Truphone selected by the World Economic Forum as Technology Pioneer 2007

We're rather pleased to report that Truphone has been selected by the World Economic Forum as one of 47 Technology Pioneers for 2007.

The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers are companies that have been identified as ‘developing and applying highly transformational and innovative technologies in the areas of energy, biotechnology & health, and information technology’.

This year’s companies were selected not only because of their cutting-edge work, but also because their work has potential long-term impact on business and society. Previous Technology Pioneers include Google and Napster.

We're very flattered!

Now... we'll get back to work.

Will 2007 be the year of Wi-Fi?

The BBC reports that ‘Manchester could become the biggest free wireless internet hotspot in Europe under plans unveiled by the city council.

The network, inspired by projects in San Francisco and Amsterdam, would cover 90% of Greater Manchester and reach up to 2.2 million people…’. That’s on top of plans announced by WiFi hotspot operator The Cloud (a Truphone partner, of course) to deploy hotzones in city centres: Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool and the three London Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and Islington – something the The Cloud believes ‘will allow more than 4m people to connect to the Internet without wires’.

Wow! Even allowing for the Manchester overlap, that’s already getting on for 10% of the UK population that will be able to use Truphone to make cheap mobile phone calls over Wi-Fi and the internet while out in those areas.

Things are moving...