While Europe has lagged the Far East in the deployment of 3G services for the consumer market, it will catch up far more quickly than most expect ("Japan, Korea Offer Lessons on Making 3G Services a Success," Oct. 21).
By 2006, all the functionality you would associate with 3G, such as high-speed Web access and video streaming, will be packed into a handset no larger than today's less advanced phones and will not use any more battery power. When this happens, European consumers will be quick to embrace the extra data services that 3G enables. Indeed, without consumers noticing, within the next two to three years, all new phones on the market will effectively belong to the third generation. So, Europe may be coming to the party late, but two years from now, the 3G festival will be in full swing.
