3G – Underwhelming or just overpromised?
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
If you overpromise, you invariably under deliver. That is almost certainly the lesson being learnt the hard way by 3G vendors faced with slumping sales of 3G dongles.
It’s easy to understand why there was so much excitement when mobile broadband hit the scene – Wi-Fi was not as widely available or reliable as it is today and dial-up was already perceived as a declining technology. The issue is that 3G was mis-sold as providing the equivalent to a home broadband connection which simply followed you round. Many years on and we are still not at a point where we have ubiquitous connectivity, so it seems utterly ridiculous that people bought into this vision for 3G when it became available.
Perhaps if 3G had been positioned correctly when launched we might not be seeing the current backlash, which in my opinion is not warranted. 3G was never going to be an end-game as far as connectivity was concerned – it was always destined to be part of the ‘mobility-mix’. Admittedly, more could have been done to improve coverage, but we probably shouldn’t be surprised that this hasn’t happened as quickly as we would have liked. And as far as performance goes I’m not sure anyone predicted the scale of the explosion in mobile broadband usage caused by the popularity of devices like the iPhone, or the bottlenecks in performance which would occur as a result.
From an enterprise mobility perspective 3G is still a valuable part of the puzzle – particularly now that prices have become more affordable. So will there be – as touted by Rob Bamforth of Quocirca in this article, “UK Falling Out of Love with Mobile Broadband,” – a ‘resurgent reliance on Wi-Fi’ in the enterprise? I think that any customers and partners that have grasped the reality of what enterprise mobility involves and requires are probably already at a point where they will have a mixture of complementary technologies in place. Look at the mobility offerings from the likes of our partner Azzurri Communications and you’ll see that they take a more balanced approach to getting enterprises connected.
It’s the enterprises that have taken a more blinkered view to mobile connectivity that are likely to be switching back to Wi-Fi, having found 3G wanting at times. My only concern for them is that they continue with an either / or policy and are quickly left wanting some of the benefits that 3G can offer over Wi-Fi or take a negative approach to future mobile broadband technologies based on their experiences. A balanced mobility strategy that leverages the best available bearer should include both technologies.
Tags: 3G network, enterprise mobility, Wi-Fi
