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Views 3G phones may never appear, says former BT technology chief on BBC TWO's Money Programme Professor Peter Cochrane, until recently the head of technology at British Telecommunications, has told the BBC that some telecoms companies may collapse under the financial strain trying to develop and run a new generation of hi-tech mobile phones. And the devices themselves may never appear on the market. Professor Cochrane tells BBC TWO's The Money Programme: "Make no mistake about it, this is a fairly serious game of poker. Some people are betting everything on this technology. If they can't find a solution, I think we will see companies collapse. I think we will see some serious consolidations and probably a fall in the amount of competition in the market." European telecoms companies - among them BT - have spent billions of pounds in auctions for licences to run "3G" mobile phone networks, which should have access to the internet and be able to transmit and receive vision as well as sound. Yet Professor Cochrane believes that new phones may never appear: He says in the programme: "The auction process was a really good study in madness. I think Europe has shot itself in the foot, and certainly the UK has, because I don't think we're going to see 3G." Telecoms companies are set to spend billions more on developing the new phones and building the networks. But Professor Cochrane does not believe that there is a viable business case for this: "If you said let's change all the existing mobile phones for 3G, you're probably looking at a five to seven year period. To make 3G pay, everybody's got to have one and be very avid users indeed. I don't see that happening." Nor is Professor Cochrane optimistic that there would be an adequate market for the new phones. He says: "I think it's really quite simple. People want a service that gives them some benefit, it's easy to use and understand and it is low cost. The big question is: will 3G hit all of those buttons? And the answer is: I don't think so. I think it's too expensive, and I think it's getting rather too complicated." The Money Programme's report 'Mobile Madness' will be broadcast on Wednesday 28 March at 7.30pm on BBC TWO. Notes to Editors: |