British figures raise doubts about mobile internet

LONDON - British cellphone users are turning their backs on using their mobile phones to access the internet, according to figures obtained by The Independent newpaper.

Analysts had hoped that internet access would drive growth at the mobile phone quartet which dominate the UK market -­ Vodafone, Orange, One2One and British Telecommunications (BT) Cellnet.

BT's internal figures reveal that Genie, the WAP mobile service operated by BT Wireless, has been hit by a massive slump in WAP usage in the first quarter of this year.

Total visits to Genie's WAP internet site fell by over 60 per cent from 115 million in January to 40.5 million in April.

Figures also reveal that the number of minutes BT's mobile users spent surfing the web dropped from 36 million in January to 12 million in April.

Analysts said that the figures suggest the use of BT's WAP service has been largely supported by a three-month trial offered over Christmas and consumers have been reluctant to continue to use the services beyond this time.

WAP has failed to live up to consumer expectations, being slow and expensive to use.

The revelation, ahead of the planned flotation of Cellnet's parent BT Wireless later this year, raises huge questions about the £4 billion ($13.4 billion) the embattled telecoms giant paid for its third-generation mobile licence.

BT's new chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, has already stated that, with hindsight, BT should not have bid for the licence.

Of the four main networks, BT Cellnet is seen as the chief proponent of WAP and mobile internet services.

Earlier this year, it launched a big marketing push for Genie. The company has also used its "Surf the BT Cellnet" tagline as a key part of its advertising in a bid to position itself as a cutting-edge operator.

Critics say that BT launched WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) too soon and initially the service was slow to access, difficult to use, and offered limited information.

"In some respects BT Cellnet has been ahead of the other operators in terms of pushing WAP," said Louisa Greenacre, a telecoms analyst at ING Barings.

"[Genie and BT Cellnet] were very active in terms of advertising and giving away free WAP phones but they've come in for a lot of criticism from people saying they over-hyped it. When people got the phones, they saw it wasn't like surfing the internet and were inevitably disappointed."

A spokeswoman for Genie said: "We can't comment on unattributed information of this kind. Genie officially publishes its growth figures on a quarterly basis. The next scheduled date is June, quiet period permitting."

One2One, Britain's smallest mobile operator, had 140,000 active WAP users in January this year, according to its latest figures, with Orange registering 188,000 active WAP users in April.

Vodafone does not release figures for the number of active WAP users.

- INDEPENDENT