Global businesses have big plans for mobile handsets. That’s according to UK research firm Coleman Parkes Research. Seven out of 10 expect to be using mobile VoIP within two years and many are already a variety of business applications. But with the new flexibility comes a whole new dimension of security and management challenges. Robert Jacques at vunet.com has the story.

But while businesses see huge benefits to mobile VoIP, mobile carriers have been circling the wagons, blocking mobile VoIP calls and writing restrictive terms into their contracts. Now UK mobile VoIP provider Vyke is fighting back with a standalone software upgrade that circumvents the removal of handset VoIP capabilities by carriers.

“The incumbent mobile network operators must be feeling very threatened by mobile VoIP,” observed Vyke Communications CEO Kjetil Bøhn in today’s press release. “In the short amount of time that this immerging technology has been in the market, they have already responded by removing VoIP capabilities from mobile handsets that they sell and by introducing very restrictive contract terms prohibiting their customers from using their networks to access services such as VoIP and third party peer-to-peer messaging clients. Vyke has been dedicating itself to circumventing these obstructionist tactics by developing our own stand-alone mobile VoIP application as well as providing access to large scale wireless networks on behalf of our customers.”

Even sweeter for customers, Vyke’s agreement last month with WiFi hotspot provider The Cloud Networks gives subscribers free access through any of the Cloud’s 9,500 UK and European hotspots.

Spanish WiFi company Fon says it has given away 7,000 routers to people living next to a Starbucks to encourage them to provide free or cheap Internet access to the ubiquitous café’s customers. Not surprisingly, the program is called Fonbucks. Mark Kapco at RCR Wireless News has the story.

Last week Truphone announced a whole slew of new features including SMS over IP for unlimited free texting, automatic WiFi network connection, and support for multiple SIM cards.

Steve Jobs has a solution for the AT&T’s sluggish Internet connection, which he outlined in a June 29 Wall Street Journal interview: “What we’ve done with the iPhone is we’ve made it so that it will automatically switch to a known Wi-Fi network whenever it finds it. So you don’t have to go hunting around, resetting the phone, flipping a switch or doing anything. Most of us have Wi-Fi networks around us most of the time at home and at work. There’s often times a Wi-Fi network that you can join whether you’re sitting in a coffee shop or even walking along the street piggybacking on somebody’s home Wi-Fi network. What we found is the combination is working really well.”

I particularly like the part about piggybacking on someone else’s home network. Sounds like the wonder boy of Cupertino lives in a separate ethical universe from the rest of us mere mortals. One where it might be OK to, say, share music online without paying iTunes $.99.

Industry disruption specialist Jajah is jumping on the Apple iPhone bandwagon to promote its mobile Jajah service. This isn’t anything new, but it’s certainly timely to remind customers — if they can get the iPhone service connected, of course — that there is an alternative to AT&T’s extortionate rates.

Now that the cell phone is your fifth most reliable appendage — Viagra notwithstanding — you naturally want to be able to access and do everything else with it, like contact and deploy your weightier less-portable electronic footprint. Transmedia is in the ring for you with GlideMobile — its new information management system that’s designed to let you reach and use every file on your PC, Mac and Linux computers, personal and professional.

It also seeks to remove the need for secondary mobile computing devices like, for a timely example, the much touted iPhone. GlideMobile’s advantage lies in its technological end run around the desire of hardware manufacturers to want you to buy more hardware.

Even if you slept on the pavement to cop the iPhone, Transmedia is betting that you’ve merely added another device to your existing collection of phones and, er…all that other stuff requiring a wheeled Timu briefcase.
“If you buy a device like the iPhone, the odds are you’ll still need your Blackberry because of keyboard and format incompatibilities,” says Donald Leka, CEO of Transmedia.

“Many people already have an iPod. With the addition of the iPhone, you could end up with things like two or three MP3 players. Your BlackBerry doesn’t let you easily get to your Mac. GlideMobile is basically software that lets you buy less hardware and pick only the hardware you want without sacrificing any of their capabilities. It serves things up to you on your phone in the correct format.”

Glide’s browser-based software means you need no installed software. You access Glidemobile from your cellphone browser at http://www.GlideMobile.com and voilá — now your cellphone is your PC, just like that.

Depending on the sophistication of your handset, connecting to Glide’s media sharing platform makes it possible for you to edit and buy photos, create and convert documents to Word and PDF formats, and share files from your collection of computers from whatever undisclosed location you and your handset are in, including your car or the plane.

