3GSM

It's day three at the annual mobile networking event here in Barcelona, and we're all starting to feel a little frayed around the edges. It's even bigger than ever, and the stands aren't getting any smaller either. All the major vendors seem to be trying to outdo each other with ever larger hospitality suites...

But as usual it's been an interesting week, with announcements ranging from results of mobile TV trials (MediaFLO and BSkyB) through to the usual array of new handset launches (new DVB-H handset from Nokia, to name but one) and demos of technologies yet to come, such as LTE.

Nokia Siemens Networks is presenting a united front at the event for the first time, with a single logo and stand. But the company is still unable to provide a date for when the merger will be completed. The press conference on Monday seemed generally lacking in anything really concrete - there is a sense of being in limbo.

Meanwhile the Nokia/Qualcomm spat over patent rights continues, and all eyes will be on the two companies if 9th April comes and goes with no agreement.

Paul Jacobs seemed to take a certain amount of pleasure in the fact that LG beat off Nokia in the GSMA's "3G for all" tender. LG is also using Qualcomm chips. Nokia wouldn't have done...

Why is it though that we still have to complain about appalling WiFi Internet access at the event...? Some things never seem to change...