If you’re one of the many who have been waiting impatiently for mobile Internet to take off, you’ll be excited by the news that (after much investment and talk) wireless broadband Internet services are finally coming of age.

Combining the Internet with mobile technology can now deliver a high speed - and high quality – wireless Internet service. This technology lets you browse the internet on your mobile, with the same ease and speed at which you’d surf the Web from your PC at home. Check your emails, download songs and ringtones, play online games, read news online…

The question is: Who will make the most of this opportunity in the global market? Which giant (take your pick from Google, Microsoft, Apple and Nokia) will be dominant? And will there soon be fierce competition in the New Zealand market?

The Gphone – a phone built on a Google open software platform – will allow the Internet heavyweight to extend the power of its online advertising into the mobile realm. Mobile phone giant, Nokia, is expected to introduce mobile Internet services for ‘entertainment on the run’ – from music and video sharing to gaming. Yahoo is pushing to refine its mobile search technology and team up with a telco operator.

Mobile Internet technology was top of the agenda at the Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona this week, where Telstra Australia emerged as a downunder forward-thinking telecommunications company. Faced with dropping market share and flat revenue, Telstra’s focus has shifted to mobile broadband capabilities. Download speeds of 21 Mbps (megabits per second) are planned for later this year, with faster 42 Mbps speeds from 2009.

And while there are currently few mobile phone devices on the market that can support the new technology, launching the A$1.1 billion Next G wireless high speed Internet service places them at the cutting edge – this is a gamble that will surely pay off. Look to Telecom and other New Zealand providers to take similar steps forward in the sphere of mobile phone technology this year.

Image from Flickr.

Courtesy of the well known New Zealand blogger Rod Drury an Auckland based group, Kordia, is planning on launching Wi-Fi hotspots which will cover the entire CBD in cities around New Zealand.

Set to roll out at first across Auckland and Taupo, the company is describing the system as “a nationwide network of smart radio nodes that will deliver wireless access ‘hot-zones’ across target areas like university campuses, city CBD’s, shopping precincts, transportation hubs and more.”

It was at least three years ago that I first came across free Wi-Fi while travelling through the US (staying in Beverley Hills) which was supported by adverts surrounding the web-browsing experience. Hopefully this type of advert sponsored wireless Internet access could take off in New Zealand one day.