Mobil internet:
Wired Wherever
Telenor's Internet group (Nextra) recently established a stand-alone business unit to cater to the flourishing mobile Internet market. Nextra Mobile Internet plans to provide straightforward mobile Internet applications to ISPs, CSPs, consumers and businesses.
Lars Bakken, the helmsman at Nextra Mobile Internet, has spearheaded a year-long campaign to converge mobile and Internet technologies.
According to Bakken: "Almost every company capable of providing some kind of mobile Internet service is trying to grab market share by providing the best service portfolio. Only the largest mobile operators can afford to put together a good mobile Internet applications package in-house, however; smaller operators will be looking to third parties."
Bakken and his team aim to provide a reliable, application-rich mobile Internet service to these smaller mobile operators, along with any other eager service providers that target end customers, residential or business.
"The door opener for the majority of mobile Internet users is mobile e-mail. Sales staff and executives, for example, consider access to their mailbox while on the move to be a big plus," says Bakken.
Telenor's mobile Internet team will give users full Intranet capability while on the move. These users will be able to create an online identity (complete with e-mail, bulletin boards, discussion groups, chat spaces) that will follow them everywhere via any PC, WAP telephone, mobile terminal or PDA. The initial service has been restricted to mobile e-mail access, but centralised contact lists and personal calendars are soon to follow.
"We have piloted this service directly to two industrial end-users, one a furniture manufacturer and the other a shipbroker. Now we are prepared to offer mobile Internet as a third-party solution to service providers, who can immediately make the service available to their end-user customers," says Bakken.
Product Online
Riding on the success of the pilot project, Bakken and team were prepared to initiate the first customer launch. On January 29, this customer launch took place and, in no small way, it has proven a success. Bakken believes that Telenor's infrastructure gives its mobile Internet services a great head start all over Europe. The company's extensive broadband connections throughout Europe (an IP backbone known as Nextbone), combined with more than a dozen European branch offices gives the mobile business unit a great starting point.
And, says Bakken, Internet providers tend to prioritise the service and the customer interface, which gives Telenor's combined mobile and Internet savvy team an advantage over competitors that are strong in mobile technology but weak on Internet. These providers tend to over-emphasise technical solutions.
Applications in demand
The only restraint facing Telenor Mobile Internet and its service portfolio is a critical group of people: the users. Among Telenor's business Internet customers, for example, only three to four per cent invest in company-wide WAP services for their employees. Until more users can be convinced that mobile Internet is a sturdy and secure medium with value-added applications, the market will remain limited.
Bakken does not believe this will be a problem. "Usage will be dependent upon download times, the stability of the end-to-end system and the availability of useful services, but we have passed the break-even point for many of these services. The value of the service has outpaced the cost and people are buying it - a trend that will only accelerate," he says.
Service providers interested in offering mobile applications to their customers will find Telenor's offering to be among the most flexible. The selection of applications to be implemented is up to the service provider, which designs its own package. And the services can be independently branded. Says Bakken. "Our philosophy is to give services, support and connectivity to our end-users and our service provider customers, at all times and in all places."
Promising business unit
Nextra Mobile Internet was established by Nextra (Telenor's Internet subsidiary) as a stand-alone business unit in October 2000. Its portfolio of mobile applications has been engineered by in-house experts and strategic partners.
Text by: Ryan Skinner
| 
