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3G brouhaha: UMTS giants threaten conference walkout
The world's major telecoms infrastructure players are on the verge of pulling out of Europe's largest 3G show en masse after a bitter row with the organisers over money.

By Ben King

Published: Friday 18 May 2001

The UMTS 2001 show, due to be run by IBC between the 15th and 18th of October, is now at risk.

Arjan Singh, mobile analyst at the Business Research Group, told silicon.com: "All the big vendors have got together and agreed to pull out... they just don't have the money for it right now."

He added: "In light of the recent downturn in the telecoms market, it's no surprise that the leading infrastructure companies would assess the cost versus benefit more closely for the event. They may decide to have a smaller presence later, but it's unlikely to be on the same scale as last year."

Twelve months ago, business was brisk at the UMTS 2000 show at the Palau de Congressos in Barcelona, with Alcatel, Ericsson, Lucent, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, Siemens, and others demoing 3G gear and signing up customers from around the world.

However, life in the mobile world has changed a lot since then, with technological glitches slowing down rollouts, and a complete U-turn in financial market sentiment meaning that cash is in short supply for 3G telcos.

This year's show has been moved to the Palau Sant Jordi, the former Olympic Indoor Stadium, which is more than twice as large as last year's venue.

A separate source suggested the big infrastructure players got together after a dispute with IBC, following the 3GSM conference in Cannes, when IBC tried to force them to buy passes for the staff on their stands.

IBC was unable to make an official statement, but an unofficial source at the company confirmed that none of the big infrastructure players had booked yet, though it is not unusual for them to delay booking until six weeks before the event.