5 years ago: Businesses could foot bill for 3G bidding frenzy

02.05.2000: Businesses fear they will pay dearly for the high UMTS mobile licence prices that were finalised last week.

Many corporate users of mobile networks already pay more for calls than consumers, and some expect that trend to continue once third generation services are introduced - a charge denied by the operators themselves.

But with over £22.5bn pledged for the five licences - a figure which doesn't include the costs of rolling out the networks - many in the industry think that the auction winners will have to pass on the costs, with business customers the likeliest target.

UMTS will enable more efficient mobile working and quicker remote access to the corporate LAN from laptops, PDAs or mobile handsets. However, adding internet access to already high mobile phone bills could dramatically increase both the cost and the complexity of network management.

02.05.2005: With five years passed, network managers - or anyone else for that matter - are still yet to be overly taxed by the appearance of 3G.

mmO2 announced last week that it will be rolling out its consumer 3G network this week, making it that last of the big operators to do so.

While no number are available for commercial 3G users yet and consumer organisation Which? counselling against investing in a 3G handset for a while yet, consumer 3G could be a slow burn.

3G data cards, however, launched earlier and are proving to be a likely staple of the average teleworker.

Analysts have criticised the cost of wireless data services, saying the expense of downloading files is out of proportion.