Costly handsets stalling Europe's 3G

silicon.com covers a new report from Forrester that finds "while the picture is looking bleak for 3G take-up across Europe, the UK is forging ahead with adoption." Forrester predicts "3G take-up will languish in the doldrums in Europe until around 2010, when some 60 per cent of the continent's citizens will be using third-generation phones."

According to Niek van Veen at Forrester, "the extra cost needed to subsidise 3G phones in place of 2G will put operators off converting their entire portfolio to third-generation mobiles."

Van Veen said, "The average European changes their handset every two years. A person who bought a phone this Christmas probably bought a GPRS phone. That same person buying a phone in two years' time is more likely to buy one that's UMTS [one flavour of 3G]."

Forrester predicts "Europe is set to reach around 61 per cent 3G take-up in 2010, while the UK will notch up 68 per cent." Van Veen said: "In the UK, people like fancy phones and they like having the latest stuff. The UK leads in [adopting] advanced services."

Regarding mobile data usage, Forrester believes "just 21 per cent of Europeans now use mobile internet services on a regular basis - and that figure will plateau at around 50 per cent by the end of the decade."