Service offers online configuration of mobile phones

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 07 May 2009 08:58

IT Industry - Strategy

Australia has become the first overseas market to get the UK's Configuremyphone.com service. It claims to "offer a solution to the millions of Australians who struggle to manually set-up their mobile phones for services such as email, Internet browsing and picture messaging," but for what purports to be an established service, it seems to be bit rough around the edges.

According to Configuremyphone, "One in five Australian mobile users has experienced the disappointment of an error message when trying to send a picture, download a mobile game or use their phone to surf the Internet. Even more suffer problems when trying to set-up their phone to access an email account. Many of these errors are caused by incomplete or missing settings on the phone."

Configuremyphone is owned and operated by WDSGlobal, a company established in 1995 and claiming to be a pioneer in the field of specialist data service support for the mobile industry. Its main business initially was as an outsourced support service provider for tier one handset manufacturers and operators looking to outsource data support services, with a specific focus on handling complex customer queries relating to the set-up, usage and troubleshooting of mobile devices and services.

Configuremyphone, launched in the UK last year, automatically installs the requested settings on a user's phone for $3.50 (plus standard network SMS charge). Users enter details of their phone, network and the settings they want to configure via a web interface. The service is available for customers of 3, Optus, Telstra, Virgin, Vodafone, AAPT, AUSTAR, Boost Mobile, Crazy Johns, GRL Mobile, Soul and SlimTel.
 
According to Configuremyphone, the settings are then delivered to the phone. The whole process typically takes less than 90 seconds and removes the need for any complicated set-up."

So, I gave it a try: email settings for my Optus-connected Nokia N95. Well first of all after selecting phone and carrier it asked us to select 'plan'. The only option presented was 'Optus Internet'. That would probably confuse most people for whom 'plan' means $49 per month capped plan or some such.

Then it asked for email address. It seems the only ones that work are those on public systems such as gmail. I tried my itwire.com address and two other on private systems, and it recognised none of these, only my gmail account.

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