Shanghai Daily news

Mobile phone maniacs will feel right at home at World Expo 2010, and Shanghai Mobile is giving everyone a taste of mobile technology of the future.

The once-humble mobile, a necessity for modern life, is far more than a communications tool. It's a lifestyle component, not just an accessory, with its cameras, sound recorders, and online connections. It can even be used as a remote control for landscape lighting in the city.

It will do much more than that during the Shanghai Expo.

The scope of mobile phone technology is now on display at the flagship demonstration hall of Shanghai Mobile, a subsidiary of China Mobile, in Pudong.

China Mobile, a global partner of World Expo, has customized applications of numerous technologies for the event.

At the hall's Expo area, visitors don't have to buy paper tickets to enter.

After booking online, visitors receive a picture of a special two-dimensional bar code in their mobile phones. When they arrive at the entrance, they just open the file, place the mobile phone on the sensor, and all the information is read by a scanner.

In the gift shop, there is no need to line up at payment counters. Visitors can use their mobile phone cameras to take photos of the two-dimensional bar code on items they want to buy. If they confirm the payment, the money will be taken from the "mobile phone bank," which has already been widely used by the public to buy movie tickets and pay bills.

The two-dimensional bar code has a bigger volume, lower cost and is harder to crack. However, application of the technology may require better mobile phones, such as those with high-quality cameras.

Another new technology called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) also will be available to Expo visitors.

RFID can be used to purchase tickets to big events such as the Olympic Games and World Expo as it transmits a unique serial number through radio waves to identify an object or person.

With an RFID card, visitors will be able to go to certain terminals on the Expo site to find their location and check which pavilions they have already visited.

They will be able to see in advance if pavilions they plan to visit are crowded. Information about pavilions, activities and bookings for pavilion entrance will also be available.

For Expo organizers, how to manage the event most effectively and how to provide the best services are keys to success.

A remote-control system will help organizers turn lights on or off in the Expo site, with just a click of a mobile phone.

Controling LCD advertising screens with mobile phones works with more than 7,000 boards in the city.

"The system will have high security protections to ensure that only authorized mobile phones can control them," an official with Shanghai Mobile said.

China Mobile became an Expo global partner in 2006, and decided last October to build a corporate pavilion. The company has pledged to provide "high-quality, reliable and smooth" communications for the fair and its expected 70 million visitors.

Driven by an increase in new subscribers, China Mobile's revenue jumped 20.9 percent last year. The turnover of the world's largest wireless operator by network capacity and subscriber base reached 357 billion yuan (US$50.36 million) in 2007 year on year. China added 8.5 million mobile-phone subscribers for a total of 555.8 million by the end of January, according to official data.