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Note: This section is restricted to major players who are in the business
of delivering value added services
from a range of suppliers. For specific services provided by individual companies
see Existing Services.
In many cases the mobile operators are looking to develop or brand their
own value added services.
[Mobile Operators]
[Financial
Services]
[Retailing]
[Sport]
[News and Information] [Business
to
Business]
[Other]
[BT Cellnet] [One
to One]
[Orange]
[Virgin] [Vodafone]
BT Cellnet's Internet services for mobiles was launched in September 1999, a day before Virgin's own service. It has 36 partners who will provide exclusive content and services to Cellnet customers. In addition, customers will be able to access any WAP enabled web site and access their Internet e-mail. Cellnet will be providing customers with the Nokia 7110 WAP phones. Existing customers without WAP enabled phones will be able to receive their e-mail via the SMS service, 160-characters at a time. The service is to be run by Genie Internet, BT Cellnet's mobile ISP.
Orange announced its WAP based services in November 1999 based initially on the 7110 WAP phones from Nokia. It will include diary (with alerts), e-mail, ITN news and sports stories, access to the Thomson's directory, access to AA Roadwatch with many other services to follow. Initially, WAP data calls will be charged at less than the price of a voice call, however the plan is to eventually charge for the services themselves with basic content and connection being free.
In January 2000 it was reported that the offering had been so successful that Orange had run out of all the 2,500 Nokia phones it had received in December. This is despite Nokia making over 100,000 during October and November combined.
Virgin Mobile service goes under the name of Vodafone Interactive and was launched in September 1999. It says it can't wait for WAP to take off and has therefore launched a service exploiting the memory and download capabilities of the SIM card found in mobile phones. Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) in Virgin's phones hold 36KB of memory and Virgin will use spare capacity to download applications to connect users into Virgin's retail portals owned by Virgin Rail, Virgin Radio and Our Price records. Virgin is also looking at how the technique could be used to unlock encrypted MP3 music that a user has previous downloaded into a MP3 player. These data based services will supplement the existing voice response service.
In January 2000 Vodafone announced its global Internet plans in partnership with a number of big IT companies. They included Psion, Palm Computing, Nokia, Ericsson, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Travelocity.com/Sabre and Charles Schwab. Offering news, e-mail, financial markets information, travel and more, it will be available world wide. Presumably, Vodafone's current Vodafone Interactive service (see below) will be folded into the new, as yet unnamed, offering.
It will be launched in July 2000 and will include news (probably from the BBC), weather and information services such as share prices, as well as e-commerce applications. Over time, other companies would be added to the partnership. Launch costs are estimated at £94m and would generate a 25% increase in subscriber revenues to £412 by 2004. IBM will be handling the design, construction and management of the system. Sun will supply hardware, Java and other infrastructure software. Psion will contribute its (Symbian's?) EPOC software.
Vodafone Interactive is their existing free service that is also available to non Vodafone mobil users. It offers various information feeds, e-mail, web access and e-commerce. VI has 4 components:
iTouch International provides information services to a number of mobile operators around the world. It is part of the Independent News and Media group, the company that owns the UK's Independent broadsheet newspaper. The group announced in January that it is planning to soon float iTouch for £100m-£150m, giving a value for the whole company of an estimated $500m (£312m). It is developing WAP technology and e-commerce applications.
Originally founded in Cape Town the company is now based in London where is manages it international expansion. Currently (January 2000) it operates in the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa and it is launching an operation in Israel. There are plans to operate in Holland, Portugal, the US and the Far East.
Whilst aimed at the US market, Microsoft's Mobile network portal should not be ignored as it may well point to services that will be available in Europe. Currently it offers the typical information feeds such as e-mail notification, news, weather, sports, lottery results and daily horoscopes. Content partners include Nando.net, cnet, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate and Quote.com. No doubt many of the services offered on Microsoft's existing Internet portal, MSN, will be modified for its Mobile network.
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