Addressing attendees at the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Congress in Sydney today, Russell bemoaned a lack of investment in 3G mobile application development in Australia.
He also left the audience with hints that Australian network providers might not have a realistic view of the challenge of providing 3G services.
According to Russell, funding allocated to development of 3G applications overseas is devised with a view to deployment in monthly, rather than yearly, timeframes.
He also highlighted the need for a broad range of services. Russell said that rather than being driven by a killer application, 3G's success was dependent on a "cocktail" of services. In the consumer space this meant "fun and entertaining" applications, rather than "useful" applications such as payment services.
"We will create a capacity [for 3G] but we must allow the consumer to [take] it forward," he said.
Applications which Russell described as "wireless multimedia" were also those which were typically high bandwidth.
Providers that look upon 3G as a 2G network with upgrades rather than a complete network overhaul "will not be delivering 3G applications and services", Russell said.
"3G requires greater technical capability than some providers appreciate," he said in his concluding remarks.
Well,
See this:
"We will create a capacity [for 3G] but we must allow the consumer to [take] it forward," he said.
If you want consumers to take it forward, don't put a high price tag only Gold lotto winners can afford.
How about looking at being the BEST communication industry in the world, instead of being the most expensive.
3G has no future here if it's going to cost more then current prices.