* News from Alcatel-Lucent, Vodafone, Microsoft and Speakanet
While we were stuck in the cold weather last week in some parts of the United States, the annual 3GSM World Congress went on without us in Barcelona, Spain. Today, we’d like to highlight a few convergence-related announcements from the show.
One of the big themes at 3GSM this year was mobile video. Alcatel-Lucent announced it was extending its Managed Mobile Interactive TV Service solution to Europe. The solution is designed to facilitate Interactive Mobile TV services. Nokia announced it was bringing YouTube videos to Nokia NSeries multimedia computer owners with access via the Nokia Web Browser, and introduced a series of video capable handsets.
Partnership announcements were also a show highlight. Vodafone and Google announced plans to develop a location-based version of Google Maps for mobile usage. BroadSoft announced that Huawei will use and distribute the BroadWorks IMS application platform as part of the Huawei IMS global solution. And Cingular will work with Qualcomm’s MediaFLO subsidiary to provide multicast mobile entertainment and information services.
Microsoft announced usability and management enhancements to their Mobile OS, expanding features and capabilities for integration of multimedia messaging capabilities through Windows Live Messenger, as well as support for mobile VoIP and other mobile features. The version will be available in Q2 2007 on a variety of devices and networks
Finally, Speakanet unveiled GoHello, a “100% mobile” business telephony service for the small business market. The hosted service provides PBX features to PCs and mobile phones and is attractively priced at EUR 3.99 monthly rate per user. Currently available only in Denmark, Speakanet plans to expand the service to other European countries.
