12 Feb, 2008

Mobile Technology Set to Change Travel Industry Forever

Imtiaz Muqbil

Travel and tourism has been affected significantly by advances in telecommunications, especially mobile communications. New products launched at the Mobile World Congress now underway in Barcelona showed that more change is on the way. The benefits for, and impact on leisure, business and MICE travel are more than apparent.

In this dispatch:

1. MOBILE ALLIANCE AGAINST CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE LAUNCHED

2. RESEARCH REVEALS MOST CONSUMERS CONCERNED OVER MOBILE SAFETY

3. CONSUMERS SEEK MORE MOBILE PERSONALISATION AND FEATURES

4. NOKIA’S MOBILE NAVIGATION FOR WALK & DRIVE

5. MOTOROLA MATCHES WITH ADVANCED NAVIGATION MOBILE TV DEVICE

6. MOBILES CAN NOW PUSH EMAIL TO MASS MARKET

7. ADVERTISING NETWORK LINKS MOBILES WITH OPERATORS AND PUBLISHERS

8. GSMA & UK OPERATORS WORK TO MEASURE MOBILE ADVERTISING

9. WORLD’S FIRST BORDERLESS MOBILE NETWORK

10. FIRST OPEN LINUX HANDSET FROM ORANGE

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1. MOBILE ALLIANCE AGAINST CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE LAUNCHED

12 February 2008, Barcelona, Spain: The GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile operators, has launched the Mobile Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Content to obstruct the use of the mobile environment by individuals or organisations wishing to consume or profit from child sexual abuse content. While the vast majority of child sexual abuse content is today accessed through conventional connections to the Internet, there is a danger that the broadband networks now being rolled out by mobile operators could be misused in the same way.

The Alliance has been founded by the GSMA, Hutchison 3G Europe, mobilkom austria, Orange FT Group, Telecom Italia, Telefonica/02, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile Group, Vodafone Group and dotMobi to create significant barriers to the misuse of mobile networks and services for hosting, accessing, or profiting from child sexual abuse content. These companies have mobile operations across the world, ensuring that the Alliance will have a global impact. The Alliance aims to stem, and ultimately reverse, the growth of online child sexual abuse content, maintaining a safer mobile environment for all of our customers.

Members of the Alliance will, among other measures, implement technical mechanisms to prevent access to Web sites identified by an appropriate agency as hosting child sexual abuse content. Members will also implement “Notice and Take Down” processes to enable the removal of any child sexual abuse content posted on their own services, while supporting and promoting ‘hotlines’ or other mechanisms for customers to report child sexual abuse content discovered on the Internet or on mobile content services.

“As our industry rolls out mobile broadband networks that provide quick and easy access to multimedia Web sites, we must put safeguards in place to obstruct criminals looking to use mobile services as a means of accessing or hosting pictures and videos of children being sexually-abused,” said Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSMA. “We call on governments across the world to support this initiative by providing the necessary legal clarity to ensure that mobile operators can act effectively against child sexual abuse content and to step up international enforcement against known sources.”

Governments need to ensure that they have the necessary resources in place to combat the spread of digital child sexual abuse content. Ideally, law enforcement authorities, or delegated international organizations, should have processes in place to be able to confirm that individual items of content are illegal.

The Alliance will achieve its objectives by a combination of technical measures, co-operation and information sharing. It will also encourage all mobile operators, regardless of access technology, and the wider mobile community to participate and will interact with other industry initiatives.

Said Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union: “As the specialized United Nations agency for information and communication technologies (ICT), the ITU welcomes this initiative to protect children from the misuse of mobile broadband networks by child predators around the world. The World Summit on the Information Society called for national and international measures against the use of ICT in all forms of child abuse and encouraged the setting up of child helplines. Those measures are being adopted by our distinctive membership of 191 Member States and some 700 private companies.”

Added Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor: “The communications industry has a significant impact on societies everywhere, providing new technology and opportunities to a rapidly growing, global customer base. As key players in this industry, Telenor share a responsibility for making our products and services safe. I am pleased that the GSMA is now taking decisive action to protect the most vulnerable in our society.”

Notes to Readers: “Notice and Take Down” (NTD) – Operators and service providers are sometimes notified of suspect content online by customers, members of the public or by law enforcement or hotline organisations. If the report comes from a member of the public, the information is passed on to law enforcement or national hotline, as appropriate, for confirmation of whether the content is illegal or to take any further legal action. When issued with a NTD notice, operators and service provider takes steps to have the illegal content removed.

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association’s initiatives as key partners.

The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association’s members serve more than 2.5 billion customers – 85% of the world’s mobile phone users.

