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Sweden has been a world leader from the outset when it comes to mobile phones – and the innovations just keep on coming
You heard
it here first
Sweden
is a world leader in mobile innovation. It’s been that way ever since Ericsson
manufactured the first GSM radio base station in 1992.
Innovation is still in vogue in Scandinavia, as Stockholm and Oslo recently became the two first cities in the world with publicly available 4G networks (also known as LTE, which stands for long term evolution). LTE raises connection speeds to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) or more. To give you an idea of how fast this is, a home broadband connection of about 15Mbps is currently considered pretty speedy. Getting LTE is a bit like swapping a scooter for a Ferrari.
What this means for you is the possibility of real-time video conferencing and television on your mobile, high-speed internet access, eBanking and real-time location and navigation services using applications such as Google Earth.
It’s sometimes hard to imagine what we did before we had mobile phones. New applications are arriving every day. Take the free music application Moodagent (www.moodagent.com], which creates instant playlists straight from your music library to match your mood. Within just a few months of its launch, it had become one of the most frequently downloaded applications for both the iPhone and Nokia handsets.
Buying tickets and goods using mobile phones (known as mTicketing and mPayment) has also become mainstream. A simple text message enables you to buy bus and train tickets, or book a class at your local gym. Buying an SJ ticket on the internet means that you don’t need a paper ticket at all – you just show the inspector the eTicket on your mobile when you’re on the train.
Meanwhile, Selecta, which owns snack machines all over the Stockholm Metro, recently introduced mPayment, so you can now get a cold Coke or a sandwich in the middle of the night, even if you have no cash on you. Thanks to NFC (near field communications) technology, all you need to do is wave your mobile phone in front of the machine’s card reader.
Sweden was one of the first countries to introduce mobile signatures, with programs piloted by both Telenor and Telia Sonera. Telenor customers can log in securely to online services using their phone for authentication and digital signing, while a consortium of banks and mobile operators is working on a mobile signature service infrastructure for banks to authenticate online banking users.
| Extracted from our magazine supplement about Digital Sweden. |
 “Life
became much easier when I started using my mobile to pay for parking. I don’t
have to look for a meter and – even better – I don’t have to worry about getting
fines!Ӂsa Douhan, 28, project manager, Stockholm |
Five cool things you can do on your mobile:
mPayment –
just wave your phone in front of a special reader
Facial
recognition - point your phone at someone to get their contact details
Augmented Reality
– AR adds layers of data over the live video on your phone
Social gaming – compete against your friends while you’re on the move
Video
conferencing – you can see your friends while you talk to them
Mobile signature
– for security when using online banking services
Gemalto Explains Paying with
your phone: The new mobile payment ecosystem
