Mobile World Congress 2008 preview: part one

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There is a plethora of mobile industry players exhibiting, speaking and attending next week's Mobile World Congress (MWC, formerly 3GSM) in Barcelona. News announcements and technical sessions are likely to be fast and furious with a danger of missing something if you bother to take the time to blink.

IT PRO will be attending the congress to bring you the news as it happens, but to whet your appetite and ensure you don't miss anything, we contacted those making an appearance and asked them for a sneak peek into what we can expect. This is the first of a three-part series - come back Thursday for part two.

We asked: "Without giving away too many secrets, what can people expect from you at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM) and why should business and IT decision makers be interested?"

Here's what they had to say:

A

Accenture

"There still seems to be a lot of money being spent on big integration/convergence projects both inside and outside the home. Think about your own wireless service at home. How well is the wireline phone service tied into your cell phone service? Are they managed and billed separately?" said Andy Zimmerman, managing director of Accenture's communications industry arm. "It is a momentous challenge for the wireless and wireline carriers as there are many work-arounds or obstacles that have inhibited this convergence. Companies who thrive in the converged communications, high technology and media marketplace will be those who provide the best end-to-end experience to their customers."

He added: "By providing a seamless and integrated user experience across mobile phones, TVs and PCs - and other access points - companies will have the opportunity to bring these devices to life and encourage long-term customer loyalty."

Actimagine

"At Mobile World Congress, Actimagine will be unveiling mobiclip.com, a web portal that enables users to create their own web page, on which they can manage video content selected from an extensive range of sources. Video-on-Demand, internet video, live television, personal videos including webcam videos are all possible," said André Pagnac, the company's chief executive.

ADC

"ADC will be showcasing the components of its IP-RAN product portfolio - the only vendor with a product set in the industry that unifies all elements of RAN infrastructure (outdoor coverage, indoor coverage, and backhaul). This includes a new set of comprehensive solutions that take advantage of combined ADC/LGC market expertise," ADC said.

"With over 70 per cent of mobile operators' customers making calls that start indoors, IT and carrier business decision-makers should watch for our introduction of enterprise solutions -InterReach Office, a new IP-based GSM base station designed for SME deployment, and our FlexWave Universal Radio Head, which unifies and simplifies outdoor network coverage extension by incorporating all services in a single unit."

Airwide Solutions

"Airwide will be making announcements focused around the mobile advertising space," said Jay Seaton, the company's chief marketing officer. "We expect future mobile services to be a combination of premium-priced and advertising-sponsored services and predict that some of the operators will launch entirely ad-funded subscription types where all basic communication services are free of charge for end users. Mobile advertising can be applied across a wide range of service types (messaging, browsing, broadcast, gaming) and industry players (operators, portals, aggregators)."

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