Telstra International chief Tarek Robiatti admitted in a followup CEO panel session that 3G operators had dropped the ball on video calls, which were pitched years ago as one of the chief differentiators for 3G.
“Video over 3G never took off because people didn’t know how to use it. It wasn’t simple to use, and simplicity is what drives usage. Skype has done that very well,” Robiatti said. “The question is how well can they do the end-to-end experience.”
StarHub CEO Neil Montfiore remained skeptical of video calls, regardless of technology, saying the quality “isn’t all that great”.
“The voice and video is rarely in sync, which takes away from the supposed benefits of video enabling non-verbal communications. It has to be a more real experience,” he said.