LG Telecom, one of the largest mobile phone networks in Korea, are set to lose their 3G license due to inactivity.

LG purchased the license for a staggering $1.2 billion in 2001 but have yet to do anything with it. The contract behind the license states that it will be revoked if LG failed to use it by the end of June 2006. This date has passed and Korea has now been given clearance by their OFTEL equivalent to remove the license.

This appears to be an amazing waste of money by LG who must not have believed that the license would be revoked.

Just as the mobile world is getting used to the benefits of 3G a group of leading mobile network operators is discussing a possible move towards 4G.

The group includes Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, KPN Mobile, Orange and Vodafone and is attempting to create a set of standards for 4G to follow when it is developed. The Next Generation Mobile Networks group intends to produce recommendations for the creation of 4G networks when they arrive in around 5 years time.

The group, who will be based in the UK, will be looking into a packet switched network to allow existing 2G & 3G services to be moved across to a 4G architecture without major problems.

At present the major developments in 3G are focused on increasing bandwidth and using HSDPA to increase download speed. Most operators are also experimenting with mobile TV and receiving signals from the existing television stations.

In an attempt to block the spread of pornography the president of Cambodia, Hun Sen, today banned 3G mobile phone services from Cambodia.

Mr Sen’s wife had requested the devices were banned stating that the images could increase the “sexual exploitation of women and children … that would cast our society as a very dark one.”

A French owned mobile phone operator had been in negotiations to provide 3G services in Cambodia.

The new T Mobile broadband service will not allow users to make VoIP calls using its network. The super fast 3G HSDPA service is still in an internal testing phase but analysts doubt that T Mobile can sustain this ban without offering a VoIP service of their own.

A flat-rate version of the data tariff will be aimed at business users initially and marketed as the Web’n'Walk Professional 3G service.

The service is the first HSDPA data card to be offered by a major network in the UK, but it’s also quad-band and has integrated Wi-Fi. The card is currently being offered by T Mobile along with a voucher offering free use of its Wi-Fi hotspots for 12 months.

T Mobile expect to roll the service out over the summer months in the major UK cities where good network coverage and Wi-Fi hotspots are commonplace. Speeds are likely to start at 1.8Mbps and increase to over 7Mbps by the end of 2007.

This kind of speed would seem ideal for VoIP and instand messaging but T Mobile are quick to point out that this is not allowed – any user caught running the applications risks expulsion from the network.

T Mobile admits that this is a commercial decision – they simply are not charging enough to make including VoIP viable. Once the service has been launched T Mobile will be in a perfect position to release a VoIP client of their own to a captive market.

Tony Lock, chief analyst at Bloor Research, believes that the launch of a T-Mobile VoIP client is a possibility.

The Web’n'Walk data card is free with a new 18- or 24-month contract, £50 on a new 12-month contract and £170 SIM-free through T-Mobile itself. Existing customers with an older 3G card can upgrade to the new technology and tariff for £99.

Using the data card on the Web’n'Walk tariff will cost £17 + VAT per month, while simply adding the data service to the voice tariff on an HSDPA-enabled phone will cost £8.50 + VAT per month.

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The number of mobile phone subscribers is expected to grow from two billion in last year to around 3.3 billion in 2010 according to Taiwan based Market Intelligence Center. This figure represents a yearly growth rate of around 10% coming mainly from areas such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Economies of scale due to the adoption of GSM in many countries will lead to significant cost reductions and enable even higher growth rates in areas where mobile phone usage has been low.

The proportion of 3G subscribers is expected to break the 10% mark for the first time in 2007, reaching 296 million. Although this is good news for the networks it certainly shows there is a lot of scope for expansion and increased revenue from 3G services in the future.

A live television news bulletin can now be streamed directly to your 3G mobile, if you are a user of the Vodafone 3G network.

The service is currently being Launched in New Zealand in partnership with Prime News and will deliver 3G customers daily news at 5.30pm as part of the Sky News streamed channel.

Tim Nichols, Head of Vodafone live! says that this is the first major innovation since the 3G network was launched 8 months ago.

“For the first time we can now offer a whole show to watch on your mobile at the same time it screens on the TV network. The fact that it’s a news show is particularly relevant in today’s fast paced world as many of us need to keep up to date but don’t often make it home for the news,” says Tim.

Vodafone has been closely monitoring viewing trends since launching 3G to deliver a service tailored to customer habits. Since launch, figures show the Sky News made-for-mobile channel is the most popular amongst customers, with viewing times spiking around lunchtime, the early evening and late at night.

News on a 3G mobile phone is nothing new but the key concept of this product is that it offers the exact content that is beign broadcast to conventional TV viewers at the same time.

Watching TV on a mobile phone has caught on in a big way and we can only expect more of these scheduled programs as the gap between mobile TV and broadcast television narrows.

Read more about Vodafone Live!

Vodafone have been testing a high speed 3G broadband service in Newbury and are now able to start customer trials from April. Apparently Vodafone are hoping to be offering the High Speed Downlink Packet Access service to all major UK towns and by the end 2006.

These trials represent an important milestone in the evolution of the company’s 3G network. Tim Miles, CEO Vodafone UK said: ‘The start of our high speed 3G broadband trial marks our relentless commitment to offering the best possible experience to our customers. We have seen high demand for 3G since its launch two years ago and our customers are hungry for the improvements that HSDPA will deliver. These important trials are part of a continuing drive to lead the UK through superior network performance and a customer experience that is second to none.’

HSDPA not only offers speeds comparable to normal (PSTN or landline) broadband services with speeds of 3 times a normal 3G connection but it has far greater capacity as well. Traditional 3G services were limited to a certain number of users for each base station which caused problems scaling the service in the larger cities.

The high speed service will be gradually phased in throughout 2006 with customers in the South Eastern region the first to benefit.

The improved service will allow downloading of large documents at speeds previously only found on your home PC and this is great news for mobile phone users. For more details on this project and the latest Vodafone 3G enabled mobiles please click here.