T-Mobile Suspends UMTS Plans for 2003

T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom’s mobile arm, has announced that it has given up on plans to introduce its third generation UMTS services in the third quarter this year, according to company CEO Rene Obermann, who blamed the lack of sufficient handset supplies and unresolved technical problems for the new delay. Obermann added that T-Mobile, Germany’s largest mobile operator, was under no pressure to be the first in the market to roll out the UMTS technology and that the company did not want to repeat the mistakes made in the early days of mobile data services, which were rushed out before technical glitches had been ironed out. The T-Mobile chief said that handset suppliers needed to be able to deliver at least five-figure quantities before a service launch would make sense and that technical problems would continue to be worked on.