FIVE Singapore companies kept the flag flying at ITU Telecom World 2006, the giant showcase event for the international telecommunications industry which was held in Hong Kong this year. The companies were part of the Singapore Pavilion, led by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).

GlobalRoam featured its latest solution called gCross, which allows mobile phone users to talk and send SMSes to instant messenger contacts around the world, at local rates. The firm makes this possible through proprietary technology which maps local phone numbers to a user's instant messenger contact. When the mobile user calls up the local number, gCross routes the call or message to the instant messenger contact. GlobalRoam intends to offer a free trial of gCross next month.

Voice and video telephony solution specialist Innomedia showed off its video telephony solution which, according to its director of corporate services, Tony Wong, has already been sold to telcos such as SingTel. The company, which holds 18 patents and over 25 industry awards for its range of Internet Protocol (IP) solutions, demonstrated its video conferencing solution - which allows parties to broadcast videos and conduct a video conference with up to 16 parties - on its Innomedia IP phones.

Innoxius Technologies, together with its Taiwanese partner, mobile phone designer and manufacturer Gigabyte, displayed a turnkey indoor video broadcast solution based on digital video broadcasting handheld (DVB-H) - a next generation digital broadcast technology for use with mobile handheld devices with DVB-H receivers. While most mobile devices require a dongle to receive DVB-H signals, future mobile phone designs will see the receiver integrated within the device. The company expects more DVB-H trials to be rolled out next year, with pilot trials commencing 2008.

Bubble Motion had Bubble Talk, which integrates voicemail with text messages. The solution, which is already been offered by telcos in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India, allows users to leave voicemails of up to 30 seconds. The recipient will then get an SMS notification that a message has been left in the mailbox, and can then easily retrieve the message.

On show from V-Mobile was its V2ios solution for mobile e-mail and data access. By compressing and formatting data for mobile phones, it enables users to use any web browser on the phone to access their e-mail and any other data stored on its V2ios server.

Goh Kay Pin, chief technology officer of V-Mobile, said users are not pushed the entire e-mail message at once, and have the option of downloading more of the e-mail message, thus saving on mobile data download charges. The solution, targeted at telcos looking to offer mobile office solutions to individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, is already being used by telcos in the region.

This article first appeared in BT on December 11, 2006