Currently, access to the network of services is done either via browsers that enable internet connections or through protocols that are designed exclusively for mobile networks. The next generation of telephony networks will be based on IP protocols, thus enabling the convergence of services between networks and mobiles. As part of this, another of the projects that Vodafone Group R&D (an organisation with extensive knowledge about mobile and internet platforms) is working on is the development of a new platform to enable programmers to incorporate internet services into mobile telephones. The "SIP stack for mobile devices" is a research project based on the principles of open source code which everybody can freely access and provide improvements to the platform.
Version 1.0 of “SIP stack for mobile devices" is already available and incorporates basic functionality. Vodafone Group R&D is working with “Instrumentación y Componentes (Inycom)”, an Aragon-based Technological company, on a new and advanced version that will enable the simple development of services that offer developers high-level functionality such as presence and messaging.

You will find this project In the Betavine’s Forge.

https://forge.betavine.net/projects/sipstack/

Some of us have seen a lot of changes in the technological word and I have to say that most of them have surprised me.

In some way the business and the technological world evolve together with changing rules which are very difficult to ascertain. Some people have taken the risk of saying which technologies have greater possibilities of being accepted and being widely used in the future. Open source was a good example.

I venture to say that the online services trend will be one of the most important changes in the following years. For me this concept includes online-desktop, web-based desktops and other initiatives which solve all user's desktop necessities in an integrated way. A sign of this is that Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Red Hat and other organizations are changing the way of giving services from the local operating system to the web. Presently business cases, technology and usability are being solved and we will shortly see new proposals related to this.

Services are the most important issue and this new concept will give users a better service.

I am concerned about open services. There are some valuable discussions about open services but few examples on the internet. "What open services are going to be" is an interesting issue and from my point of view the service's policy has to be the key to define an open service, in the same way that a licence defines open source software.
From this point we can discuss what an open service is and even if the service's policy is the right way to define it. However at present doing things is far more important than simply speaking about issues.

An open source definition I like is:
Open source is a community-based, interactive, incremental, and evolutionary software development methodology that emphasizes experimentation and experience over planning and formal design.
Following the essence of this definition I would like to comment that theory is important but presently what is more important is learning to walk and benefiting from our experience.

Successful business cases in this area are indispensable not just at the beginning but also in the medium term and we can only get experience launching projects and studying their behaviour on the internet.

We will try to create a framework to go ahead with this idea and we will show our conclusions on this blog. Any collaboration to develop this trend will be welcome.

Software as a tool is essential but by itself, it is nothing. Linux is important because this operating system is giving us a service, a service for final users. Firefox allows us to go through the Internet. Open Office and other successful open source projects are giving us a service or allow other communities to give us a final utility.

We are going to find services in the Internet, some of which have been built using open source software, others on proprietary platforms and both will be part of the Internet for a long time.
The telecommunication operators are giving services to their costumers and our interest is in giving these costumers the best services. While the software is important because it allows us to do that, the software licence (The licence differentiates between the open source and the proprietary software) is of no great importance.

It is important that the community discusses services and free services instead of software because they are the key to maintaining the same innovative capacity as the open source trend. From my point of view, a clear example to follow is Wikipedia which is without doubt a reference in the internet.

Wikipedia and most of the wiki projects run on the same GPL-ed free software, called MediaWiki. Wikipedia and Mediawiki are two different projects the first is focused on the content and Mediawiki is focused on the software.

Thousands of wikis have been implemented in local networks and in the Internet. Wiki trends are leading the innovation and changing our way of getting information from the Internet and of course our way of working. Wikipedia is giving us an invaluable service.

If you have an interest in seeing Wikipedia from a mobile you can do it at:
http://en.wap.wikipedia.org/

There is no doubt that new services for Internet users will arise from the open source community and some of them will be in the mobile area. Wikipedia is a good example to follow so we should learn from it.

Two months after the project announcement, Vodafone Mobile Connect Card Driver for Linux reaches version 1.0, with a growing user base and usage reported from around the world. The software allows for a simple and easy to use mobile and SMS connections from a Linux PC.

This application eases connecting through Vodafone's GPRS/3G networks, supporting:
- Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04
- Fedora Core 7
- SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.1

Current tested devices include:
- Option GlobeTrotter 3G+ EMEA (PCMCIA)
- Huawei E220 (USB)
- Huawei E620 (PCMCIA)(*1)

Full GPL'd Source code is available to download. The current repository is being migrated as the project shifts it's 'version management system' to Subversion.

There are also backported and experimental packages (testing welcome) for:
- Ubuntu Edgy Edge 6.10
- Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10
- Fedora Core 7
- OpenSuse 10.2
- OpenSuse 10.3
- Guadalinex V4 (0.9.7.3 fully tested) - Andalusia (Spain)
- Guadalinex V4.1 (0.9.7.3 fully tested) - Andalusia (Spain)
- LinEx 2007 (0.9.6 tested) - Debian Etch derivative, Extremadura (Spain)
Go here

Experimental or contributed devices which have been reported to be working to some extent are:
- E270
- Huawei E660A
- Option GlobeSurfer Icon
- Option GT Fusion Quad Lite
- Option GT Max 3.6

This project aims to be community-driven, to satisfy Vodafone's customers needs all over the world. You can contribute and share your opinions,translations and code through our forums and mailing lists.

There's a 2.0 branch being worked, which includes a major revamp of the application's internals aiming for:
- Decoupling user interface and program logic, to allow command-line and non-GTK+ usage
- Pluggable device support
- Pluggable response to connection's events
- Getting rid of Linuxisms, allowing multi-platform usage

You can download the application from Here.

For more information or how to contribute please click on
Betavine source-forge

Main contributions come from:
- Junta de Andalucia
- Warp Networks
- Emergya
- Vodafone

(*1) Please note that some datacards like Huawei E620 and Huawei E630 trigger regressions on most recent kernels. See
Bugzilla Report