Introduction
The introduction of cells for mobile phone base stations, was invented in 1947 by bell labs engineers at AT&T, it was further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones on the other hand, have a long varied history. Going back to Reginald Fessenden’s time when he invented in demonstration, the radio telephony. All this happened through the Second World War era. The military use of radio telephony links and civil services started in the 1950s, while hand – held cellular radio devices have been available from 1983.
Due to their low establishment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony. The mobile phone or cell phone is a long range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, pocket switching for access to the internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellar network of base stations. (Cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (The exception is satellite phones)
Possible changes in business practices within the company or organisation
Mobile payment: This is the processing of goods or services with a mobile device such as a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or other such device. Such systems are also used in developing countries for micro payments. The two common scenarios include:-
Cardholder focused typical usage which entails the cardholder electing to make a mobile payment, being connected to a sender via the mobile device to perform authentication and authorization and subsequently being presented with confirmation of the completed transaction. Extensions to his include near field communications or contact less payment options using a mobile phone device. This cuts the banking cost in an organisation hence encouraging a saving culture in an organisation.
- Merchant focused: – This is similar to the cardholder focused scenario; however the transaction is entered and completed by the merchant (or their representative). This is similar to mobile EFTPOS except it is processed via a mobile phone/device.
- Vendors:- International mobile payment vendors offer services and applications that range from recharge of prepaid accounts via SMS, to electronic bill payment and presentment, to billing for mobile content.
- U-paid systems: is a mobile payment specialist with worldwide operations that enables payment providers, aggregators, merchants and bank to offer an alternative way for their customers to make payments.
- Mobile ticketing: Is the process whereby customers can order, pay for, obtain and validate tickets from any location and at any time using mobile phones or other mobile handsets.
Mobile tickets reduce the production and distribution costs connected with traditional paper –based ticketing channels and increase customer convenience by providing new simple ways of purchase tickets. It also involves mobile ticketing delivery, mobile ticket scanning and mobile ticket redemption.
Companies with mobile phone technology also enjoy near field communication or NFC. This is a short-range wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over a short distance. (Hands width) The technology is based on (RFID) which makes it compatible with the existing contact less infrastructure already in use for public transportation and payment. NFC is primarily aimed at usage in mobile phones.
Benefits of Mobile Phone Technology in Business
Combining mobile technologies and the internet should change the way everyone does business. companies will now have quick and increasing easy access to customers and prospects. Still, many business organisations have taken a go slow approach to adopting the mobile operations.
One of the more obvious advantages of the mobile internet in the enterprise is access to corporate email and databases. (Including business contacts, financial data, market research and calendar information).This is where mobile phones are connected to a particular server making it possible for users in a particular organization to surf the internet, share different data by storing it in the World Wide Web and sharing business contacts.
Another advantage is advanced security features, usually with options that might include user authentication, encryption, physical security and public key infrastructure (PKI).Security message delivery confirmation to ensure completed transactions is also considered an important feature of many corporate mobile systems. This is because the messages sent to individuals in a particular organization can be retrieved.
The benefits available to corporate mobile users’ wave identified by accenture (Formerly Anderson Consulting) in a spring 201 management report as; secure and controlled Wireless access to a personalized selection of corporate information sources and applications.
Reduced time and location constraints associated with accessing corporate information. Increased ability of mobile employees to interact.
There are three applications that are seen to be best suit for mobile payments. First, in most situations, a mobile phone is the most convenient and sometimes the only possible payment technology for mobile content and service purchases. It’s expected that mobile payments will continue to be used in mobile and digital services.
Secondly, the diminishing use of cash in the physical world makes it important to develop new compensatory payment instruments for small value purchases on automated machines, cash desks, and self-service stations. Mobile payments have the opportunity to provide efficient payment instruments to complement cash payments.
Mobile phones also have special advantages that come as a package due to the fact that they can easily be tracked.
Benefits of Mobile Phone Trackers on mobile phones.
The ability to support faster decision making based on real time information.
Improved efficiency: if organisation staffs are on call (e.g. Tradesmen or mini cab firms) you can decide who is the nearest respond to the next job/call thus saving time on travel delays and mileage costs. This helps on boosting the financial position of a firm.
Reliable delivery time information: road haulers or delivery firms can instantly track their delivery force to see if they are taking the quickest routes and to move accurately advise customers of anticipated delivery time/delays based on actual locations. Customers are certainly likely to respond better when given precise information, rather than a vague “her or his way” or “the driver left an hour ago”.
Staff monitoring: A business employing a team of sales representatives working fixed hours, or covering a set area, may want mobile phone tracking for the staff to see if they are working the correct hours and visiting all the specified location/appointments.
Improved workforce data: Data can be analyzed to see how much time is spent traveling, how long employees spend on job, or with a client and even when and how long they stop for lunch.
Increased Staff motivation: clearly the most obvious benefit of mobile racking is that staff will be more highly motivated knowing that their movements can now be monitored even away from the office. So even when you are not checking up on them they won’t know this. So will still be motivated to maximize productivity.
