Business applications are clearly moving up the agenda at the 3GSM mobile communications showcase.

While attention-grabbing consumer services such as video-to-mobile – traditionally the core concern both of mobile operators and the industry’s annual trade show – were still very much in evidence at this year’s 3GSM, there were also significant signs of interest in the corporate user market.

Vodafone, for example, gave pride of place to its third-generation (3G)/ universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) system.

The technology is essentially a Linksys router with a Vodafone 3G card that allows teams of workers to set up a small wireless network near available mobile coverage.

The router is aimed at firms with groups of employees that might need to share files or get online on a regular basis away from the office.

And the system clearly caught the industry’s imagination, with a nomination for a GSM Association Award for ‘Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service’.

Elsewhere, even Miles Flint, president of mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson, spent so much time touting the business features of the manufacturer’s new M600 handsets that consumer services, such as the company’s array of 3D games, seemed more of an afterthought.

It is no wonder interest in the corporate market is up. According to Forrester Research, 75 per cent of companies will be making significant investments in mobile technology in 2008.

But the most significant question concerns how much of that spending will end up making a difference to business efficiency?

High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) looks certain to have an significant impact on business productivity if priced correctly – see box, right. But a range of other technologies also demonstrated clear potential business benefits for IT directors.

For example, LogicaCMG unveiled the first mobile network operator push-email system, based on an open-standards architecture, the Open Mobile Alliance’s OMA DS 1.2 specification.

Push email is effectively traditional email on a mobile device; delivered in real-time, using standard applications such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes.

Nick Lane, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, says there is likely to be significant demand for push email.

‘The acquisition of wireless email specialist Intellisync by Nokia shows the industry is taking the area very seriously,’ he says. ‘It’s a service people are familiar with.’

Microsoft was also keen to promote push email through announcements of partnerships with Vodafone in the UK, France and Germany, and T-Mobile in the Netherlands.

The deals would allow the operators to deliver services based on the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform. Both services incorporate Microsoft’s messaging and security feature pack.

But Graham Knight, head of technology at BDO Stoy Hayward, a UK accountancy practice that invests heavily in mobile technology to improve productivity and employee work/life

balance, has security concerns over Microsoft’s attempts to dominate the mobile environment.

‘Microsoft would need to make the management interface much slicker and more policy-based so we can restrict what people can do,’ he says.

‘Right now, someone could easily download something that would wipe out the device and we’ve no way of restarting it remotely. If we moved to Windows Mobile, we’d need to employ 20 new staff just to manage it.’

The convergence of voice services across mobile and fixed-line infrastructures was a popular theme at this year’s 3GSM.

And there were signs that mobile operators may be starting to see voice over IP (VoIP) as an opportunity, with the Hutchison 3 Group offering unlimited Skype calls within its flat-rate data plan on 3G phones.

Forrester’s European telecom and mobile team principal analyst Michelle de Lussanet says there could be a competitive advantage for mobile operators in offering such deals.

‘The price of voice is under threat anyway,’ she says. ‘With mobile VoIP, there’s potential to lock customers in by offering free or flat-rate voice services.’

Another opportunity for mobile operators and IT directors could be WiMax, the wireless broadband standard that looks set for roll-out by about 2008.

The extent of the technology’s impact may depend on what practical use there is for WiMax’s 75Mbit/s data capacity, according to Informa principal analyst Mike Roberts.

‘Some operators will want to make the most of their 3G investments instead,’ he says. ‘On the other hand, with WiMax a mobile operator could become a fixed virtual network operator.

‘It also depends on what spectrum you have. If you could use WiMax to off-load capacity when it fills up, I would definitely use it – but operators don’t yet have full capacity on 3G.’

Finally, meshing mobile networks with infrastructures such as WiMax and WiFi could increase operator’s vulnerability to internet-borne threats.

The growing issue of mobile security was reflected at 3GSM this year with prominent displays from specialist vendors such as McAfee.

For Forrester researcher Niek van Veen, however, raising awareness of the security issue may yet prove a challenge beyond the confines of the trade show.

‘In research, 20 per cent of people said they bought a new phone because their old one was lost or stolen,’ he says.

‘That is still a much bigger threat than a virus.’

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