ROB CONWAY outlines the factors that would fast-forward the acceptance of mobile entertainment applications.

Rob Conway is CEO, GSMA. He joined the GSMA in 1999, and in 2003 became a founder member of its Board. Under his leadership, the breadth and scope of the GSMA has expanded rapidly, reflecting the growth and success of the mobile phone industry worldwide.

In 2003, Conway led the transition of the GSMA to a Board-led structure, positioning the GSMA as the global trade organisation for the mobile world with the aim of accelerating the time to market and ensuring the global availability of new and developing mobile services. The GSMA now represents more than 700 GSM mobile operator members and 200 manufacturer and supplier associate members across 218 countries of the world. Its members collectively serve over a third of the world's population. Working closely with senior executives of member companies and other industry leaders, Conway leads a GSMA agenda encompassing commercial, public policy, strategic and technical initiatives focused on enhancing the economic and social value of mobile services to users, countries and governments while creating new business opportunities for its members.

 The mobile industry is changing beyond recognition as it converges with fixed-line telecommunications, with the Internet and with the world of media. There is a proliferation of new services, new business models and new market entrants. Underpinning this change is the rapid rollout of mobile broadband services, most notably using HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Offering much faster transmission speeds and much lower latency than its predecessors, HSDPA is unlocking doors to exciting, innovative and compelling services in markets as

different as Korea and Tanzania. There are currently 115 commercial HSDPA networks worldwide and a further 80 are under development. For mobile users, HSDPA delivers a step-change in performance that transforms the user's experience of mobile multimedia services. For example, many of today's HSDPA networks are capable of offering download speeds of up to 3.6Mbit/s meaning a 5 MB mobile video could be downloaded in as little as 14 seconds, compared with 2.2 minutes with standard 3G.

That time could drop to as little as 7 seconds on the HSDPA networks now running at up to 7.2Mbit/s, such as that of Telstra in Australia and Maxis in Malaysia.

In practice, that means mobile users will be able to rapidly and easily access high-quality made-formobile content, such as the Bollywood films from producers Sanjay Gupta and Sanjay Dutt, previewed at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. Furthermore, the arrival of HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) - KTF in Korea became the first operator to launch a commercial service this month - opens up many more opportunities for new multimedia services. An HSUPA network offers uplink speeds of up to 5.76 Mbit/s enabling mobile users to upload their own content to social networking Websites from wherever they are.

But mobile isn't just an alternative broadband channel. The mobile device is uniquely personal and it is always with the consumer. It is an extension of an individual's personality and an essential part of their business and personal life. Mobile operators have an established and trusted billing relationship with their customers and their networks are secure. Furthermore, the mobile industry has a track record of developing solid and sustainable business models that reward all players in the value chain. It is no wonder then, that the mobile channel is attracting great interest from traditional media and Internet players who are excited by its distinct and unique features. For example, Google has forged agreements with major operator groups, such as Vodafone and TMobile, so that its search engine is inserted on the operator's home screen. Yahoo has tied up with Vodafone to develop advertising-funded mobile services. But the fixed-Internet can't simply be transplanted into the mobile world. Whereas the Web works in a way that gives the appearance of a single platform for developers, the mobile world is complicated by the proliferation of operator networks over which content needs to flow to reach the global mobile audience. That slows down the pace of innovation and inhibits the speed of exciting new services to market. To address this issue, the GSMA is developing a global innovation programme that will provide a fast track for innovators to take their ideas to operators across the world, not just in their home markets.

To create an environment that will foster the growth of Webbased mobile content, many operators are making it much easier for their customers to access the wider Internet from their online portals. At the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February, Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone said that his company is putting 'large doors' in its Vodafone Live! portal through deals with Google, Yahoo, MySpace and other Internet players. Increasingly, operators see their established portals as complementary to and not a replacement for the broader Web experience.

Digital music is a good example of online content that sits very comfortably with the personal nature of the mobile environment. Sales of music-enabled phones, those with integrated digital music players such as MP3, AAX, WMA, outnumbered shipments of MP3 players by almost 2 to 1 in 2006. According to analysis conducted by McKinsey based on figures from Jupiter Strategy Analytics, Enders Analysis and IDC shipments of musicenabled phones leapt to 84 million in 2006 from 27 million in 2005. In contrast, MP3 player shipments rose just 2 million from 46 to 48 million

However, according to Warner Music, only 8.5% of mobile consumers use their phones to buy music and less than 1% of all mobile users purchase anything other than ringtones. Speaking at the World Congress in Barcelona, Edgar Bronfman Junior, CEO of Warner Music, set the mobile industry a clear challenge, stating: "The average ringtone download takes 2.5 minutes and is 20 clicks.If we could make it 2-3 clicks and 10 seconds, the amount of revenue that would unlock is extraordinary." While the new HSDPA networks makes downloading music much, much faster, the industry clearly needs to also make finding and purchasing music simple and straightforward. Still, the rampant piracy on the fixed-Internet, which has jeopardized the health of the music industry, has underlined that it is not just the userexperience that matters. There also needs to be a sustainable business model that provides an incentive to all players in the value chain. Sustainable and effective business models, which tap the immediacy and intimacy offered by the mobile channel, could breathe new life into many traditional media services and take others to completely new levels.