Hutchison 3G was due to begin rollout of third-generation (3G) mobile phone services in Europe last week, becoming the first of the UK's five 3G licence holders to implement any form of commercial service.

In a phased operation, no more than 500 to 1,000 dual-mode 3G/GSM handsets manufactured by NEC and Motorola will be issued to selected business customers based in the UK and Italy. The operator pointed out that initial user feedback on its service, christened "3", will dictate the timing of its continued 3G rollout.

"This is not a formal launch. We are not taking a big-bang approach. It will be a step-by-step rollout," said a Hutchison spokesman, adding that the operator will follow the first phase "with a targeted approach to the market as the service evolves".

The spokesman said Motorola and NEC would be working closely with Hutchison to iron out any interoperability problems that could affect the ability of different manufacturers' handsets to communicate with each other and the operator's 3G networks.

"It is a very important relationship we have with NEC and Motorola," said the spokesman. "We strongly believe that we are on the leading edge of a new technology revolution, but we must ensure a technically robust user experience that fits the needs of the market."

Lars Godell of analyst firm Forrester Research agreed that a cautious introduction was probably the best way forward for 3G technology. "A phased approach is what we have been talking about as the best option. It makes more sense than jumping on the hype bandwagon because 3G is facing a lot of technical problems," he said.

One of these problems concerns 'cell breathing', which causes the range of a 3G mast's signal radius to shrink as more users connect to it. This factor is likely to significantly reduce available data rates, probably to no more than 64kbit/s, for Hutchison 3G's initial customers.

It is not certain that other European operators will be able to roll out their own 3G networks, however. The trial of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network on the Isle of Man being conducted by Manx Telecom, a subsidiary of O2, is still ongoing. But the future of UMTS in Germany took a knock when mobile operator MobilCom announced that it plans to cut its workforce by 40 percent, and halted rollout of its 3G network.

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