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2. RESEARCH REVEALS MOST CONSUMERS CONCERNED OVER MOBILE SAFETY

BARCELONA, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — McAfee, Inc. announced findings from new research that reveals that almost three out of four mobile consumers (72%) are concerned about the security of today’s and tomorrow’s mobile services, such as mobile multimedia downloads, mobile payments and mobile ticketing. The McAfee Mobile Security Report 2008 discusses in detail users’ experiences of traditional and emerging mobile services and their awareness and perceptions of mobile security issues. Other key findings revealed the following:

<> 86% of users are worried about security risks posed to their mobile handset such as fraudulent bill increases or information loss or theft

<> More that one third (34%) of global mobile users question the general safety of mobile devices and services

<> At least 79% of consumers are knowingly using unprotected devices, with an additional 15% unsure of security levels

<> More than half of subscribers (59%) expect mobile operators to take primary responsibility for protecting mobile devices and services

ADVANCED SERVICES CONCERNS

While confidence levels for traditional voice and messaging services remain comparatively high, more than half of all respondents (55%) expressed concerns about mobile payments and banking services. Likewise, more than 40% were worried about mobile multimedia downloads and mobile vouchers and ticketing. Frequent mobile Internet surfers showed levels of concern 80% higher than those who have never used such services. Overall, more than 72% of users expressed concerns regarding the safety of using emerging mobile services, with concern rates rising with market maturity.

REALITY CHECK: EXPERIENCE OF MOBILE THREATS

Mobile security incidents may not yet rival the scale and scope of PC threats but they are increasing in volume and sophistication. More than one in ten (14%) of global mobile users have already been exposed to mobile virus incidents, either directly or they know someone who has been infected. This awareness strongly impacts user confidence with 80% worried about the possibility of a mobile virus infecting their friends and colleagues.

Mobile messaging is also growing in prevalence. More than a third of subscribers (38.6%) claim to typically receive ‘annoying’ spam messages at least once a month. In Japan this rises to more than a quarter (26.1%) getting spammed daily.

SECURITY RESPONSIBILITIES

Despite growing concerns, at least 79% of consumers are knowingly using unprotected devices, with an additional 15% unsure of security levels. Almost 60% of mobile users expect mobile operators to take primary responsibility for protecting their mobile devices and services and more than half (56%) believe security features should be pre-installed on the handset at the time of purchase and provided free of charge.

“Concerns about specific mobile security risks or the loss of credibility in the reliability of services is a crucial issue for operators, particularly in mature markets. Yet, this research clearly highlights that consumer fears are growing in tandem with increased mobile functionality, jeopardizing the success of new revenue-generating services and increased operator ARPU,” said Victor Kouznetsov, senior vice president of McAfee Mobile Security. “Retaining consumer confidence will prove critical in ensuring life value and listening to the end user is becoming ever more important in creating innovative and intuitive services which subscribers will want, and trust, to use and are prepared to pay for.”

The research was conducted by Datamonitor amongst 2000 mobile consumers with responses spread evenly across the US, UK and Japan. Further statistics and findings can be found in the McAfee Mobile Security Report 2008 online at http://www.mcafee.com/mobile.

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3. CONSUMERS SEEK MORE MOBILE PERSONALISATION AND FEATURES

BARCELONA, and ST. LOUIS, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The results from the new Experience Matters Index from Amdocs, a planned biannual study of consumers of wireline, mobile, cable and satellite services, found that most consumers are happy with their providers, but many would switch for a better experience. The results also showed that personalization and mobile advertising are growing factors of importance for consumers.

The recent study measured the impact of the customer experience on service providers by surveying the attitudes and behaviors of more than 2,000 subscribers of mobile, wireline, cable and satellite services in the United States and the United Kingdom. The findings include:

<> Better Experience Drives Switching: While fewer than one in five subscribers said they are likely to switch providers in the next year (18% in the United States and 15% in the United Kingdom), interest in switching increases significantly when subscribers are offered a better experience – up to one in three U.S. subscribers (33%) and one in four UK subscribers (23%).

<> Satisfaction Alone Doesn’t Cut It: While subscribers are generally satisfied, with eight in ten (79%) rating their customer experience as positive, subscribers who have switched service providers were almost twice as likely to have switched due to a compelling offer from a competitor than for a problem they had with their existing provider.

<> Best Customers More Likely To Switch: Subscribers buying the most in services and new products were found to be the most likely to be disappointed and more likely to switch to another provider offering better customer experience.

<> Many Would Pay More for Better Experience: Three in ten U.S. subscribers (30%) and one in five UK subscribers (22%) said they would definitely or probably pay an extra $5 or 5 pound Sterling per month for a better experience.

