Helen Twose: Key players talk up role of mobile sector

Key players in the mobile sector reflected on the role the technology could play after the global financial crisis during keynote addresses at the Mobile World Congress.

Speaking on the second day of the conference in Barcelona, Spain, Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao said mobile technology had the ability to reshape society in the wake of the economic crisis.

"We have to be clear - our societies need to save on resources. We need to save on time, we need to save on money, we need to save on energy and we need to save on the environment," said Colao.

He said machine-to-machine technology - the ability for devices, in healthcare for example, to connect over the mobile network - deployed in a "massive way" in Europe could save €40 billion ($78 billion) and 110 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to the emissions from Belgium.

Colao said the financial strain of the economic crisis had led to a blossoming of creative thinking and an entrepreneurial approach.

He said the next five years would be a new phase in the industry in much the same way as the first half of the past decade signalled the emergence of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology world.

"We can really have a great revolutionary role in our society however, and there is a however, this can only happen if all players in the industry get some things right," said Colao.

He is pushing for an "open, competitive and profitable ecosystem".

In Barcelona on Tuesday, Vodafone joined with more than 15 other mobile operators to support a wholesale platform for mobile applications that allows developers a single point of access to more than 3 billion mobile customers.

The move is a challenge to Apple's dominance in the application space, which has seen mobile operators lose control of the content pumped across their networks.

Overseas, the use of all-you-can-eat flat rate tariffs for mobile data had caused problems as a few consumers used the majority of the network capacity.

Alcatel Lucent chief executive Ben Verwaayen said consumers would need retraining from the expectations of the all-you-can-eat model to different prices for quality of service.

"That's a hard sell and still we have to do it," said Verwaayen. "We can only transform if we transform the business model, the way we earn our money."

Speed will no longer be the point of difference, said Verwaayen - service will be the differentiator.

He echoed Colao on the role mobile technology should play in transforming society.

"The most important point we need to realise is our industry is part of many other social issues. If you want to really have a serious shot at e-health ... there is no way that you can do it without using in a most optimal form what we have to offer," Verwaayen said.

Helen Twose is in Barcelona as a guest of Qualcomm.

SEARCH FOR NEXUS

I have yet to see a Google phone on display but given the size of the show - with about 1300 exhibitors - there's bound to be one there somewhere.

But Qualcomm's Asia Pacific boss John Stefanac was toting a Nexus One and he's proclaiming it the best phone he's ever had.

"I've had many, many phones, trust me, I used to work for Nokia. [Nexus One] is clearly the best phone I've ever had."

Stefanac said telcos should be putting devices in the hands of customers that are easy to use.

"If an operator wants to compete on value, not just on price, they should be able to offer that subscriber multiple applications and if you've got multiple applications on there and you want that subscriber to use those applications to generate revenue, you want to make sure that device is conducive to the use of those applications," said Stefanac.

POWERMAT ON WAY

A lot of the technology on display is months or years away from being in the hands of consumers, let alone New Zealand consumers, but the Powermat wireless charger is due here in April.

US company Powermat's inductive charging system - similar to the technology used in electric toothbrushes - charges mobile phones, iPods, cameras, handheld games and laptops wirelessly, cutting the need for an array of different charging devices.

Powermat admits it's not the first or only wireless charger in the market but its version has had huge success selling through three large retailers in the States - Better Buy, Target and Amazon - shifting about 800,000 units from launch last October through to Christmas.

Sales head Dan Curzon said initial interest came from geeks, but now sales were driven by mums wanting to banish the tangle of cords and chargers needed to charge up various electronic devices around the house.

The original system released last year has a slim mat similar in thickness to a mouse pad but half the size on which a device is left.

Currently consumers switch the battery cover on their phones for a Powermat enabled cover to allow the device to charge wirelessly when sitting on the mat.

A small mat and receiver back for a mobile phone retails in the US for about US$69.

Power hungry iPhones are catered for with a back cover which can add five hours to the life of the battery.

Later this year the company will begin selling a product where the receiver will be integrated into the battery of more than a dozen phones.

Curzon said the Powermat would be available in Australia next week and New Zealand within a couple of months.

NETWORK FAILURE

An industry analyst was interested in the response by Telecom to front the recent network outages rather than push the blame back to technology partner Alcatel Lucent.

Alcatel Lucent is represented at the Mobile World Congress but wasn't talking about the XT network issues.

The company did release this statement: "As Telecom's long-term technology and operations partner we are working alongside Telecom and its partners to address the recent issue, and build greater resiliency into the network."

More may be revealed when the international review team, due to be announced by Telecom this week, completes its investigation in about six weeks time.