Employee safety: Putting mobile phone tracking on your business phones means you are giving your staff a sense of security in case they get into difficulties and are unable to call for help.
Risks Involved
Research on this subject has accumulated over the years, Are wireless devices hazardous to your health? A Danish study found that cell phone users were no more likely to have cancer than the country’s general population. A group of experts in the United Kingdom found that wireless phone use no health risk; however, integrated laboratory systems in North Carolina found that radiation from wireless phones causes genetic changes in human blood cells under certain conditions. In the meantime, wireless trade associations have made a number of recommendations about how to use cell phones more safely, such as using an earphone attachment to keep the antenna away from your head.
Security in wireless connectivity is also another important factor that may bring a big loss to the organization if not properly addressed. There is no doubt that the risks associated with mobile computing is likely to increase as mobile devices and wireless networks becomes more ubiquitous and present a more attraction target for cyber-criminals. The mobile companies may lack a coherent security strategy for mobile workers, making many companies to be at risk. Training probably should be provided to the employees. The manager or supervisor should not assume that employees automatically know how to use the mobile technology. He should know that the employees used to operate under the traditional way of serving customers. They may lack that knowledge of using the new technology and this is likely to make the organization to fail in realizing the objectives it wants to achieve by introducing the new system. This can be risky because for instance organizations will need to allocate some money to educating its employees on how to use the new technology.Hence exposing the organization to a financial risk.Not to mention the Bluetooth technology that as turned totally non confidential as separate parties can access information from your phone as long as both of you have activated Bluetooth.
Since Mobile phone technology can be expensive, especially when being introduced to an organization, it’s important to get the right tariff. Although improving rapidly, data transmission rates are not as good as wireless fidelity (WIFI). “Smart phones” can have disadvantages, the keyboard may be small and therefore difficult to use, and yet be larger or heavier than normal mobile phones. this makes portability principle of the phones to cease value.
Experimental evidence shows that using a mobile phone while driving impairs driving performance in a number of safety critical ways. This applies to other jobs that require high concentration too. An analysis of police reports of 5,740 fatal road accidents in Great Britain between 1985 -1995 found that in vehicle distraction was reported as a contributory factor in about 2% of the fatal accidents. (Although this figure may be a conservative estimate).
Mobile phone theft: Mobile phone theft has increased enormously over the past few years around the world. A recent study completed by the UK home office estimated that over 700,000 handsets were stolen during 2001. This study also found that young people were the favourite target for thieves with over 500,000 of those losing their phones being between 18-26 years (approximated age for Many employees) incase such happens,the company or organization suffers financial risk.
Equipment identity Register (EIR): Each GSM mobile phone has 3 unique identifiers. These are the MSISDN, which is the unique phone number associated with the SimCard, the IMSI or individual mobile subscriber identity which identifies the subscribers network provider, and the IMEI, or international Mobile Equipment Identity which is a 15 digit number unique to every GSM handset. A feature of the IMEI is the ability of a GSM network operator to ‘blacklist’ or ‘bar access to its network by any particular IMEI. This action would then render the handset associated with that IMEI inoperable on the network. Most of GSM operations now maintain an EIR which is a database of an handsets which have been reported as lost or stolen. The GSM association is now working toward establishing centralized EIR which would permit any lost or stolen GSM handsets to be blacklisted from every GSM network in the world. A current limitation with the individual EIR’S is that a handset, blacklisted for example in new Zealand can be taken to say the UK and used on another GSM network there.
Fraud: Telecommunications fraud is a major problem worldwide. A recent survey by the communications fraud control Association. (CFCA) published in March 2003 considers the annual worldwide telecom fraud losses to be in range of 35-45 Billion dollars. Those involved in committing telecom fraud range from organized crime and terrorist groups funding their operations through multi million dollar scams to young people using a stolen credit card to add $20.00 worth of airtime to their prepay mobile. Example, of fraud includes; subscription fraud, this is simply using an operator’s products and services with no intent to pay, credit card fraud. This is a problem experienced by most mobile network provide prepay services. Premium rate service fraud.
Handset and network product risks: The mobile phone industry is developing at an incredible pace and today’s feature rich handsets provide users with access to products and services the world never has dreamt.
Possible a decade or so ago, for example chat rooms, text and PXT, mobile chat has been a natural extension of the chat rooms offered over the internet and on fixed lines. These can be an hindrance to employees at work causing them to waste a lot of time surfing the net and chatting instead of working.
Bibliography
- Jaclyn Easton (APR 2002) transform your business with mobile technology going wireless.perfect bound pub
- Bundersant fur sicherheit (JAN 2005) Applications of RFID systems der informationstechnik,bonn
- May, P. (2001). Mobile Commerce: opportunities applications and technologies of wireless. London: Cambridge University Press.
- Info dev report (jan 2006) micro-payment systems and their application to mobile networks,
- Shankar, V, (2001) “Wireless Internet: Growing pains vs. gains’” working paper. University of Maryland: College park
- Ron schneiderman the mobile technology question and answer book, a survival guide