3G tech linked to economy

There are growing indications of a direct link between the timely adoption of 3G mobile technologies and economic growth, states ITWire.

Professor Gary Madden, director of Curtin Business School's communication economics and electronic markets research centre, says while investment in 3G technologies can have a positive impact on economic growth, government policies that delay the investment process can cause substantial economic loss.

Professor Madden says the Western Australian University was involved in a five-year multi-million dollar research project to study the benefits of 3G mobile technology adoption. The research will be conducted in conjunction with prominent universities in Thailand, Sweden and Japan with funding from various telecommunications organisations in those countries.

Softbank Mobile plans to equip 1 000 Japanese elementary-school children with GPS phones to test how cellphones can help track the spreading of an infectious disease, says CNET News.

This is part of the Japanese government's effort to promote Japan's Internet and cellular infrastructure to new users. This government-backed experiment uses a virtual sickness that is highly contagious.

A few months from now, a few students will be chosen to be "infected" with this sickness. Their movements will then be tracked via their cellphones and compared with other students. Stored GPS data can then be used to determine which children have crossed paths with the infected students.

Continua Health Alliance has selected Bluetooth low energy and ZigBee low power wireless standards for inclusion in the next version of its interoperability design guidelines, reports Electronics News.

The healthcare and technology group says the selection of the standards will allow additional devices used for health and fitness to join the Continua ecosystem.

The two wireless technology standards will support mobile and fixed location devices as defined by the next iteration of the design guidelines.