Spain is the next country in line to join Japan, Korea, Sweden and Finland as a pioneer of 3G (third-generation) telecommunications, according to Greg Tarr, chief investment officer of venture capital firm M-Werks Mobile Internet Fund.
“Spain has recently confirmed it will roll out 3G services in August this year,” he said at the Internet World conference here Wednesday. “They have previously been feeling left behind by the technological revolution.”
The Spanish regulatory authority previously said that operators must introduce commercial services to 23 cities by August in order to comply with their license conditions, a schedule that was considered very tight.
In September last year, Spain’s second-biggest mobile operator, AirTel Movil SA, said that it had selected Nortel Networks Corp. to build the initial phase of its 3G network, in a deal valued at US$100 million.
In October, Telef