Nokia keeping families together

Nokia has unveiled new technology designed to ensure that families can stay in touch the modern way, by mobile phone.

The Finnish group has designed a system to allow members of a family to access a communal electronic calendar, swap e-mails and send messages as well as talk to one another at low call rates.

The "total mobility home" will link pay-as-you-go mobiles, subscription mobiles, fixed-line phones and Internet connection into one unit within the family.

Nokia says that network operators would welcome the system because it targeted the family as a single unit. Only a small investment was needed in networks to make the system viable, it said.

The development is an indication of how mobile phone companies expect their products to become everyday items within reach of most people. Nokia said 20 per cent of Finnish households had already done away with fixedline phones and replaced them with mobiles, which are used by 64 per cent of the population.

The Danish telecoms company Mobilix said it would launch the service early next year. Chief executive officer Monique Moulle-Zetterstrom said families would be able to stay informed of each others' plans, "thereby increasing the family's well-being".

Nokia said other mobile phone operators were expected to launch the system next year.

The system relies on intranet technology, which enables a mobile phone company to charge a lower rate to selected numbers.