WebProNews

Forget about cable and satellite services. The forthcoming advances in mobile broadband technology will bring a big change in content and media.

Carl-Henric Svanberg can be forgiven his enthusiasm. Speaking at Singapore's CommunicAsia 2005, Ericsson was in the wake of announcing its now-widely reported partnership with Napster for over-the-air music download services.

Ericsson provides voice mail and other services to wireless providers. The Napster product will be one more offering it can bring to its provider clients.

But Mr. Svanberg was very excited about the advanced markets in Asia, where a penetration rate of 90 percent reigns in parts of the continent for mobile services. He sees mobile music and television services driving the development of broadband mobile capabilities.

"There is a new media channel emerging to millions of consumers. Both music and television are entering handsets as the technical capability for this is developing rapidly," said Mr. Svanberg.

Another Ericsson executive acknowledged the unique characteristics of the Asian market, where it ranges from emerging to bleeding-edge in terms of mobile adoption. For the latter markets, Ericsson sees the challenge as creating new services and content to push 3G broadband deployment.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.