The core of Glidemobile today is that it’s all browser-based through your phone, according to Leka.

“What it does is let you bypass a lot of the restrictions imposed by the carriers and lets you access your advanced functions. You can create and publish Web sites from your phone. You can share multimedia — say four or five movies — let’s say one hundred MBs from your phone. GlideSync lets you synchronize your contacts, calendars, bookmarks, photos, music, video, and documents from your desktop to your phone.”

By July 31, GlideMobile will expand its browser-based application suite with local BREW and Java applications for download to your handset with local file syncing and media playback, photo and video capture.

“Right now, in order to use Glide on your cell phone you have to have a network connection,” Leka explains. “But say you’re on a plane and you don’t have that network connection. With Glide’s upcoming local applications, you’ll continue to be able to work.

“Coming up, you’ll be seeing mini-spreadsheets and other productivity applications. Over time, we want to recreate and make all those applications available locally on the phone for those times when you don’t have a network connection. That way, you’re never left out in the cold.”

And if your undisclosed location will support a party and your handset happens to support streaming media — namely, a T-Mobile Wing, Samsung Blackjack or Palm Treo — you can really be happening because GlideMobile turns your phone into a music or video jukebox. Oh, and right now, you get two gigabytes of storage free when you sign up.

To see a list of the many handsets GlideMobile supports, go to www.GlideMobile.com.

Last week I spent some time at DealMaker Media’s latest “Under the Radar” parade of tech startups. It’s sort of an “American Idol” for entrepreneurs where a selected group of startups pitch their products to an audience of investors, industry giants, and, of course, press. The theme of last week’s event was Entertainment and Media.

In the midst of all the talk about monetization, metrics and the ever-present long tail, one company caught my attention, Fora.tv. Not because of the company’s technology, which is pleasantly unobtrusive and requires no plug-ins.

It’s Fora’s content that sets the company apart from the rest of the IPTV herd.

You see, Fora’s founder Brian Gruber thinks there just might be an audience out there for serious insight and information on demand. You could call it the thinking person’s YouTube, with offerings like New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt’s recent talk at the Commonwealth Club, “Iraq & Afghanistan: A Reporter’s Perspective” or Web 2.0 critic Andrew Keen speaking at Stacey’s Books on his book “The Cult of the Amateur.” All Fora’s content is professionally produced, further distinguishing Fora from YouTube and ktye.tv style offerings.

“We think there’s a deep frustration around the world with television news,” says Brian Gruber, Fora.tv CEO. “World leaders, cultural leaders, scholars, now they’re being aggregated in one place in a neighborhood they want to be in.”

Gruber is an expert on non-mainstream media. He launched C-SPAN II, led the marketing divisions of several cable TV companies, and is also the founder of the media consulting firm G/Media.

However, as enthusiastic as I was about Fora, the gurus and financiers on the evaluation panel — guys (and they were all guys, without exception) who might be expected to think ever-so-slightly outside the box — were dubious about the prospects of an IPTV channel without any Paris Hilton footage or skateboarding clips. It was clear that the mindset was no different from that of broadcast TV execs: aim for the lowest common denominator.

So enjoy it while you can. With guys like this writing the checks, it’s only a matter of time before IPTV is just like…TV.

Another offering that also focuses on professional content is Zattoo, which brings broadcast TV to your desktop or laptop through its peer-to-peer network. Zattoo lets you watch in a window — it doesn’t take over the computer — and no extra equipment is needed.

But you’re not going to be watching “Hardball” on the computer just yet. Right now Zattoo TV is available only in Europe. A mashup between Fora and Zattoo would make a lot of sense.

Back to the Internet video that everyone understands, Ustream.tv wants to usher in the age of live interactive video so you “take things beyond the watching experience to engaging the viewer,” according to investor Chris Yeh. You can watch the Pentagon Channel Live here. Or “I Saw Your Mom on the Internet.” Or patypegorin sitting in front of her computer for 25 minutes.

If you’re looking for another use for your game console after you tire of playing Grand Theft Auto, moowee.tv lets you watch Internet video (yes, those Paris videos) on your TV set via any browser-equipped game console like the Nintendo Wii.

Founded by former Netscapers, Multiverse aims to be the Netscape of virtual worlds with a platform that will drive down development cost and effort. The intended market isn’t just gaming, but also real-world applications like training and education. Driver training comes to my mind, perhaps because I have a 16- year old who just got a learner’s permit.

Postscript: DealMaker’s Under the Radar blogprovides informative overviews and insights about new technology and companies.