Demand for high-speed mobile data services remains low in the UK, providing operators with little incentive to upgrade their networks to carry more data traffic.

Combined with the current lack of suitable handsets, this has left developers with no firm foundation on which to create the customised business applications that might kick start corporate interest.

The situation may continue to obstruct the provision and adoption of high-speed mobile services by corporates until 2005 or beyond.

According to a report released by analyst Gartner earlier this month, spending by mobile carriers on new infrastructure was minimal in 2002.

And most of the money that was invested was spent on GSM networks, rather than the third-generation infrastructure needed to provide high capacity, mobile bandwidth to corporate employees.

"Mobile network operators were cautious about investing in new infrastructure in 2002," said Jason Chapman, principal analyst of Gartner's mobile network infrastructure research.

"Instead they focused on running mature networks and waited for user demand for mobile data services to increase. This has not happened yet, as the adoption among subscribers is still very slow."

Gartner's research coincides with a report from UK consultancy Wireless Healthcare, which suggested that the current lack of high-speed bandwidth and handsets is restricting the development of mobile applications for the healthcare industry.

The firm believes that it will be some time before mobile networks can reliably support applications with high volumes of image or video transmissions, and the display quality of current mobile phones is simply not up to the job.

Marko Luhtala, Nokia's director of business applications for Europe, conceded that handset manufacturers might not have met the mobile needs of business users. But he maintained that this is about to change.

Nokia has found that between 50 and 60 million people in western Europe have their phone bills paid by their firms.

Given the size of this market, the vendor will develop better handsets for mobile business solutions over the next few years.

It estimates that, while business users represent 20 per cent of its customers, they provide around 50 per cent of its revenues.

"We've been looking at the enterprise market for some time and have set up a dedicated business applications division to find out what the customers need," explained Luhtala.

"But [industry-specific] mobile solutions will not be commercially available for two to three years."