Ericsson President: Mobile Net will soon outgrow fixed Net

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L.M. Ericsson President Kurt Hellström said European statistics show the mobile Internet is a booming business

By Joris Evers

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (IDG) -- The mobile Internet will soon be "bigger than the fixed Internet," said L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. President Kurt Hellström in a keynote presentation here Tuesday.

"Only three years from now, more people will access the Internet using a mobile device, than a fixed device. The mobile Internet will develop even faster that the fixed Internet," Hellström said.

For the network operators this means a need for more capacity. Ericsson's main business is supplying hardware for mobile networks. "Today's mobile networks are designed for traditional phone calls, voice to voice," said Hellström. "The networks are relatively slow when used for data communications." The forthcoming 3G (third-generation) networks will solve that problem. "3G is broadband (connectivity) to the pocket," Hellström said. The first commercial 3G networks will be in operation in 2001 in Japan, he added.

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Internet and telecom are converging into a new world of communication, Hellström said -- a world built on mobility and personal needs. Hellström pitched Kista, an area in Sweden nicknamed "Mobile Valley" and Ericsson's headquarters, as the place where the mobile Internet will be created.

"What are we doing in Kista? You can say that we are cutting cords of any kind of communication that we can get our hands on," Hellström said.

Today, there are close to 650 million mobile phone users worldwide, a number growing each day by 700,000, Ericsson says. "Next year, there will be more people using mobile phones than fixed phones throughout the world," Hellström said.

And the next step for the company? "It's really quite logical, we will cut the cords of the Internet. The mobile device will bridge the gap between telecom and the Internet," Hellström said. "Just as the mobile phone will soon overtake its forerunner the wired phone, we believe that the mobile Internet will soon be bigger than the fixed Internet."

It will happen for the same reasons the cords of the telephone were cut. "It appeals to a basic human need for freedom and convenience," he added.

Hellström noted mobile Internet is already getting off the ground in some areas. He mentioned I-mode in Japan, PocketNet and Mobitext in the U.S. and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) in Europe. Hellström said WAP has had "a somewhat shaky start", but is now growing rapidly.

Members of the audience didn't hear much that was new in Hellström's keynote. "He was just talking the tip of the iceberg. In the next three to five years, we'll see amazing applications," said William Clift, chief technology officer of Ericsson customer Cingular Wireless, the joint venture of the two wireless divisions of San Antonio, Texas-based SBC Communications Inc. and Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp.

"The killer application will be video-centric as well as full Internet access," Clift said. "We are just now getting the technology in the network that enables creation. It is just like when you first put a PC on your desk. You had to justify to people what you were going to do with it. It was hard to envision. The same thing is true with this technology. There is going to be a great number of bright people, some of whom will not be with the Ericssons of the world, that will create great applications."

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