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A review of relevant literature reveals a great deal of information on the possible use of cell phones for Internet access via the emerging wireless application protocol (WAP) technology, but little information if any exists about the link between cell phones and libraries. Going by the wide use of wireless networks in libraries especially in Western countries, it is possible that as cell phone technology continues to evolve and mature it could have a significant impact on libraries in the same way the Internet did. Ironically, today, a review of cell phone use in libraries only reveals efforts that are being made to dissuade users from making or receiving calls on their handsets within libraries. Few efforts are geared towards exploring ways that cell phone technology could be used to enhance library operations. Attempts to demonstrate that cell phones may in future provide solutions to libraries’ problems of connectivity especially in the remote areas of the Southern African Development Community member states.

At present the energy generation and distribution landscape is changing rapidly. The energy grid is becoming increasingly smart, relying on an information network for the purposes of monitoring and optimization. However, because of the particularly stringent regulatory and technical constraints posed by smart grids, it is not possible to use ordinary communication protocols. The purpose of this paper is to revisit such constraints, reviewing the various options available today to realize smart‐metering networks.

After describing the regulatory, technological and stakeholders' constraints, the authors provide a taxonomy of network technologies, discussing their suitability and weaknesses in the context of smart‐metering systems. The authors also give a snapshot of the current standardization panorama, identifying key differences among various geographical regions.

It is found that the field of smart‐metering networks still consists of a fragmented set of standards and solutions, leaving open a number of issues relating to the design and deployment of suitable systems.

This paper addresses the need to better understand state‐of‐the‐art and open issues in the fast‐evolving area of smart energy grids, with particular attention to the challenges faced by communication engineers.

Unravels the main points of the mobile telecoms industry that are likeliest to change, discussing prospects for diffusion of third generation technology. Illustrates the main factors likely to change in the mobile telecoms industry in the next few years and looks at its evolution. Uses figures to aid in explanation and concludes that predictions of how the industry will proceed are difficult to make at the present time.

Outlines the development of third‐generation (3G) mobile networks. Addresses the issues of licence methodology (allocation of licences). Concludes that WAP phones are likely to end up as a low‐margin basic product superseded by GPRs, thereby resolving the bandwidth problem.

The paper aims to give an introduction to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with near field communication (NFC) to enable users to access content and services with hand‐held devices. It also aims to give a general overview on RFID utilization, its obstacles, diffusion and expected benefits. Some pilot applications are already being used commercially. Finally, it seeks to summarize applications of the technology in the facilties management (FM) industry.

The paper uses literary research and also interdisciplinary specialist analyses to find out the usage of IT‐based services in the FM field and supply of service providers. Some real pilots have been made and analysed in cooperation with service providers (FM and IT), building owners and building users (customers).

Mobile phones are heavily used in the FM industry for speech and text messaging (SMS) communications, but usage of other mobile phone services has not been established as a part of operation processes. The exploitation of RFID in FM as well as construction industry seems to be rather low, in fact in an infant stage. Accordingly pilot FM service using RFID technology proved to be very usable.

IT‐based mobile services are common in many countries and in various industries but using a mobile phone as a RFID reader is familiar mostly in Finland (Nokia phone).

The use of RFID/NFC technology in FM and also in the construction industry seems to be very prominent with high potential technology adoption for improving services.

This paper brings forward a quite novel technology application for the FM industry and presents the experiences of real pilot projects.

Michael Porter's Five Forces Model provides an ideal mechanism and framework to study the Oman telecommunications industry's competitive structure. The purpose of this paper is to use this model to identify the competitive forces that affect it the most.

This paper is based on empirical research. The data were collected primarily from secondary sources such as published interviews of chief executive officers of the telecommunication companies in Oman, government reports, and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Oman (TRA). The authors then used Michael Porter's five forces model to investigate the competitiveness of the telecommunication industry in Oman.

The analysis shows that the strongest competitive forces in the industry are rivalry among competitors and threat of substitutes. While the threat of entry and power of buyers also having a significant impact, the power of suppliers is of very limited impact. Hence, the five forces model impacts uniformly on all the players in Oman's telecommunication market and have important strategy implications for them all. The results of this analysis are then used as a critical tool to formulate effective strategies for industry players in the face of the changing dynamics of telecommunication services industry in Oman.

This study is one of the few papers that attempted to study the telecommunication industry in Oman in depth. However, this is the first research study that investigated the competitive landscape of this industry using an established framework such as Michael Porter's five forces model. As such, the study brought to light new insights and paradigms in competing in the telecommunication industry in Oman. This study also suggests new strategic directives to the incumbents, new entrants, buyers and suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze mobile tethering from technological and social perspectives. Mobile tethering allows us to share cellular data connection with others over WiFi, Bluetooth or USB. Although the technology is ready and has promising outcomes, service providers and the users still keep their distance. Therefore, the incentives for the users and service providers should be identified.

Technical challenges in terms of energy and bandwidth consumption are explored using an application specifically developed for mobile tethering. Usage issues are studied through conjoint analysis, in which we analyze the importance of technical aspects as well as social conditions for sharing data connection with others.

