One of the main concerns is the increasing use of unsolicited commercial advertising via messaging services - mobile spam. So far in Australia this is not much of a problem, since we don't receive the volume of mobile spam some of our Asian cousins do and not many of us pay to receive messages, unlike US mobile users.
However, telecommunications companies are constantly looking at ways to increase revenue from data services and the ability to charge users for receiving messages is already in place. Hutchison, which is planning a worldwide roll-out of its 3G network in the first quarter of this year, have purchased a spam and virus control component from wireless software company LogicaCMG.
LogicaCMG created this component after signing a deal with e-mail outsourcer Brightmail to adapt its anti-spam and anti-virus technology to use in the mobile wireless space.
"If we're going to focus on opening up the applications we have to consider the pitfalls and make sure that's covered," Paolo Montessori, business development manager, LogicaCMG Wireless Networks told ZDNet Australia . "The virus space is very scary, because you're opening up the handset to an IP network."
"If you want to open up to the IP world you have to take the good with the bad," he added.
At present most mobile data charges are based on the amount of data transferred over the network. Hutchison, which has released unlimited data transfers for a monthly fee in Italy and the UK, has not revealed how it will charge users for its 3G network when it goes commercial in Australia.
"It's been more error than success as far as charging goes for the mobile operators," said Montessori. "You need to think of things for the end user." He pointed out that if a user wanted to download an image over the wireless network they may not be certain of the size, which could range from 50K to one megabyte.
"Charging on volumes of data makes no sense to the end user," said Montessori.
