IT-Review

Bregenz Become World's First "Mobile City"

Bregenz, in the western Austrian province of Voralberg, has become the World's first mobile city, which residents and visitors are now able to park, shop, buy tickets and obtain information via their mobile handsets.

mobilkom austria used its experience in developing and rolling out innovative mobile communications solutions to provide flexible and efficient access to local services for the residents of and visitors to Bregenz. By dialing just one number, customers can register to m-parking, train/event ticketing and A1 Quick Shop services as well as access a plethora of useful information on Bregenz. Payment for all services can be made either via mobile phone bills, paybox or bank accounts.

mobilkom austria's system is characterized by convenient, trouble-free parking, open to all mobile subscribers regardless of network operator, as well as the ability to park via text messages in every Austrian m-parking community.

m-parking considerably simplifies parking area management, since drivers need nothing more than their mobile to pay parking fees. One text message is all that it takes to purchase a parking voucher for any type of vehicle. Charging a parking credit ahead of time is not required.

mobilkom austria provides access to Quick Shop services - an Austrian e-commerce platform based on a network of partner retailers - to customers of all domestic mobile communications operators via text messages and WAP. Users can place orders regardless of time and place by simply sending a text message with the corresponding product code and the desired item will be delivered directly to their home by the retailer.

mobilkom austria first launched A1 SMS TICKET in Austria in 2002. Since then the service has established itself as a quick and simple ticketing system on the Austrian market - in the year 2003 alone roughly 40,000 SMS TICKETS were sold. This eliminates the need to queue up at the box-office or to pick up the tickets. Simply by sending the name of the desired event or artist per text message, an electronic ticket will be sent directly onto the mobile phone.

Information about the city of Bregenz is also available to tourists and citizens via mobile handsets. By entering keywords such as "Festival" users can access the latest information about ``Bregenz Festival`` via M-Cityinfo. There are keywords relating to all important topics in Bregenz, including events and community information. In addition, customers can also subscribe to a Bregenz newsletter and be informed regularly on selected topics.

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