An uncalled-for extension service
Sales agents for China Unicom in Shanghai claim to have extended to retail consumers a new service that was once offered only by rival China Mobile to its corporate users. Based on a 58 yuan monthly package, the new service will give Unicom customers a main mobile 'switchboard' number that could host up to four to five extension numbers.
Controlled by interactive voice response, callers to these Unicom subscribers have to dial the extension number to the computer system, after which the call will be directed to the respective Unicom subscribers. Callers can choose to directly dial the assigned mobile number of that Unicom customer. The agent said China Mobile had offered the service to corporate customers because it provided convenience to managers, for example, who wanted to call their team members frequently.
But with the majority of the mobile phone's memory input system designed to directly dial out a number, the service would require some memorising work for callers: they should be ready to memorise the extension numbers to get to the right person.
RIVALs promise secure mobile transactions
A new battlefield has been drawn by Hong Kong mobile operators competing on their capability to deliver a secured mobile transaction. SmarTone-Vodafone has recently partnered with the Hong Kong Jockey Club to offer an enhanced version of its mobile betting service that claims to be the first operator to apply digital certificate-based technology on mobile platforms to offer a secured, non-repudiable betting service over the mobile internet. The service is available for 2G and 3G phones.
