Video conferencing on your phone

I’m listening to a presentation on “Hot Topics in Video Conferencing” at the Internet2 meeting. Most discussions have been relatively predictable conversations, but just heard a fascinating discussion about the practicality of videoconferencing on a 3G cell phone. Due to the small screen, effective conferencing works at 64Kbps. I had not realized how near-term this technology is. An example of one possible application was the potential of showing insurance claim information to the home office. Of course, the same issues we have today with firewalls, etc. in today’s environment are still to be dealt with, hopefully through emerging standards.

This is a huge market — one panelist said that the market for 3G phones is growing at 40% per quarter! Already, more 3G phones have been sold than the installed base of H.323 videoconferencing units.

This is something I’ll be tracking with interest…

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