scheduled to become available around the middle of 2002, he expects significant numbers to be made available by the end of next year.
“This means that ‘bits of cities’ could have 3G services as early as March or April 2002. But I am not out to be the first to launch the technology; I want to be the first with what customers want,” Erskine said.
The 3G handset issue is thought to be partly due to the need for the device to support GSM and 3G services. Combining these technologies within the same phone is reported to be difficult, especially the need to “hand off” calls between GSM and 3G networks as the user moves out of wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) range.
