Guardian communications editor Richard Wray is in Barcelona this week for 3GSM - the mobile industry's annual get-together. Thankfully for us, he's reporting back every day for Technology Blog - click here for his updates.
For the telecoms press pack much of the first day of 3GSM was spent chasing Indian mobile executives for reaction to Vodafone's swoop on India's fourth largest mobile operator Hutchison-Essar. The GSM Association's own press conference to announce plans to take mobile payment services to developing countries was hijacked as Sunil Mittal, head of Vodafone's current Indian partner Bharti Airtel was present. (for his reaction see the story in the Business section).
Generally delegates to the conference felt that Vodafone's move to grab a slice of a rapidly growing market is the right thing to do, although the company will have its work cut out making a serious return on its investment.
And finally, to see Google's head of mobile Deep Nishar for a quick update on the Mountain View giant's mobile plans.
Unlike last year when mobile operator after mobile operator was announcing a tie-up with the company, Google has been relatively quiet this year, excepting a deal with Vodafone to bring its maps application to mobile users.
The company is continuing to test out the potential of mobile search. It is running trial services with over a dozen operators but so far has only launched properly in Japan. That said, Mr Nishar did have one interesting anecdote which highlights the potential importance of the mobile internet in countries where fixed line networks are never going to reach past major metropolitan areas.
One of his colleagues, who was on safari in Kenya and wearing a Google T-shirt, was accosted by a local shop owner who said he was a massive fan of the company's news service. Mr Nishar's co-worker pointed out that he could now get the service on a mobile phone to which the shop owner replied "Err, how else would I get it?".
