History
Mobile commerce was coined in the late 1990s during the dot-com boom. The idea that highly profitable mobile commerce applications would be possible through the broadband mobile telephony provided by 2.5G and 3G cellphone services was one of the main reasons for hundreds of billions of dollars in licensing fees paid by European telecommunications companies for UMTS and other 3G licenses in 2000 and 2001.
PDAs and cellular phones have become so popular that many businesses are beginning to use m-commerce as a more efficient method of reaching the demands of their customers. Although technological trends and advances are concentrated in Asia and in Europe, North America (Canada and the United States) is also beginning to experiment with early-stage m-commerce.
The recent alliance between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire for WiMAX networks being built for completion by 2008 will acclerate the more data-intensive 4G networks that will provide a turning point in m-commerce in North America.The forthcoming spectrum auction by FCC, scheduled for early 2008, portends major auction rule changes that are geared for more consumer options and less control by telecom operators as “network gatekeepers”. The auction rule changes are being pushed by Google, irking Verizon Wireless and AT&T and signifying a big change coming to m-commerce