3G multimedia services start to turn heads

Can the debt laden carriers relax a bit?

All is not lost for telco's burdened with 3G debts as multimedia services are starting to turn users' heads. According to research from Comverse - a unit of Comverse Technology - there is
high subscriber interest in 2.5G and 3G multimedia messaging services. Over 80 per cent of respondents stated they would be interested in using picture and video messaging weekly or daily. Business, residential and young subscribers in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, Korea and the US were questioned by research firm Morpace International. The respondents said they would use 2.5G and 3G services if they have high image quality and fast transmission speeds. Almost 90 per cent of business and residential respondents said they want to make their own pictures on multimedia channels as well as downloading or forwarding content, which requires multimedia devices to mirror PCs. The research concluded that the need to create personal images means mobile phones will have to include inbuilt cameras.