Linuxlookup.com is reporting on famous Norwegian hacker “DVD-Jon” wants to turn the mobile phone world upside down. In an article in Norwegian daily “Dagens Næringsliv” Jon’s father Per Johan Johansen says “It’s simply a new way to use the net. With the new software we have developed, your mobile phone will be able to do all new things. Telenor and Netcom [two major Norwegian mobile operators] will hate this. They will panic, as this will give a whole new pricing system on services.“
DVD-Jon plans mobile phone revolution?
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Does anyone happen to read norwegian?
…and I don’t see an English translation. Babelfish doesn’t do Norwegian.
I don’t know how Telenor and Netcom charge for connect time or data now, but if they change thier pricing to always charge per x Bytes transmitted/recieved they can make money no matter what data service you offer.
PS. Does anyone know of an English version of the full article?
From scanning the norwegian papers, it’s still a bit vague. They’re not spilling the beans on exactly what it is. Voice over IP for cell phones, cheaper ways of doing text messaging and browsing? We won’t be told for another month it seems.
http://bitsofnews.com
The Norwegian daily Dagbladet reports (http://www.dagbladet.no/dinside/2005/04/15/428971.html) that it is indeed an application that will enable you to send text-messages on the cheap.
http://bitsofnews.com
Here’s a quick and dirty translation of the norwegian article: http://www.dn.no/forsiden/etterBors/article484003.ece
The new stunt of DVD-Jon
Jon Lech Johansen have developed a piece of software which makes it possible to use your mobilephone i a totaly new way. The new service will be released in about a month.
(…)
Technically this new service is a combination of the internet, ip-telephony and mobilephone. So far it works on Siemens, Nokia and Ericsson phones, but a solution for other brands are in the works.
(…)
DVD-Jons father, Per Johan Johansen, who is participating in the project, won’t reveal more technical details.
“In short it is a new way of using the net. With this new software we have developet, you can make your mobilephone do new things. Telenor and Netcom (major norwegian tele-companies) will hate this. They will react with panic, because you will get a totaly new pricing for tele services.”
(…)
Daddy Johansen says that he have got two well known norwegian investors on the team. A new company are made, with the Johansen family as owners of 25%, the two norwegian investors as owners of 49%, and yet another foreign companion as owners of 25%, writes Dagens Næringsliv (Daily Business).
i can’t imagine how to trick out pay per byte..other than a whole new compression scheme.
Siemens, Nokia and Sony Ericsson: can they run java or is it arm-binaries?
i hope they’ll have treo-support
I think they’re going to reveal a Personal Transport System called ‘Ginger’.
The regular way SMS’s are priced is Norway is per message often around 0.70 kroner. But by this application which will make it possible to send SMS through GPRS the price of a message will be more like 0.03 kroner, a pretty dramatic lower price.
They could be building voip gateway. you call the LOCAL number with your cellphone, and then from the gateway, you dial a long distance number, and only pay for the local call, as the rest of the call will be routed over VOIP.
or maybe they are building mini cell phone towers that you can connect to, and plan on setting up a mesh type network that your phone can use for free.
Or maybe, the phones will be the mesh network.
or maybe… they are just making really cool ringtones….
Hahaha
I think you guys might have pinned it down. This smells a long way and I wouldn’t rule out a combination of Ginger and ringtones. How about a personal transporter where you can download really cool customized tunes for your horn?
A guys dad talking about changing the world as we know it today throug their new business without revealing details. That’s hardly news but rather a cheap way of marketing. Congrats OS News! I hope the bait was tasty, not to mention the hook, line and sinker.
Still someone has to pay for the infrastructure. The Norwegian landscape isn’t exactly the easiest to “conquer”. Telenor and Netcom will always have to find a way to earn their money.
The Norwegian language is always funny to read, pretty much old time danish with a couple of spelling errors – Unnskyll kjære Nordmenn :p
I think this news is true alright. Not revolutionary in any way – DVD-Jon is probably just using existing techniques in a way the companies won’t because they’ll lose revenue – and the companies really don’t like that
It’s going to be interesting to see what it is – probably nothing more than a cheaper way to do what you’re already doing – but hey… that’s also a rather good thing – considering the prices in Denmark and Norway
…Dagens Næringsliv is not known to come up with fake stories, so I’m sure they’ve taken certain steps to be sure it’s not a piece of BS
One possibility is that whether this is a text compression service, routing over a cheap GPRS, or even a Mesh Network of phone that it would not be really new (But a Mesh Network would be neat as it would not need the cell towers.) that we as seeing the words of a proud father in his famous son.
Some fathers (I know mine was) always hypes up thier children’s successes no matter how minor.
This could be just a proud dad boasting to a newspaper.
I thought it was pretty obvious it’s voip telephony using gprs/g3. Regulary you pay / minute (or / sms), but the price for data transmissions are lower so x minutes of voip communication makes a lower price than a regular phone call.
I’ve also read about techniques(spelling..)/ideas where you have a built in walkie talkie functionallity, that is you don’t even pay / minute of voip talking since you only send something when you actually speak (by pressing a button or so).
I know of at least two similar plays (using GPRS/data to bypass the SMS gateways, and buying SMS bulk from foreign low cost carriers for connectivity to the network, see for instance http://www.javasms.no ). Now, onto two other issues : It’s not new, it’s just hard to market (how many teenagers can you get to sign on downloading special Java apps that don’t interface with your phonebook?). Beyond that, the fact that Dagens Næringsliv reports this makes it just worse. DN’s journalists (and take it from someone who has been featured in their paper – me) are not really techie-smart. Also they are not the best in entrepreneur features, so take it all with a grain of salt.
Not that I don’t wish Jon good luck with this, I really do. Would love to see some of the old establishment having to offer VOIP (oh, wait, they just did..) 😉
Is it just me, or is it always seem to turn badly when some brilliant kids father/uncle/grandpa decides to “develop software with junior”. Notice how his dad says “the software we have developed”. I’m sure he means “the software my sond developed and I am promptly trying to cash in on”.
Anyone who knows anything about the Napster saga knows that the same thing happened to Shawn Fanning at the hands of his crooked, twit uncle.
I’m not the biggest fan of DVD-Jon, but I surely hope he’s not gonna get screwed over on this just because he has talent and blind trust for a loved one.