Noel Treacy, Minister for Science Technology and Commerce, today (Monday 2nd October 2000) officially opened a four-day major international conference in Galway titled "IST Mobile Communications Summit 2000". The conference is jointly organised by Enterprise Ireland and the European Commission, the theme of which is "Evolving Towards 4th Generation Mobile Systems". It will present a forum for the dissemination of the results of the European Research Initiatives towards Personal and Wireless Mobile Communication Systems and Networks and offers an opportunity for companies to learn about how key players in the market see the future of the next wave of integrated mobile technologies.

The conference will address a broad range of technological developments in the mobile industry; issues such as high bandwidth mobile multimedia services, providing high quality full interactive video on your mobile terminal, as well as internet over mobile facilities. Delegates will get the opportunity to see some of the leading Irish mobile and wireless developed technology on display, including "Bluetooth" technology, Internet over Satellite and Internet delivered training courses.

Another key topic which will be presented are developments in the area of location based services, where a user’s mobile terminal will offer a different range of information services, depending on the specific location. These types of services have enormous potential in a number of areas such as retail advertising and in-car information systems.

In his address, the Minister for Science Technology and Commerce, Noel Treacy pointed to the fact that developments in mobile and wireless communications technology will enable those living in rural areas to become fully empowered citizens of the rapidly emerging Information Society. "The mobile communications sector, in particular, is experiencing strong growth by Irish companies. The availability of a young, well-educated workforce with strong technological and business skills; a highly efficient and cost-effective communications infrastructure all contribute to these booming developments in the industry", he said.

He continued, "the key to Ireland’s continued success will be to ensure that we are effective in promoting Ireland as a prime location to develop firms whose competitive advantage is based on knowledge, innovation, technology and related skills. This will encourage existing Irish enterprises to undertake more sophisticated innovation, leading to the establishment of new enterprises based on research findings, thereby supporting social and economic progress and improving living standards".

He added, "the hosting of this Mobile Summit in Galway is timely, in that the Irish Government, recognising the importance of supporting research in advanced communications systems, is embarking on the largest investment in information and communications technologies research and development under its recently approved Technology Foresight Fund Programme",.

With over 1 Billion mobile users world-wide, predicted by 2002, it is estimated that over 60% of these will be using Internet services over Mobile links.

Mr Takeshi Natsuno, Media Director, Gateway Business Department of NTT Docomo outlined that the Mobile Internet Service in Japan "i-mode" is not just a concept anymore..."We are doing real business by setting up win-win relationships with content/application providers", he said.

He added that "with over 11 million users, and over 21,000 sites, DoCoMo’s i-mode proves that wireless Internet is REAL. We have successfully introduced the 'positive feedback' process of the Internet into the wireless world. Increase of applications/contents attracts more users and increase of user numbers attracts more applications/contents."

Speaking at the conference Barry O'Neill Chief Executive rondomondo said, "I believe that key to take up of next generation mobile as a content platform by both content providers and consumers alike is going to revolve around resolution of several problems: The problem of bandwidth and the form in which it is delivered. The problem of convenience, particularly the size and shape of devices, but also the ease of data entry. The problem of authoring for devices, and support for Internet standards such as Java Script. The problem of tariffs for prolonged or "always on" Connections".

Over 300 delegates are attending the conference which is being sponsored by a range of leading Irish companies in mobile technology, including Ericsson www.ericsson.ie, Nortel Networks www.nortelnetworks.com, Analog Devices www.analog.com, Parthus Technologies www.parthus.com, Ossidian www.ossidian.com and Websat www.web-sat.ie.