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3G Portal Study: A Reference Handbook for Portal Operators, Developers and the Mobile Industry (Recommendations and Conclusions)

UMTS Forum Report 16, November 2001

Recommendations and Conclusions

The 3G portal study has identified a number of key recommendations for a harmonious development of portal services mass market. The following approaches have been used in addressing identified issues:

  • Convergence approach works toward a globally accepted open standard combining mobile, Internet, media, and communication concerns.

  • Market Decision approach where the most dominant player or a small number of strong players create de facto standards, driven by the sheer volume of originally proprietary implementations.

  • Technical Research and Development approach in which new technology will be developed. This is technology that is not yet available, but necessary to deliver the needed requirements.

Table 31 provides a summary of 3G portal study recommendations and corresponding action needed.

Table 31. 3G Portal Study recommendations.

3G Service Enablers Key Issues Recommendation Action Needed
Markup Language XHTML Basic

(a subset of WML2.0)

HTML		 Deploy XHTML Basic for all portal content development.



Deploy HTML for mobile business in the public Internet and corporate sector.		 Portal operators and terminal manufacturers to adopt XHTML Basic. Backward compatibility with WML and cHTML browsers needs to be studied.

Corporate portals and Internet portals shall be extended for mobile Intranet/Internet access.
Personalisation Consumer Capabilities Deploy Individual personalized services for consumers. The mobile industry needs to establish standards for a selected set of personalized services for consumers.
Corporate User Capabilities Deploy group-based personalized services for corporate users. The mobile industry needs to establish standards for a selected set of uniform corporate personalised services.
Mobile Terminals Browsers Monitor the development of a lead browser, as this would allow large-scale deployment of 3G portal services. Promote use of XHTML and HTML micro-browsers. Market forces will determine a lead browser or duel browsers with downloadable options.
Operating System Monitor the development of a limited number of lead operating systems, as this would allow large-scale deployment of 3G portal services. Market factors will determine the number of mobile operating systems.
Chip Technology Deploy high performance chips mobile devices for multimedia 3G services. Terminal manufacturers to adopt recommended content format/compression standards. Terminal manufacturers to specify high performance and low power chips for 3G mobile terminals.
Battery Technology Deploy longer lasting batteries would increase the usage of 3G services without interruption between charging periods. Terminal manufacturers to test high performance batteries and support R&D in fuel cells.
Display Technology Deploy higher resolution and lightweight displays on 3G mobile devices. Terminal manufacturers to test OLED display and support R&D in Electronic Ink display technology.
Security USIM Deploy USIM card in 3G terminals. Add IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier) for terminal security. Mobile operators, terminal manufacturers and financial institutions need to work together to find industry-accepted m-commerce secure solutions
Transport security A common security layer protocol should be established for end-to-end security in order to avoid translation of WTLS/SSL. An industry focus group to study this further with a lead from a mobile operator.
Billing and Payment Billing Flexibility Deploy a phased approach towards a comprehensive billing infrastructure. Billing vendors and mobile operators need to develop a phased approach for mobile billing features oward a comprehensive billing infrastructure. 3GPP and GSMA to lead this effort.
Multiple Payment Methods Deploy multiple payment methods with a long-term goal of moving users to electronic payment methods. Mobile and portal operators need to find ways to promote the use of electronic payment methods.
Quality of service (QoS) End-to-end QoS Market factors in QoS specs will be determined by service category. An industry focus group to study this further with a lead from a mobile operator. 3GPP to lead this effort.
Interoperability Interoperability Develop interoperability standards across multiple platforms and mobile terminals. An industry focus group to study this further with a lead from a mobile operator. 3GPP to lead this effort.
Content Format MP3, MP3PRO,

JPEG 2000,

MPEG-4,

Integrated Media Format		 Use open standards for content development. Mobile operators, portal operators, terminal manufactures and content developers to support open content format standards.