Notes on the history of the mobile phone in Australia

The first automatic mobile phone service was launched in Australia in 1981, with the first cellular mobile service following in 1987. In 2003 there were over 14.5 million mobile phone subscribers, and the technology had become central to everyday life and culture. Despite the significance of mobile phones, little has been written about their Australian histories. This paper offers some notes on the history of mobile telecommunications in Australia. As well as reviewing the development of the mobile phone in Australia, it looks at the cultural representation of this technology.

Using Q-methodology to study the metaphors of consumption for mobile phone users

Even before business has really come to grips with the intricacies of incorporating emarketing and e-commerce into their organisational strategies, they are now being encouraged to make significant investments in developing capabilities for mobile phone marketing. Fuelled once again by huge profit predictions reminiscent of the mid-1990s when speaking of e-commerce (Anckar and D’Incau 2002) marketers are tapping into this mobility. So, instead of having to drive consumers to web sites through the ‘sit and search’ context, marketers are now exploring ways to develop strategies to deliver relevant and timely information in a ‘roam and receive’ context directly to their potential customers anywhere, anytime, any place (Mort and Drennan 2002).

Mobile message services and communications policy

Something of a design after-thought, mobile phone SMS (Short-Message Services) have been enthusiastically adopted by consumers worldwide, who have created a new text culture. SMS is now being deployed to provide a range of services and transactions, as well as playing a critical role in offering an interactive path for television broadcasting. In this paper we offer a case study of a lucrative, new industry developing internationally at the intersection of telecommunications, broadcasting, and information services—namely, premium rate SMS/MMS. To explore the issues at stake we focus on an Australian case study of policy responses to the development of premium rate mobile messaging services in the 2002-2005 period. In the first part, we give a brief history of premium rate telecommunications. Secondly, we characterise premium rate mobile message services and examine their emergence. Thirdly, we discuss the responses of Australian policy-makers and industry to these services. Fourthly, we place the Australian experience in international context, and indicate common issues. Finally, we draw some conclusions from the peregrinations of mobile message services for regulators grappling with communications policy frameworks.

An e-health needs assessment of medical residents in Cameroon

Medical residents from Yaounde I University in Cameroon are required to spend periods of time in rural or remote locations to complete their training. To determine if e-health might lessen their isolation and enhance patient care, a needs assessment of the residents was performed using a brief questionnaire (five items) about the situation in which residents found themselves outside their medical school environment. We gave the questionnaires to 45 residents. Seventeen questionnaires had been returned at the time of the site visit, a response rate of 38%. Most residents indicated that the ability to contact a mentor would have either made them feel more confident (16, or 94%) or altered their handling of recent cases (15, or 88%). All residents had access to a mobile phone, and many (11, or 65%) had used it to contact a medical colleague for guidance. A low-cost and technologically simple telemedicine solution that maximized use of mobile phone capability, provided access to medical and health-care information, and permitted exchange of images would be an appropriate response to the identified needs.

Realtime telemedicine

Telemedicine conducted via prerecorded interaction is more convenient than that using realtime interaction. On the other hand, a realtime consultation allows an immediate result to be obtained and there is likely to be a strong educational component for the remote practitioner. The use of the telephone is under-rated in telemedicine. Telephones have been used in outpatient follow-up, mental health, help lines and support groups. Telephones (fixed and mobile) have also been used for data transfer (e.g. for transmission of electrocardiograms). Realtime transfer of still images has been used in telepathology for many years, and more recently for rapid assessment of injuries. Realtime transfer of video images has been widely explored, perhaps most successfully in telepsychiatry. Some realtime telemedicine applications have been taken up with enthusiasm, even if formal evidence of cost-effectiveness may be lacking. Teleradiology and telepsychiatry are two examples where widespread adoption is beginning to occur. Other forms of realtime telemedicine represent 'niche' applications. That is, they appear to be both successful and sustainable in the centres where they were pioneered, but have not been adopted elsewhere. Teledialysis and teleoncology are examples of this type. The patchy diffusion of telemedicine is something that is not yet well understood.

Unsafe driving behaviour and four wheel drive vehicles: observational study

Objective To assess the level of compliance with the new law in the United Kingdom mandating penalties for rising a hand held mobile phone while driving, to compare compliance with this law with the one on the use of seat belts, and to compare compliance with these laws between drivers of four wheel drive vehicles and drivers of normal cars. Design Observational study with two phases-one within the grace period, the other starting one week after penalties were imposed on drivers using such telephones. Setting Three busy sites in London. Participants Drivers of 38 182 normal cars and 2944 four wheel drive vehicles. Main outcome measures Proportions of drivers seen to be using hand held mobile phones and not using seat belts. Results Drivers of four wheel drive vehicles were more likely than drivers of other cars to be seen using hand held mobile phones (8.2% v 2.0%) and not complying with the law on seat belts (19.5% v 15.0%). Levels of non-compliance with both laws were slightly higher in the penalty phase of observation, and breaking one law was associated with increased likelihood of breaking the other. Conclusions The level of non-compliance with the law on the use of hand held mobile phones by drivers in London is high, as is non-compliance with the law on seat belts. Drivers of four wheel drive vehicles were four times more likely than drivers of other cars to be seen using hand held mobile phones and slightly more likely not to comply with the law on seat belts.

Work at hand: an exploration of gesture in the context of work and everyday life to inform the design of gestural input devices

This research explores gestures used in the context of activities in the workplace and in everyday life in order to understand requirements and devise concepts for the design of gestural information appliances. A collaborative method of video interaction analysis devised to suit design explorations, the Video Card Game, was used to capture and analyse how gesture is used in the context of six different domains: the dentist's office; PDA and mobile phone use; the experimental biologist's laboratory; a city ferry service; a video cassette player repair shop; and a factory flowmeter assembly station. Findings are presented in the form of gestural themes, derived from the tradition of qualitative analysis but bearing some similarity to Alexandrian patterns. Implications for the design of gestural devices are discussed.

Usability of a mobile, group communication prototype while rendezvousing

Mobile phones are increasingly being used collaboratively by social networks of users in spite of the fact that they are primarily designed to support single users and one-to-one communication. It is not well understood how services such as group SMS, SMS-based discussion lists and mobile instant messaging (IM) will be used by mobile groups in natural settings. Studying specific instances of common styles of in situ, group interaction may provide a way to see behavior patterns and typical interaction problems. We conducted a study of a mobile, group communication probe used during a rendezvousing activity in an urban environment. Usability problems relating to group usage, phone interface design and context were identified. Several major issues included: multitasking during message composition and reading; speed of text entry; excessive demand on visual attention; and ambiguity of intended recipients. We suggest that existing mobile device designs are overly-focused on individual users to the detriment of usability for mobile groups of users. We provide recommendations for the design of future mobile, group interfaces, used in similar situations to those explored here