3GSM 2007 Review

Reading UK, 28th February, 2007 – Each year the wireless industry focuses on Barcelona for the 3GSM World Congress. With more than 50,000 attendees, the hardware, software and services companies are represented in force; it is therefore an excellent opportunity for us to meet with our customers and to understand their plans for the coming year. In this article, Scott Carter highlights the key themes he observed at this years event.

Focus
Whilst the 2006 congress was extremely busy and upbeat we observed that the tone of business this year was much more focused. It was noticeable that there was very little chat about ‘what might happen this year', or indeed reflection on the past year. Instead, and rather encouragingly for us all, delegates this year were focused on advancing or closing deals.

Telecoms : An Engineering or Marketing led industry?
Our industry is well known for marketing technology rather than focusing on customers or services. In past years, 3GSM has followed that trend, with exhibitors leading their marketing with technology-based acronyms (IMS, NGN, HSDPA, 3G...). With many companies now focusing on Product Lifecycle management, specific Value Added Services and Customer Intelligence Management, there were many indications that our industry is (and many would say, “not a moment too soon”) moving to focus on customers and services rather than technology.

WiMax is here! (at the GSM congress?)
Another key indicator that our industry is learning that customers don't care how they access services was the strong prescence of WiMAX at 3GSM. Several organisations, including Intel & Samsung were proudly announcing: “WiMax is here!”. A fact that Alun Sarin, Vodafone CEO, focused on in his speech to congress where he called upon the GSMA to “work faster to beat WiMAX.”

Mobile TV (again)
Mobile TV made its debut last year as “next years big thing” and it retained that top spot again this time around. Whilst we have not seen any massive take-up in these services within Europe, there is no doubt that the technological offering has improved dramatically. The improvements in the quality of screen display have been dramatic.
And, it would appear, so has content. Robert Redford's Sundance Institute (http://sundance.gsm.org/) released 4 short films specifically for the (very?) small screen. Rather disappointingly though, Vodafone blocks all download by default and it took me 2 phone calls to technical support to resolve this! When I succeed I found the movies to be encouragingly watchable and entertaining; click the link above and see what you think.

Consolidated Market
This was a 3GSM where many companies were presenting themselves under a new name, following the consolidation of the last year. However, there were also an encouraging number of VCs and new entrants, further underlining the optimistic mood of the event.

Summary
We have seen solid growth in the recruitment market over the last 12 months. Once again, Candidates have a number of options to consider for their next role and Employers need to invest in selling their opportunity to potential employees. Based on the optimism demonstrated at 3GSM, this trend looks set to continue.

About Allan|Carter:
Allan|Carter is a niche recruitment partner for high-growth businesses in the Communications Technology sector, across EMEA. Our clients include the software, hardware, services and service provider communities. Allan|Carter has successfully delivered for many of the industry’s leading companies, including Juniper Networks, Intel, Fujitsu, BlackBerry and IBM. Our fast, cost-effective recruitment solutions, as well as our focus on this market, have established us as a leading company in our field.

For more information please see www.allancarter.com
For more information please contact: Scott Carter, Managing Director Tel. +44 (0)1344 753 330 Scott@allancarter.com