s not only having a broadband access and Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Telecom Market Segments Chapter 8 transport network available, but having content to transport that cus- tomers will pay for. We noted earlier that 3G has not been particularly successful, largely because of the dearth of applications that can effec- tively take advantage of 3G's considerable technological capabilities. What seems to be largely missing in the market is an understanding that customers by and large are not looking for a new killer application: What they are looking for is a killer new way to access existing applica- tions, such as (in addition to good-quality voice) instant messaging, e- mail, Internet access, and gaming. The addition of simple multimedia applications such as video clips and photograph sharing are nice addi- tions, but far from killer apps. Of course, many of the services delivered over networks are based on cultural demand. In South Korea, SK Tele- com offers 15 channels of satellite TV service to mobile phones for about $4 per month. While slick, that's probably not an application that would generate large revenues in North America, in spite of the fact that com- panies like Sprint have announced TV broadcast plans for mobile devices. These applications imply that the handset market must evolve to accommodate them. As we noted previously in the wireless discussion, there is considerable activity underway as manufacturers scramble to define the nature of evolving services and the capabilities that handsets and other mobile devices must offer. A few companies are already mov- ing into the multimedia handset space: Microsoft recently acquired Vicinity Corporation for $96 million; the company's products allow them to deliver maps and directions to mobile devices. Based on VoiceXML, call centers are among the firm's major tar