The research shows that although energy, bandwidth and security are important technical challenges, users are mainly concerned about social aspects, such as with whom the connection will be shared, rather than monetary issues. Mobile tethering is a viable cooperative service, only when users are familiar with the person with whom the data connection is being shared.

In the technical evaluation of the mobile tethering application, only Android operating systems are being used. Other operating systems (e.g. iOS) may perform differently. Moreover, only a small fraction of smartphones and tablets has been tested.

Service providers tend to block mobile tethering technology, as they do not have control and do not expect to gain revenues. However, service providers have the abilities to satisfy the security and privacy concerns of the users and can create secure femtocells for their customers.

Mobile tethering performance results indicate that more people can access the Internet while they are mobile even if they do not have cellular data subscription. More Internet-based services can be offered to people while they roam in other countries.

For technology developers, both the key technical issues and the concerns of the consumers are highlighted. Future applications must contain reliable security and privacy protocols in their design. Moreover, the significance of the social networks is shown in the decision-making of the use of mobile tethering, especially with respect to the credit exchange.

Internet and GSM have become the dominant designs for information and communication technology (ICT) industries in the late 1990s. Internet protocol (IP) is the dominant standard for cost effective networking and new interactive broadband services. GSM (2G) is currently the dominant cellular technology and it is the basis of GSM, GPRS (2.5G) and UMTS (3G), the GSM‐continuum of standards. The marriage of broadband internet and mobile has created open questions on which are the future winning wireless standards. Will mobile internet be based on the GSM‐continuum or on US wireless developments such as WLAN and WiMAX? In longer time‐scale the Mobile Ad‐hoc Network (MANET) which does not use any preinstalled communications infrastructure may also become a cost‐effective challenger to infrastructure based networks. The paper seeks to address these issues.

The paper elaborates these questions with the aim to provide an analytically clarifying conceptualisation of the competitive relationships between 3G, WLAN/WiMAX and the emerging MANET opportunities both in network and application perspectives. By considering the interaction of the possible competitive regimes we analyze the disruptive capabilities of new solutions to become substitutes to the existing ones.

There are a number of open issues in the WLAN/WiMAX and MANET architectures, which require further work and global standardization. For the while, the integration of the personal applications to the GSM continuum seems to be the most potential approach to import internet to the mobile world. However, there is no winner yet, and the author strongly believes that a new wave of innovations may come around these lines and that these developments will also change the mobile technology and services landscape.

The paper contributes with a systemantic analysis of the competition between 3G, WLAN/WiMAX and ad hoc network technologies. A novelty in the analysis is that it incorporates both network access technologies and applications.

Disaster management information systems (DMISs) have been proposed in different parts of the world for effective response to a disaster. The purpose of this paper is to: compare design approaches of these DMISs; examine similarities in the design of databases and communication infrastructure; and draw conclusions. Based on the examination of the studies, future opportunities have been identified and discussed.

The studies in the available literature on the designs of automated DMISs have been reviewed in the presented paper to identify similarities in design premise, conceptual design and design considerations.

The examination of the available studies indicates that the research on DMIS has increased significantly in different countries of the world since 2004. Data of baseline information and available resources are required by most of the presented studies, as these data are necessary for effective response to a disaster. The communication infrastructures suggested include local area network, wide area network and satellite communication for better coordination between the responders and different relief agencies at different locations. The connectivity to these networks is possible through Ethernet, Wi-Fi, general packet radio service or satellite.

Although the research on DMIS has increased significantly over the last one decade, the studies are still few in numbers. Similarly, only few of the proposed systems have been developed and tested during a real disaster.

The presented review of available studies provides a holistic view of the proposed DMISs which could be useful to the disaster management authorities.

The paper provides valuable information on the differences in the proposed DMISs. This can help in identifying the gaps for future improvements for increased effectiveness of a DMIS. The future opportunities have also been identified in the presented paper and are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to present the integration of logistic management with information and communication technologies to largely improve the effectiveness of logistic fleet operations. The work presented here shows a real‐world fleet management system that integrates mobile communication and supports real‐time logistic information flow management.

First, the application of information and mobile communication technologies in providing effective logistic distribution service is introduced. Then, the proposed real‐time fleet management system (RTFMS) architecture is depicted, the technology profiles for mobile data terminal (MDT) and logistic information system are described, and the considerations of various wireless mobile communication technologies for logistic distribution process are also addressed. Finally, the implications of this paper are discussed and plans for further work are outlined.

The proposed architecture for a real‐world logistic fleet management system, the RTFMS, can be served as reference architecture for real‐time logistic fleet management design. The major components of the RTFMS have been described in UML use cases to facilitate reuse of this design. This paper presents the RTFMS architecture with associated information flows and timing considerations could be used for the architecture adaptation in similar applications. Wireless technologies provide the logistics feet management with bi‐directional real‐time information flows as shown in this paper, and this would stimulate new ideas in logistics management and services models.

This paper provides a reference model with implementation in adopting wireless technologies in logistics distribution process. However, the services provided by each specific system would depend on all stakeholders in specific chain of logistics service provider and consumer.

The work presented here shows a real‐world fleet management system that integrates mobile communication and supports real‐time logistic information flow management.