THE NEXT FRONTIER – ADVERTISING ON MOBILE PHONES

While nearly three in ten U.S. subscribers (28%) and one in three UK subscribers (33%) would accept advertising on their mobile phones – that percentage could increase if better ad targeting technologies were utilized. The findings include:

<> Personalization is a Top Condition: Ads matching subscriber values and lifestyle was the top condition for receiving mobile ads among both U.K. and US subscribers.

<> Younger Subscribers More Open to Ads: Almost half of subscribers between the ages of 18 and 25 are willing to accept mobile ads (46% and 43% in United States and the United Kingdom, respectively), which are significantly higher percentages than the general population (28 and 33%, respectively).

“The results of the first Amdocs Experience Matters Index demonstrate that experience has and will continue to have a profound impact on consumers’ buying decisions,” said Charles Born, vice president of corporate communications at Amdocs. “Experience and satisfaction are different – and clearly, satisfaction isn’t enough to ensure loyalty. It is our hope that the Index will help service providers steer their investments and improvements in experience to drive growth, increase loyalty and enhance their brand. We are looking forward to our next survey and sharing the results.”

The full report is available on http://www.amdocs.com/EMI. The Experience Matters Index was conducted by KRC Research from Dec. 8-16, 2007, via 2,006 random telephone interviews in the United States and United Kingdom with adult subscribers of communications services, ages 18 and older. All respondents subscribed to a wired and/or mobile telephone, cable TV, satellite TV or Internet broadband service. The estimated margin of error for the data in each country (1,003 interviews in each) is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence interval.

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4. NOKIA’S MOBILE NAVIGATION FOR WALK & DRIVE

BARCELONA and ESPOO, Finland, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ — Nokia announced that the Beta version of Nokia Maps 2.0 is ready to take out for a spin. Nokia Maps is taking its mapping and navigation experiences to the next level by enhancing its pedestrian navigation, adding multimedia city guides, offering satellite images, and sporting a redesigned user interface.

Nokia Maps 2.0 adds Walk, a pedestrian focused navigation component to the application, while still offering Drive, a world class car navigation system. The pedestrian navigation efficiently walks you from A to B with visual turn-by-turn guidance. It helps you to locate yourself by giving information about the surrounding buildings, streets and parks (including pathways through the park) and in newer handsets, like the Nokia 6210 Navigator, points the direction in which you are walking; using the handset’s built in compass for orientation.

The new Nokia Maps 2.0 update also adds the option to purchase first-class multimedia guides that feature photos, videos and audio streams to enlighten your journey even more. As with the previous version of Nokia Maps, map users will receive a free 3-day Navigation trial, for Walk and Drive, plus an additional free 10 minute City Guide trial.

“By taking navigation services out of the car and onto the sidewalk, Nokia is enabling people to explore and discover what’s around them with the confidence of a local,” said Michael Halbherr, vice president, Nokia location based services.

Upgrading to the GPS navigation option enables your mobile to become a powerful connected personal navigation device. If your Nokia device doesn’t have built-in GPS, you can also use an external GPS module with a compatible device. Nokia Maps 2.0 will also have, for an optional fee, real-time traffic feeds with dynamic re-routing in 18 European countries. With vector maps provided by TeleAtlas and Navteq, Nokia Maps now has maps covering over 200 countries, with over 70 of them navigable.

Nokia Maps 2.0 can also lead you to the nearest transit station using localized icons in 17 cities so you can hop on the Metro to get across town. While you are on riding on the Metro you can discover and explore new places using the hybrid satellite views or by purchasing one of the new multimedia city guides from companies like Berlitz.

Nokia is planning on bringing Nokia Maps to the mass market with a Series 40 version of Nokia Maps, which will be ready during the 1st half of 2008. Devices based on the Series 40 platform accounted for a large portion of the more than 437-million devices Nokia estimates it had cumulatively shipped by the end of 2007.

The new version of Nokia Maps 2.0 for selected devices is available on the Nokia Beta Labs website: http://www.nokia.com/betalabs. Beta Labs shares some of the exciting new ideas that Nokia is working on and let users help shape their future development. The current version of Nokia Maps and the Nokia Map Loader are freely available for download for selected devices at http://www.maps.nokia.com/.

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5. MOTOROLA MATCHES WITH ADVANCED NAVIGATION MOBILE TV DEVICE

BARCELONA, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Motorola, Inc. announced the introduction of the Motorola Mobile TV DH01n, a pocket sized device that combines a personal media player with advanced navigation capabilities including: 2D or 3D GPS and Tele Atlas map views, points of interest and voice-activated directions.

