Cellular Video Calls: reality that never happened?

Hi all

I recently started working for Comverse - the company supplies solutions for telephony providers, mainly cellular ones. Our product lies in the core of the operator's network and manages all or some of the services provided by the operator, such as Voice Mail, SMS, MMS, Video Calls, etc. Our system can provide a complete solution or integrate its parts with other available solutions in the market.

As I'm having an educational process now, I got an interesting thought during the studies. I got an insinuation from some of the cellular operators in last years, that video calls ability was the major drive behind the transition to fast networks, such as 3G, 3.5G and next generations. While it is true for some cases, I am not that sure that it is completely valuable.

Just think about it: would you perform a video call using the modern handset that has a video camera? Of course not - you'd have privacy issues right away. Do you really want the whole world to hear what you are saying? So what the point then in having fast network but not providing any type of service with it? Probably this is one of the reasons that cellular providers have problem: they have the infrastructure, but no services to monetize it. So everything else costs more to cover the losses. And this is something that I as consumer do not like.

I wonder why is it so in my locale that we do not have an unlimited connection cellular plans. We do have various packages, but they all are paid per minutes or MBs of data - just similar to what dial-ups used to be ages ago. It really would be great to have internet everywhere, and I think that cellular companies are not getting something here.

It's not that they make more money on pay per minute/byte basis. It's just me not buying the service at all while this is the payment scheme. So general users of this are business folks that gotta have an access to their email at all times. And even then, better options exist (we have WiFi hotspots almost everywhere now).

Just wonders of the world I guess.

Is Steve Jobs Sick Of The Cell Phone Industry Already?

Job's keynote, riddled with anti industry comments, topped it all off with a big middle finger to AT&T by introducing the iPod touch. "We're with you man."

The correctness of this cannot be underestimated. All the population in the world wants the carriers to be freer, more open and less restrictive. And if such a person as Steve Jobs is tired of them, it only proves that a little man can do nothing but work against them. And that means using PC to PC free phone calls where available.

-A.

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