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Mobile Communications Featured Article
September 10, 2008
Openwave's Passport Service to Aid Operators through Mobile Internet
By Michael Dinan, TMCnet Editor
A Redwood City, California-based company that designs software that converges mobile and broadband technologies announced today that it’s added a new service that’s designed to help businesses make money from the mobile Web.
Officials at Openwave Systems (News - Alert) Inc. say “Openwave Passport” will help mobile operators tap revenue streams by offering services such as on-demand mobile Internet access and subscriptions.
According to Openwave’s vice president and general manager for service management and global services, Sean MacNeill, operators must deliver value-added services in order to thrive in the mobile Internet age.
“Openwave’s mobile Internet services set a new industry standard for experiencing the web on a mobile device, and are driving new monetization opportunities through support of ’pay as you go’ mobile Internet and service subscription signup models,” MacNeill said.
The service launches as major service providers vie for mobile Internet users. Today, as reported by TMCnet Contributing Editor Arun Satapathy, AT&T (News - Alert) launched an application called “My Communities” that allows users to create and manage multiple social networking accounts through a single dashboard view on their mobile phone.
The application let users create a roster of social networks (including MySpace (News - Alert)), blogging sites (including LiveJournal and Xanga) and the photo-sharing site Photobucket. It also supports sites having members with common characteristics such as ethnicity (AsianAve, BlackPlanet, MiGente) or faith (FaithBase), according to Satapathy.
“Unlike other social networking applications, My Communities allows subscribers to register for social sites directly from their phone without logging onto the Web,” Satapathy writes. “Subscribers also get instant access to additional sites as soon as they are added to My Communities and will be alerted to updates when they launch the application without needing any upgrade.”
Openwave Passport offers features that operators may use to bring various mobile Internet packages to customers, according to officials at the company.
With it, for example, mobile operators may offer time-based Internet access options.
“This type of personalized access can attract new data users, including roaming and visiting subscribers who may not wish to sign up for contract-based data access plans,” Openwave says. “It is also a way to market value-added services to data subscribers.”
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is The Compelling ROI Benefits of Contact Center Quality and Performance Management Technologies, brought to you by Voice Print International (News - Alert).
Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael�s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Michael Dinan
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