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MmO2 delays 3G launch
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December 5, 2001: 9:39 a.m. ET
Late 2002 set for start date; first European trial begins
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LONDON (CNN) - British mobile phone company mmO2 expects to introduce high-speed third generation (3G) phones in late 2002, about six months later than planned.
MmO2, demerged from BT Group last month, operates in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.
Its 3G networks would cost about £4 billion ($5.7 billion) to build, said Chief Executive Peter Erskine on Wednesday.
Like its rivals, mmO2 hopes 3G will boost revenues as users download video clips, check e-mail and play games on networks that run faster than most dial-up connections.
Availability of dual-mode handsets -- allowing users to access 3G networks as well as the old ones so subscribers will not have gaps in mobile coverage -- would dictate the timing of the launch, added Erskine.
"Our guess is that we get (some) volumes towards the end of 2002 -- 3G doesn't become significant in terms of users until 2003," he said on the Isle of Man, an independently governed island off the coast of northwest England inhabited by 76,000 people, where mmO2 is testing Europe's first 3G network.
The trial network was declared "live" on Wednesday when mmO2 handed out phones to about 200 consumers and businesses.
Mmo2 expects the first dual-mode handsets to start appearing on the Isle of Man in Spring of 2002, before hitting the market later in the year.
Erskine said the company was planning for 30 percent of its revenues to be derived from mobile data charges by 2004, compared with just over 10 percent currently.
The network on the Isle of Man was built in partnership with Siemens and NEC.
The 200 trial 3G phone users will include employees of the island's offshore finance industry and school pupils. 
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