Point to Ponder

There has been much talk (read hype) on whether to go for 3G deployment or not; Go for 4G deployment instead or move over to the more data intensive Wimax technologies.

Yes this a big question for the operators of developing countries, especially with the likes of Pakistan; where the market penetration now stands around 90m + users, it still remains a difficult one to answer.  I believe the market is still hungry for data / internet and internet based applications. A recent study by Alca-Lu indicates that people are least willing to cut down their expenses on Broadband internet usage.

Quote :

“But in fact, broadband Internet services in particular are considered almost recession proof, with 84% of current broadband Internet subscribers saying it is the last item they want to eliminate when reducing their spending”

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Although having said this, if the next gen mobile telephony is to jump into the market, there is one aspect that the telco marketeers need to consider. Keeping aside the corporate market, how do you sell the technology to the end users of lets say Northern areas of Balakot, users of interior Sindh etc. Many will disagree with me on the notion of selling it to such areas and will only target the major cities.

However the counter agrument is “How to do you achieve your ROI?”; selling it only to the corp world or major cities

The reason for building up the entire conversation is for the matter that you cannot sell technologies to the end user. You need to convert the technology into end user need. This is no more a time when the end user wanted to get seemless call connectivtity at countless destinations.

I believe the end user has come out of this stage. They are more desirous of services based on such technologies. Infact they are least bothered what is the base technology that a particular service is using. How many of us evn think of a paying the home delivery agent via Credit Card lets say 4-5 years back?

We need to package the upcoming technologies into services. Dont call them “Get a 3-G connection for x-amount”.. Title it something differnet like “See Youtube video without buffering.. “.. ” Use voip appl with jitters on… ” These are just some of least possible tag lines you can think so.

Think of services you can offer and the world is there at the user doorstep.