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EURESCOM SUMMIT 2001 SHOWED CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR 3G TECHNOLOGIES & APPLICATIONS
In his opening speech Dr. Claudio Carrelli, director of EURESCOM, gave a thought-provoking overview on the development of communications technology putting the current discussion about UMTS into a historical perspective. He pointed out that mobile broadband Internet applications have to fulfil completely new requirements in terms of the way users interact with mobile technology. The importance of user attitudes and behaviour for the acceptance of mobile broadband services was also stressed by Enid Mante-Meijer, senior researcher at KPN Research. Based on a user study carried out by EURESCOM project P 903 in nine European countries, she identified factors that could hamper the acceptance of 3G services: no perceived need, devices being too complex, limited time for new applications and the cost of new services. From her analysis she derived requirements for the success of 3G services. She recommended the creation of easily understandable devices for current non-users and personalisation of the services, in particular the need for contents to be localised. The need for personalised mobile applications was also pointed out by Josef Noll from Telenor. Especially young users, he said, would be interested in location-based mobile contact services to stay in touch with their peers. In the following discussion the effects of these location-based services on privacy were discussed. As a solution to these concerns it was proposed to give the user the opportunity to select when he wants to be located. One area in which this would make sense is tele-medicine, for example in the observation of patients with chronic diseases. Another promising area for location-based mobile services is the service business for industry. Carsten Beuthel from ABB reported his company's experience with wearable computers for the service business. There is a broad scope for the use of wearable computing, including on-site installation, trouble-shooting, maintenance, control and geo-information. The technological challenge he sees is the creation of displays for handhelds or mobiles that are powerful, small and robust, and which are connected to rich knowledge databases. After a day of exciting presentations and fruitful discussions the delegates were invited to a reception by Lady Mayoress Beate Weber in the town hall. They then attended a dinner in the historical Spiegelsaal in the heart of Heidelberg.
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