Love, 3GSM World Congress style

BARCELONA, Spain-High-speed networks are in place, 3G handsets are quickly gaining market share and a host of mobile entertainment offerings are coming to market.
Now all the wireless industry has to do is figure out how to cash in.
That-and a healthy dose of Kumbaya-style love-was the message of Tuesday afternoon’s keynote address at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Executives from the wireless industry effectively joined hands with the Internet and entertainment spaces, touting the importance of playing nice and working together to generate revenue from wireless.
“We’ve built a lot of new stuff in the past few years,” said T-Mobile International CEO Hamid Akhavan. “The challenge is how to monetize it. We have to understand what else (customers) want besides what we’ve already sold them. We’re not doing that very well.”
Marco Boerries, Yahoo Inc.’s senior VP of mobile, echoed Akhavan’s thoughts and invited those in attendance to join forces. Instead of viewing online behemoths as competition, Boerries said, carriers and other companies should welcome outsiders moving into wireless to fully exploit the potential of mobile advertising.
“We believe advertising is the missing thing that can make the whole (mobile) system come to life,” Boerries claimed. “We believe the mobile Internet is not a free commodity. It takes a lot of money to build and maintain. Value that gets created jointly has to be shared jointly.”