Barcelona: Siemens's Soenke Peters claims this year will see major improvements of infrastructure and capabilities at the telecom operator level, which should feed through to value added services to the customer.

The UAE meanwhile is going to have an all new operator and therefore an all new infrastructure and a range of new services.

The focus across the region, according to Peters, is an upgrade to the 'core network' and the addition of 'Release 4' and 'IMS'. From a business or consumer perspective the technologies simply mean new services and new functionality for our phones.

According to Siemens and Nokia, who along with Ericsson are the principal players providing technology to the telecoms sector, these upgrades are not maintenance improvements, but blocks upon which competitive advantage will be built.

They will allow rival operators to differentiate themselves. The analogy is that of Henry Ford gaining the ability to offer options for the Model T. No longer is the choice between black, black and black. Now you can have pink, fuel consumption varies between models, some models are faster than others and there's even an option for an open top.

"Technology is allowing the user's to diversify, but it means that operators can begin to diversify and market themselves to specific demographics," said Walid Moneimne, Nokia senior vice-president.

International stage

For the UAE this is good news, says Peters. "We all know the new operator cannot come in offering the same services. It has to be fundamentally different to gain share in an environment with 100 per cent teledensity. With the range of services EITC can offer, it can be something different from Etisalat.

While applications are being written on an international stage for new services, Peters wants to encourage software developers in the region to tailor make applications for the Middle East market. It will help developers do so by allowing the software community access to Siemens' technology and in joint promoting solutions.

Both Nokia and Siemens see 3G coming to most parts of the GCC this year which will further help operators differentiate their service.

"Bahrain, followed by Kuwait and Oman will come first. The reality is the handsets are now widely available. People have been walking around with 3G phones, just using 2G. So there's enough of a critical mass," says Peters. "In fact certain countries will jump to HSDPA this year" - allowing broadband internet access for the mobile. HSDPA offers and, theoretically, mobile internet speeds up to 14Mb.

Peters also sees mobile TV coming to the region in its simplest form.

World Cup clips and highlights will be streamed with a slight delay after matches have been finished. "Real time can't happen because of copyright issues. TV companies have secured the primary rights for broadcast."