Speed key part of wireless sales pitch

Thomas Evans says mobile broadband will move from business to the consumer market

A rev-up of Telecom's mobile phone network will make it easier to sell business customers on the benefits of wireless broadband, says the company supplying the speed-boosting technology.

Telecom is spending more than $16 million with Lucent Technologies over the next six months on the first stage of an upgrade which will boost data speeds over its mobile network.

Among those charged with spreading the word on the benefits of the upgrade is Welshman Thomas Evans, a Lucent staffer based in Britain whose job title is field marketing manager, network solutions group.

"At the end of the day this puts them [Telecom] in a position where they will have faster download speeds and significantly faster upload speeds," says Evans, who has been in the country educating Telecom staff about the upgrade.

"That can help their customers in terms of the types of services that they can expect from this kind of technology."

The "Revision A" (Rev A) upgrade to Telecom's CDMA EV-DO network is said to offer download speeds of up to 3.1 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 1.8Mbps.

Telecom plans to make Rev A available in some areas by Christmas. The upgrade is part of the latest round in a technology performance battle with rival Vodafone which, meanwhile, is boosting speeds on its own GSM network using a new technology called HSDPA.

Evans' job involves helping mobile network operators such as Telecom in "identifying new revenue opportunities utilising wireless technologies".

"A lot of the work I do is understanding the market, understanding the work going on in the market and helping Lucent customers to get a global perspective on what other customers are doing, why they're doing it and how it can help or impact their business," he says.

Telecom says the Rev A upgrade will enable it to offer a range of new mobile services, including enhanced push-to-talk capabilities, multi-player gaming, laptop-based video conferencing and better voice-over-internet services.

Signing up customers for wireless broadband is a lucrative business for operators like Telecom who are desperate to replace dwindling revenue from voice calls.

The local competition in the data segment of the market heated up this year when Vodafone slashed its wireless broadband plan rates.

Internationally, mobile broadband is growing in popularity and has been marketed to business professionals "who in the first stage can get the most from high-speed data," Evans says.

This will eventually flow into the consumer market.

"Even if you are a business professional, at some point you're also one of their [Telecom's] consumer customers," says Evans.

"So even though you may start using these services in your professional life, they will start to go into your personal life as well."

Critics say Telecom made the wrong call when it chose to build a CDMA network rather than go with the more popular GSM technology, which has increasingly become the default global standard mobile network.

Telecom faces tough issues over the next couple of years, working out how its mobile customers will roam while in Australia, where Telstra and Hutchison plan to shut down their CDMA networks.

But while not categorically ruling out an eventual switch to GSM, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, Telecom maintains that it is happy with its existing network.

Evans says five mobile operators around the world have announced plans to upgrade to Rev A.

"From a CDMA perspective there is a clear evolution path with the technology that Telecom has chosen.

"This is Revision A, which will then move on to Revision B and Revision C and so forth. And the capabilities of the technology will get bigger, better and faster."

Thomas Evans

* Who: Field marketing manager, network solutions group, Lucent Technologies.

* Favourite gadget: "It depends on what the latest, greatest gadget is. I love gadgets."

* Next big thing: "Convergence is the buzz-word in the marketplace at the moment. It's anytime access to any information anywhere on any device."

* Alternative career: "If I was good enough I would have loved to have played rugby for Wales."

* Spare time: Chairman of a Welsh rugby club; also enjoys playing club rugby.

* Favourite sci-fi movie: Starship Sunrise, a German sci-fi spoof/parody.