3G UMTS / WCDMA Subscriptions Hit 100 Million - 3G (press release)

Fantastic numbers and statistics and rosy forecast and potential for 3G (mainly WCDMA technology) mobile industry by the UMTS forum. Full report by UMTS Forum.

It's been another incredible year for 3G and in particular for WCDMA. We expect much of this spectacular growth over the next few years to come from markets like India, China, Eastern Europe and Latin America

But looking at what those 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) operators have spent, for spectrum (126 billions dollars in year 2000-according to report by Internation Herald Tribune) and mobile network infrastructure, 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) could have been overhyped. The detail report here.

Telecom companies misjudged the value of 3G licenses and paid way too much. Governments holding the auctions were only too happy to oblige, basically blackmailing the industry.

And 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) operators in Asia which have been busy rolling out their own UMTS (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) networks, are not successful either, even though these operators did not pay through their nose for the spectrum licenses. 3G's disappointing debut worldwide had less to do with sky-high auction bids than with the industry's failure to find applications that would bring customers running.

The expectations for 3G were very high," said Eleana Liew, a Singapore analyst for the consulting firm Gartner. "But there isn't anything drawing them into the new service.

So what exactly is/are the killer application/s those 100 millions subscribers are using with 3G network? Anyone has any clue yet? What exactly are these subscribers "subscribing" to?