SINGAPORE (AFP) - Internet access via cellular telephones and the next generation of mobile technology are expected to grab the limelight when world players converge on Singapore this week for Asia's premier telecommunications event.
Up to 2,000 exhibitors have spent an estimated $29 million at the four-day CommunicAsia 2000 show to stamp their mark on the region as Asian economies rebound from the 1997 financial meltdown.
"It's a show for international telecommunications companies to establish their presence in this industry," says Jean Khoo, spokeswoman for Singapore Exhibition Services (SES), the organizer of the event, which started Tuesday.
Mobile technology - specifically wireless technology - is the dominant theme as telecom players prepare to tout the convenience that comes with the adoption of going wireless to an estimated 30,000 trade visitors.
Asian countries have begun rolling out Internet services via mobile phones using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) standard, which is touted to be the next catalyst for the Internet despite the limited models now available.
WAP marries the two most dramatic breakthroughs in modern communications - cellular phones and the Internet - in a region where sales of cellular phones are exploding as prices come within reach of ordinary consumers.
Using WAP, consumers will be able to do their email and banking, surf websites, make purchases and do other transactions from anywhere.
"Convenience is going to be the key to unlocking the potential of wireless technology," said Richard Chiam, technology analyst at Vickers Ballas, a Singapore-based research house. According to industry estimates, the number of mobile phone users is expected to reach 500 million globally by 2003, with 75% of those phones Internet-enabled.
Using the theme "a mobile society in the wireless era," a spokesman for Finnish phone company Nokia said it would be unveiling an initiative aimed at raising the quality of Internet content for access from mobile phones.
Rival Swedish phone giant Ericsson will showcase its first demonstration in Asia of its third-generation (3G) mobile phone technology, said Birgitta Petterson, marketing communications director for Asia Pacific. Ericsson claims its 3G technology enables transmission speeds over networks to be 50 times faster than current mobile phones.
Then there's Bluetooth, the wireless technology tipped to be one of the buzzwords of CommunicAsia 2000. "A highlight which is likely to attract most attention is the Bluetooth Pavilion, featuring the latest on Bluetooth wireless technology from Ericsson, Intel, IBM and others," said Shaun Goh, SES executive director.
Bluetooth, pioneered by Ericsson, allows wireless interconnection among a diverse range of mobile electronic devices, and CommunicAsia will include a Bluetooth seminar and a Bluetooth solutions conference.
Lucent Technologies, heavily involved in the Bluetooth feature, takes up the biggest show space, saying it wants to share its perspective on the development of the Asian telecommunications sector.
CommunicAsia will include a series of panel discussions, focusing specifically on the challenges facing the Asian telecommunications sector, SES said. The round panel discussions could not have come at a better time given the rapidly changing landscape in the Asian telecom industry.
For instance, host Singapore saw its telecom sector fully liberalized in April, two years ahead of schedule, as the government pushes ahead to build the city-state into the regional telecom hub.
On the sidelines of CommunicAsia are mini-exhibitions - MobileComm Asia, Network Asia and eBiz. eBiz, a new event, will showcase the latest in electronic commerce, Internet business applications and solutions, SES said
