3GSM Diary: "Greedy" content pricing, porn's handheld delights and the Brits are coming

With one day to go in the biggest annual event in mobile the sun had already begun to set on Cannes - literally. The weather finally turned and light rain could be felt.

One prominent CEO would have probably welcomed the precipitation a day or two earlier. Due to be interviewed on a business TV programme, it was proposed the backdrop would be the resplendent, early morning Med. You could almost feel the defences of those in the PR department being raised.

"Christ, that's all we need. Him on the beach as the temperature plummets back home. Doesn't exactly send out the right message," was the comment overheard.

Something tells me that interview didn't exactly take place that way.

The biggest stir of day four was caused by Charles Dunstone, founder and CEO of Carphone Warehouse. You could say no one knows the mobile retail market in Europe like this man and he was refreshingly frank.

While he was fairly positive about 3G - Nokia phones his company is selling for 3's networks are moving like hot cakes, apparently - he was upset about the services and content that 3G will ultimately depend on but which operators also need now to make a success of camera phones, polyphonic sound capabilities, multimedia messaging and more.

The operators' approach is "unsophisticated" and "greedy", with pricing too high, he said. What's more, charging for data by the megabyte is a nightmare. "How do most people understand how much they are using?" was his question. Many of us wonder.

One area where pricing and services need to be sorted out is multimedia messaging services, or MMS. One of the best panels at this year's event was on this subject. Unfortunately, whereas SMS was a success in spite of - not because of - the industry, MMS has very much been planned from the top down. Take up has hasn't been great. Camera phone users will often show photos stored on their handsets to those around them or maybe sync them with a PC. But sending over networks using MMS? Good luck.

LogicaCMG is known for its IT services business but the company (even when it was in its two pre-merger parts) was a key beneficiary of the SMS boom, providing the boxes that handled much of that messaging for operators. At this year's show, Tom Veldman, an MMS product market manager at that company, told me there's plenty of work to do.

For one thing, there's the cost of content. While there are those out there who pay for commodity info via MMS - I'll still keep on getting pushed weekly weather reports by SMS for free, thanks - content such as pornography is a winner. While some in the industry would do well to be careful whom they supply - see comments made on Tuesday - Veldman pointed out an operator raking in €80 per user per month for adult services.

Arguably the biggest area of content will end up being music (and not just funky soundtracks for all that porn). Dunstone, yes him again, spoke of the iPod as stimulating the market for downloads, the implication being that downloading over mobile networks will ultimately be easier than desktop computer syncing for most people and phones will become MP3 players (though MP3 players aren't so likely to become phones).

"People want content now rather than waiting to get home," he said.

A company that has ably jumped on this trend is O2 in the UK. Its dedicated digital music device has received plaudits and the company continues to innovate in mobile data applications.

In fact the British showing at this year's event was large. While few of the headline companies are UK headquartered, hundreds of companies that make up the mobile economy are.

A consultant to UK Trade and Investment told me that the figure could be as high as a quarter of the businesses at the event this year.

So let's expect wads of receipts winging their way north to finance departments the length and breadth of the UK. Another rumour going around is that the town of Cannes is now making more money from 3GSM World Congress than the famous - and, let's be honest, much more glamorous - film festival. How much of that money goes to the cher (dear in both senses) taxi drivers? Carriers who know how to make money, indeed.