“Consumers are routinely moving away from traditional primetime video viewing to ‘my time’ experiences — that is they are viewing their favorite programs where and when it is convenient to them,” said Navin Mehta, vice president of Mobile TV and Applications Services, Home & Networks Mobility, Motorola. “The Mobile TV DH01n will provide consumers with the ability to locate where they are going in addition to viewing content when and where they want.”

The TV DH01n will let users watch live TV, on-demand video and personal media content on the go and find their way with GPS navigation. For more details, please visit: http://www.motorola.com/mobiletv

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6. MOBILES CAN NOW PUSH EMAIL TO MASS MARKET

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ — Visto, a global provider of mobile email, announced that T-Mobile International has selected Visto Mobile™ to power T-Mobile’s Mobile E-Mail Pro, a broad based push email service. “Due to increasing demand from within our fast growing subscriber base, we are aggressively expanding our push-based mobile email offering,” said Joachim Horn, chief technology officer of T-Mobile International.

Mobile E-Mail Pro from T-Mobile is available in Germany and is expected to roll out across Europe over 18 months. It will provide instant access to all types of Internet accounts as well as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes email accounts from a broad range of consumer and business mobile devices including Symbian Series 40/60, UIQ, Windows Mobile 5/6 and Java enabled phones. In addition, users will be able to maintain and access an up-to-date calendar and contacts list centrally, via an online secure portal.

Visto delivers a global platform for mobile operators to provide mobile email to the broadest set of devices. Visto’s open solution enables email for the mass market, targeting enterprises, small businesses, mobile professionals and consumers. For more information, visit http://www.visto.com/ or email info@visto.com.

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7. ADVERTISING NETWORK LINKS MOBILES WITH OPERATORS AND PUBLISHERS

BARCELONA, and ESPOO, Finland, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nokia today announced the launch of the global Nokia Media Network, an advertising network including over 70 leading publisher and operators as well as Nokia media properties. AccuWeather, Discovery, Hearst, Reuters, and Sprint have joined with Nokia to form the first global mobile ad network of top tier publishers. Nokia Media Network’s wide reach of the most desirable mobile audience is yielding click-through rates averaging 10% in certain channels, the highest reported response rates in the industry.

“Nokia is building upon an unrivaled understanding of the mobile consumer, our relationships with blue chip publishers and top tier operators, and a legacy of campaign optimization through analytics to create a high-performing solution for advertisers,” said Vice President and Head of Nokia Interactive, Mike Baker.

Nokia enables advertisers to place ads on high quality and brand-safe publisher and operator mobile Web pages, as well as Nokia properties, representing a reach of more than 100 million mobile consumers globally. As part of the turn-key service for advertisers, the Nokia mobile marketing team creates mobile campaigns for hundreds of top brands, including BMW, Paramount, and MobiTV.

Nokia acquired mobile advertising leader, Enpocket, in October 2007. Nokia leverages Enpocket’s ground breaking analytics technology to optimize campaigns, improve conversions, and measure campaign performance across the network.

“Mobile has been beneficial in helping BMW reach consumers at the lower end of the funnel, when they are close to making their vehicle-buying decision,” said Samuel Martinez Ballesteros, Marketing Communication Internet and New Media, BMW Iberica. “Nokia has helped us reach our target audience, resulting in increased visibility and lead generation for us.”

To share expertise with brands, agencies, and publishers globally, Nokia has expanded its account management and media sales teams to include offices in Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Minneapolis, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Paris, Singapore and Shanghai.

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8. GSMA & UK OPERATORS WORK TO MEASURE MOBILE ADVERTISING

BARCELONA, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ — The GSM Association (GSMA) announced that five of its leading members, Vodafone Group, Telefonica O2 Europe, T-Mobile International, FT-Orange Group and 3, have formed a working group to define common metrics and measurement processes for mobile advertising as part of the GSMA’s Mobile Advertising Programme.

The working group is conducting a feasibility study, focusing initially on the UK, a leading mobile and advertising market, working with each company’s UK operating business to explore the aggregation of appropriate information on a consistent and audited basis to deliver cross-operator metrics to the media and advertising communities.

Operators are investing significant resources to address the needs and priorities of the media community, such as the development of mobile advertising standards, a common currency for mobile, the delivery of standardised metrics, and the measurement and validation of the reach and opportunity that the mobile channel presents.

A key priority is the definition of a range of metrics that will describe the mobile audience and measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising. The GSMA and its working group will engage with a broad range of advertising industry associations and stakeholders to secure agreement and support for metrics that will form a common mobile media currency. Based on this currency, and subject to the completion of the feasibility study, all five UK operators will work with the GSMA to develop a proof of concept for a cross-operator mobile media planning capability during 2008.

