Leading Australian mobile infrastructure provider SOPRANO Design has launched “SOPRANO MobileNanny” to coincide with 3GSM World Congress. “SOPRANO Mobile Nanny?” is targeted at assisting Mobile Network Operators (MNO) in filtering and labeling content for selection by their customers. “SOPRANO MobileNanny enables MNOs to provide fine-grained opt-in access control services to their customers, supporting a range of applications including restricting access to certain content categories (e.g. adult, violence, gambling), blocking SPAM, and blocking access to unmoderated mobile chat services” said Dr Richard Favero, CEO at SOPRANO.
As mobile data technology advances and new markets develop, an increasing variety of mobile content and applications is becoming available. Internet and voice telephony customers have long been able to block access to certain content, to protect themselves and their families. It is now becoming increasingly incumbent on MNOs to provide their customers with a similar capability to control their access to particular content and applications as mobile handsets cannot be modified to provide this protection.
A key benefit of the SOPRANO MobileNanny platform is that subscribers can utilise the service to limit the exposure of themselves, their children or their employees to material which they may consider inappropriate, offensive or harmful. SOPRANO MobileNanny also enables them to limit access to high-cost premium phone services, and provides a convenient way to block mobile-based SPAM.
SOPRANO MobileNanny access control capabilities cover all major content types, in both “push” and “pull” directions – SMS, Premium SMS, MMS, WAP, Java / Brew downloads, video and HTTP. “A key feature of the platform is self-management,” said Tim Batten, SOPRANO?s VP Global Products. “The platform enables content to be classified and rated by the content providers themselves, the MNO or third parties. Customers can then manage their access profile with a simple Internet Interface”. The entire SOPRANO MobileNanny service can be also re-branded by a third party.
According to Denis Nelthorpe, a leading Victorian consumer advocate, “Now that we have a much more mature industry, customer protection is almost as important as market share to MNOs. Industry should look to provide consumer protection solutions, as industry has most knowledge and capacity to deal with these problems. The way forward is the provision of better customer service and protection, including the use of technology to assist young consumers, and an ongoing industry commitment to the development of ethical standards”.
“MNOs can utilise SOPRANO MobileNanny as a market differentiator”, Favero pointed out. “The service can generate extra revenue, but more importantly, by implementing SOPRANO MobileNanny, Mobile Network Operators can demonstrate their social responsibility to their customers (consumer and corporate), their shareholders, their community and their regulators”.