2.27.2008

Mobile World Congress - Barcelona 2008


Power of technology. The congress was held between February 11 and 14, organized by GSM Association (GSMA).

In Barcelona there were 1 290 companie about 55 000 visitors saw their stands. The audience that took part in the accompanying conferences was estimated at 8 000 people.
So high interest in this technology arises out of the scale of the market. Enormous investments and mass market encourage manufacturers, scientists, and marketing specialists to develop new and improved products.

This year the interest focused on LTE technology (Long Term Evolution). It is the newly adopted standard (January 2008). It should be commercially launched on the market in 2009, and able to compete even with fiber-optic technology (in mass-market applications). It is possible due to practical transfers ca 100 Mbps (theoretical limits reach 300 Mbps!).

Analyzing the market potential of various technologies or services according to the number of conferences, the most promising areas seem to be payments via mobile phones and mobile TV.

There were given Global Mobile Awards for the products connected with mobile technologies listed below:

* Best mobile handset/device: SonyEricsson for W910 Walkman Phone and 3UK for 3 Skypephone, the first GSM mobile that supports Skype;
* RAD Data Communications - for LA-130 Cell Gateway, linking wired and mobile systems;
* Airtel - for mChek service providing access via mobile phone to credit cards and bank accounts, including operations, after entering 6-digit PIN (application of USSD capability - Unstructured Supplementary Service Data).

USSD is instant messaging type phone service, not employing SMSC (Short Message Service Center), used for example to query the available balance, to recharge the credit etc. in pre-paid GSM services. The function of a code depends on what kind of services the operator has made available.

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