Burhanuddin Abe, Contributor, Jakarta
Using a cellular telephone on board an aircraft, which to date is strictly forbidden, will soon be common practice. Starting January 2007, Emirates will be the first airline to allow passengers to use their cell phones during flights.
The airline, which flies to over 80 destination cities in 58 countries, has teamed up with AeroMobile, a solution provider, and has allocated US$27 million for this project.
""Our research shows that Emirates passengers are active cellular phone users. They make over 6,000 connections per month from our in-seat phones. Allowing our passengers to use their cell phones during a flight is inevitable as this policy means providing facilities to active users of cell phones,"" said chairman and chief executive of emirates, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum.
Although providing cellular phone connections on board an aircraft is still deemed a high-cost service, other airlines, such as Australia's Qantas and Britain's RyanAir, are also interested in giving their passengers a similar service.
Cellular telephone technology has continued to develop and anything can happen in regard to this technology. Decades ago, talking to another person across the ocean was considered amazing but these days it is commonplace.
Cell phones are telephones of a new generation. First-generation cell phones were introduced in the 1980s and used analog technology. Second generation (2G) cell phones made use of digital signals and have two multiplexing bases, TDMA (time division multiple access) and CDMA (code division multiple access). For GSM, a mobile data service has been developed and this service allows the transfer of data from one point to another. Then the GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) technology enables someone to send pictures and sound (MMS: multi-media services) or access the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) site. This GPRS technology, which is often referred to as 2.5G technology, is very close to third generation (3G) technology.
Toward the close of 2006, the telecommunications world is excited about the new penetration of high-speed 3G cell phones. In Indonesia, there are at least three operators (XL, Indosat and Telkomsel) that provide services for this network. Certainly, the presence of 3G will offer a new perspective in telecommunications.
""Imagine, we can talk on the phone with someone and at the same time see his or her face. In addition, we can also watch television on our mobile phone,"" said Nobelson, 38, a businessman who has used a 3G cell phone for two weeks now.
Similarly, Indah Nurita, 30, a professional at an insurance company, said that aside from allowing a user to communicate face-to-face, a 3G phone has many other features that cell phones of the previous generation did not possess. ""Before watching Casino Royale, the latest James Bond film, at the cinema, I can watch its review on my cell phone,"" she said.
Indeed, the introduction of 3G technology has brought about changes in the way some people use their cell phones. While the handset of a cell phone is normally placed against the ear, this is not the case with a 3G phone. Instead the handset is pointed at the user's face and the front camera captures the user's image, which shows up on the screen of receiver's cell phone. In the same way, the screen of our cell phone will feature the image of the person at the other end of the line. This is the video phone feature offered by a 3G cell phone.
3G technology provides a lot of solutions. In a recent contest held by Indosat, Indonesian youngsters made innovative use of a wireless network, particularly in connection with remote controlling. One thing that a 3G user expects to enjoy is speedy wireless Internet access. In fact, regular Internet surfers who have broadband wireless connection can now enjoy a speed that deserves to be called ""4G"".
""When I use a 3G device, my Internet access is faster than when I use a modem,"" said Evi Puspa, who owns www.perempuan.com and refers to herself as a mobile worker.
However, 3G technology is not proving all plain sailing. There are hurdles to overcome, with the main one being the relatively high price of a 3G cell phone. As not everybody can afford a 3G phone, penetration of this cell phone in Indonesia is projected to be low. Let's say that our cell phone can support 3G technology with a dual camera. However, if the user on the other end of the line is without a camera, then the video call service would be useless. So before we use our 3G cell phone, we must first find out whether the person we want to contact has a similar type of cell phone.
The next hurdle is the relatively narrow scope of services. Not all base transceiver stations are capable of providing 3G services. Although operators will continue to expand the scope of their 3G services, they are only available in a few cities. As coverage is limited, people will think twice before deciding to subscribe to 3G services.
In addition, 3G technology overlaps with other technologies. EDGE and GPRS, for example, can be used to access the Internet, and yet the use of these two technologies has not been maximized. In the same way, push e-mail services, or ""webcasting"" are yet to be explored to the optimum.
The result of research recently done by In-Stat in the U.S. shows a new trend that 15 percent of those using cell phones carry two cell phones at the same time. The survey also shows that 75 percent of smart cell phones also carry a PDA.
In Indonesia, it is quite common for people to carry two cell phones. One is a GSM cell phone, which has long been popular in this country, and the other a cell phone with a low call rate offered by a CDMA operator. This second cell phone allows other people to contact the owner at a low rate.
Talking about how 3G cell phones are yet to gain popularity, Muhardi Noor, aka Tongky, chairman of the Association of Cellular Phone Vendors at Roxy Mas, Jakarta, said, ""3G cell phones are not quite right in terms of sales. Only a few people from the middle-to-upper classes can enjoy 3G services.""
Tongky said that the use of 3G cell phones was not popular due to: (i) the high price and (ii) a lack of knowledge about how to use this technology. ""Some people can afford to buy these cell phones but they lack knowledge about how to use them. It is like a gap in technology,"" he said.
Surprisingly, a survey conducted by Kompas daily recently shows that despite various features that 3G technology offers, less than 10 percent of the features of a cell phone are made use of. There are two possible reasons in this respect: (i) users are too lazy to read the manual for their 3G cell phones or (ii) the technological capability provided is too far ahead for general cell phone users to make use of.
These two factors may explain why 3G technology has not become the mainstream in the development of the cell phone industry. Campaigns and promotions by cell phone manufacturers on 3G technology, stressing the ability of a cell phone to give high-speed access, has failed to create the hoped-for stampede to switch to 3G technology.
