GENEVA -- With towering high-gloss, high-tech pavilions stretching over an area of 90,000 square meters the biggest telecommunications exhibition ever opened here this week -- though not without some technical snarls.
From televisions incorporating hi-fis, movies on demand, grocery shopping and banking facilities, to hand-held videophones allowing three-way conversations, visitors are offered a dazzling vision of a future just five to 10 years away.
However, failed modems, quirky computers and busy lines have turned Telecom '95 into a fiasco for many of the exhibitors and reporters.
"This is the most telecommunications-unfriendly place I have ever been on the planet," said Scott McNealy, president of Sun Microsystems.
One Internet poster proclaimed "Experience the 21st century for a weekend!" But all Internet connections here crashed for four hours Tuesday, the first official day of the show.
An exhibition spokeswoman said she was unaware of the problems and would look into them.
The four-yearly industry extravaganza, which opened with speeches by South African President Nelson Mandela and EU Commission head Jacques Santer, boasts more than 1,000 pavilions from 52 countries. More than 60 miles of electronic cable have been laid, as well as another 100 miles of telephone lines.
Over the next 10 days, the site of what is dubbed the "Telecommunications Olympics" will require electricity equal to a town of 40,000 people. Visitors could top 140,000, and almost three-quarters of them come to spend big bucks, according to the organizers.
"People see it as the place to be. Companies invest millions in their stands because they know there are buyers in the market," said Piers Letcher of the UN telecommunications agency.
The expanding mobile phone business is expected to dominate the exhibition. Subscribers have risen to more than 50 million in just 15 years. Another 300 million to 400 million more users are expected over the next decade.
Aside from technology, a new dimension has been added to the exhibition this year because of the sudden flurry of interest from computer firms.
"Companies such as Intel, Oracle, Microsoft [and] Lotus are coming for the first time," said Lambert. "They have realized that the power of the microchip in their computers is one thing, but if they are not linked to every other computer in the world they are losing much of that power."
? The alliance of telecommunications firms Deutsche Telekom AG, France Telecom and Sprint Corp. of the United States said it expects U.S. authorities to give the green light to their venture by the end of the year.
Leading executives from the three firms, who are setting up a global business alliance tentatively called Phoenix, said they were confident of approval and their alliance was ready to compete against a handful of similar global ventures.
German Post Minister Wolfgang Boetsch said Tuesday he would meet European Commissioner Karel van Miert in two weeks for talks he hoped would pave the way for approval of the Franco-German part of the venture, known as Atlas. ()
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