The GSMA and the working group will leverage learning and experience from the feasibility study for similar initiatives in other mobile markets across the world, and is at an advanced stage of discussions with a number of industry stakeholders to support this effort.

“Mobile offers advertisers a new opportunity and we are responding to repeated demands from media planners around the world for more transparency of the mobile channel,” said Richard Saggers, Head of Mobile Advertising at Vodafone. “In today’s rapidly evolving mobile environment it is critical that we offer the consumer the widest possible range of opportunities to support data consumption. Mobile advertising is a key component for driving mobile usage, but in order to be effective it needs to be widely supported by the advertising industry.

“The more we can do as an industry to increase the credibility of mobile advertising the better. This initiative represents a great opportunity to reach out to the media buying world in order to secure more mobile budget from big brand spenders,” said Neil Andrews, Head of Portal Advertising at 3.

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association’s initiatives as key partners. The Association’s members serve more than 2.5 billion customers – 85% of the world’s mobile phone users.

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9. WORLD’S FIRST BORDERLESS MOBILE NETWORK

BARCELONA, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ — MWC 2008 — Pyro Networks, a mobile technology solutions provider, announces its GSM roaming solution, InRoam, designed to address issues and challenges surrounding roaming with pre-paid mobile subscribers.

The goal of InRoam is to make roaming across various networks and countries seamless — as if the subscriber has never left their home network. Using InRoam, subscribers can transfer airtime, receive and send messages with ease across borders and have the added value of having their short code services in the home network recognized when roaming. Additionally, operators wanted a way that subscribers could carry their “Home-Experience” while roaming and be able to simply recharge pre-paid account when roaming.

“Globally, the prepaid segment is estimated to be around 65%. However, in certain countries like Uganda, the prepaid mobile user segment is as high as 98%,” says SM Reddy, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Pyro Networks. “Our InRoam platform solves challenges the operators are facing in an easy way and has helped operators increase roaming MoU, ARPU and customer acquisition.”

Currently, the InRoam technology is being used in Zain’s African subsidiary Celtel. Branded as “One Network”, the service allows over 400 million subscribers across the continent to stay connected via borderless roaming. Zain is also in the process of expanding “One Network” into Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan & Iraq with roll-outs expected 1H 2008. “As a part of ‘One Network’ offer we allow our customers to move freely across geographic borders making calls and sending SMS at local rates, while receiving incoming calls free of charge.”

“The InRoam platform enables our customers to top-up their prepaid phones easily with locally-purchased airtime cards, easily available in over 500,000 points of sale across the continent,” Mr. George Held, “One Network” Program Director of the Zain Group explains. “The ‘One Network’ service is automatically activated upon crossing into any of ‘One Network’ countries, with no prior registration required or sign-up fee charged.”

“Since its launch in December 2006, over 3 million people have utilized this service. In November 2007 we added 6 more countries to the ‘One Network’ and now offer the possibility for nearly half of Africa’s population to make calls at local rates across 12 countries throughout the continent,” Mr. Held adds.

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10. THE FIRST OPEN LINUX HANDSET FROM ORANGE

LONDON, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ — Orange today announced its entrance to the LiMo Foundation, a landmark move that marks a new era for mobile Linux, fostering unprecedented industry collaboration and a new future of mobile services for customers. A leader in mobile open source development, Orange is underlining this significant move with the launch of the Samsung i800, the fully open, Linux-powered handset, which will be available to customers later this year.

“Orange was one of the first mobile operators to make significant strides in open source innovation,” says Yves Maitre, senior vice president, devices, Orange. Orange has been invited to join the LiMo Foundation as a Founder Member. This will allow Orange to bring a wealth of mobile Linux experience to the organisation, alongside companies such as Motorola, NTT DoCoMo and Samsung, which share the common goal of accelerating the delivery of the first truly open, Linux-based operating system for mobile devices.

Yves Maitre says, “Our vision is for a truly open mobile community which delivers richer mobile services, more affordable devices and a better experience for our customers. We have already achieved part of this vision through the foundation of the LiPS Forum.” He added, “The key benefit of Linux technology is openness — the openness for partners and developers to launch more exciting products and applications than ever before. To deliver the kind of services our customers want, both now and in the future, we believe it is essential that operators, vendors and developers work together closely to establish a consistent, fully open Linux environment that positively encourages new ideas and reduces fragmentation.”

Web site: http://www.orange.com/ http://www.francetelecom.com/ http://www.orange-business.com/