The mobile phone business has come a long way since the first heavy, transportable handsets. Professor Joe McGeehan, head of the Toshiba Communications Research Lab in Bristol was part of the team that developed those first handsets, and is now looking at what is needed for the next generation of wireless systems, from software defined radio to cognitive radios. These look at the radio transmission around them to work out where in the world they are and then reconfigure themselves to provide the most efficient implementation.

“This whole thing of cognitive radio is going to be huge,” he said.

He points to the need for more collaborative research across many different areas, not just thinking of wireless as mobile phones but medical, industrial and computing.

“Wireless in not just telecoms – wireless is pervasive, in medical, in ICT and ICT underpins everything today, and the challenges for wireless are very different depending on the area. There is a need to bring together wireless research across all the different sectors,” he said.

Battery technology is also something that he highlights as a limiting factor. “Battery technology tends to improve in jumps so we really do have to look at improving the efficiency of terminals.”

But there are new ways to tackle the problems, from ultra-fast charging to new technologies such as fuel cells.

“We have batteries in Toshiba in R&D that can be charged to 80 of capacity in one minute,” he said, “and we have a 100mW fuel cell that can power an MP3 player for 20 hours.”

The key theme is that the new generation of wireless technologies such as mobile broadband are generating new applications that will change the shape of the industry.

“Nokia does not consider itself a handset company but a consumer internet company and that is the way the industry is changing,” said Falk Mueller-Vesse, co-founder of Carteghena Capital, a Munich-based investor in wireless startups. “Video is very hot and the YouTube generation with user generated content is probably changing your lives for ever.”

Trevor Gill, head of networks at Vodafone, points to similar developments such as Stage 6, “YouTube on steroids,” as he calls it. But the key question is how to use the digital dividend that comes from the move from analogue to digital TV, he says. “The UHF band is very attractive for wider area services,” he said. “The hot topic is mobile in the UHF band but its urgent to get standardisation here across Europe and beyond and there has been progress in the last few months. It is now clear it should be at the top of the band but there is a long way to go to make that happen. That's the big challenge.”

The challenge then is to have antenna systems that can handle the data rates that will be required, and to have sufficient backhaul back into the network. “the challenge is what is the link between them? Backhaul is really going to be important and will it be DSL, fibre and/or microwave? Cost effective backhaul is probably the biggest challenge in today’s broadband networks,” he said.

However with mobile broadband networks there is no ‘killer application’ says Professor Ed Candy, head of technology at Hutchison 3G, and that will change the way services are delivered. “Perhaps we should stop selling our users a set of products and just introduce them to the internet,” he said. “That way you get away from the idea of the killer application.” He points to SeeMeTV, where users take pictures, put them on a website and share the revenue from the site. “The success of SeeMeTV has been phenomenal,” he said.

He also points to things like adding MSN messaging to handsets, which some people see as cannibalising existing revenues as users do not make as many calls. Not so, he says. “With MSN there are 2.5bn transactions but also a 30percent increase in SMS text messages, and adding Skype has actually increasing our international traffic.”

All this plays well to the programmable approaches provides by Icera Semiconductor for the high speed modem in the handset, either HSPA or WiMax, and in the basestation with picoChip providing the core processing for WiMax and 3G femtocells.

Startup Terranet from Lund in Sweden showed a new way of thinking about wireless networks. It is using the mobile phone as a node in a network to reduce the need for expensive basestations to roll out services in developing countries.

It has developed peer-to-peer wireless networking technology that allows users to call and text anyone within one kilometre, or up to ten kilometres through other phones in a mesh network, connecting back to a broadband link via another phone connected to a PC that then also provides Internet services.

It has also developed a simple phone with three buttons that can be sold in countries such as Kenya for under $100. “If you want to be successful in the developed world, don’t make a cheaper handset – you have to look at the whole offering,” said CEO and founder Anders Carlius.

Some of the technologies for wireless such as WiFi are struggling to provide ubiquitous access, says Walter Tuttlebee, executive director of the Mobile VCE ‘virtual research centre’. VCE commissions universities to do research that will be useful to a range of its members.

“The business vases just aren't stacking up,” he said. “The next thing is going to be low cost personal device networking and that has to work anywhere.”

“The things that succeed are going to be things that provide new capabilities such as mobile TV and ubiquitous services,” he said. “Walled gardens have had their days and I think telcos have realised that. Wireless2.0 is ubiquitous, wireless IP access but it has to be driven by user needs with a strong underpinned business model and ecosystem, and getting all the bits in place to make that happen is non-trivial.”

Software tools for easily porting and developing applications are also vital. “The wireless web2.0 is open, customisable, collaborative and personalisable,” said Stuart Scott, CEO of Bath-based software tool developer Intohand. It produces Java-based tools to help port existing applications to mobile networks, from mobile portals to greeting cards applications in US, Europe and India, all through a drag and drop environment.

“We have a database of over 1000 mobile phones to make sure it works on all of them,” said Scott.

The key is that the Web will move form the PC to the phone, he says, and needs tools to do that.

“The Web will become mobile and people will be publishing and viewing from mobile phones and the mobile web will be the web of the future,” he said. “But I want 4G to be the last G – there shouldn’t be a 5G.”

Intohand worked with Global Network Solutions Europe and Excite Japan on the UK release of ‘mobikade’ – a highly successful ad-funded mobile social networking service from Japan.

Mobikade provides personal mobile space to keep track of what is new in your life, by posting updates on ‘What’s Up Now?’. Users can also download games and puzzles, and are rewarded with points that can be used to send free SMS text messages or redeemed for a chance to win fantastic prizes every month. mobikade aims at acquiring around 200000 users by next March.

“My aim is to successfully introduce Japanese mobile strategies to the UK and Europe. mobikade is so cool it will change the lives of mobile users in the UK,” said Atul Sasane, Head of new business at GNS Europe. “GNS Europe pleased to have been associated with sourcing the technology and capability to deliver the mobikade launch as a successful project – on time and within budget. We will use this experience to bring in more innovative businesses from Japan to Europe.”

Pervasive, ubiquitous mobile Internet will create significant changes in the industry, based on programmable chip technology from companies such as Icera Semiconductor and picChip, through the equipment makers such as femtocell pioneer Ubiquisys and application software tool providers such as Intohand. All of this will be driven by the operators, but those pioneers with a vision of Wireless2.0 are providing the operators with new capabilities and new ways to take their businesses forward.