One of the biggest stories out of this year’s Mobile World Congress, being held this week in Barcelona, is that companies are making moves to cut exorbitant roaming fees for accessing the Internet on phones (within Europe, at least). This is significant as it has the possibility to impact the amount of browsing people do on their phones, and what they browse for. However it should be noted that they aren’t necessarily cutting rates voluntarily.

Right now, I’m living in the Netherlands and have a very basic pre-paid SIM for my phone. I brought my phone from Australia for which I have a $5/month contract for 50 mb of data. There are some great applications available for the Symbian platform but high prices keep me from browsing much more than email and the occasional news headlines.

But with moves to begin dropping prices, libraries should take a look at the example provided by libraries in Asia which are leading the way with downloads triggered by barcodes, and mobile-friendly catalogues and content. Find out more on the mobile web and the semantic library page.