Icelandic telecom company Síminn formally opened the first 3G mobile network at a special ceremony in Iceland this week. Every Síminn customer who owns a 3G cell phone can use the network within the capital region.
The 3G service enables people to have face-to-face discussions over the phone, receive television signals and use their phones as a mobile wireless internet connection for their laptops.
Kristinn Jón Bjarnason, managing director of the Association of the Deaf, accepts a 3G mobile telephone from Síminn CEO Brynjólfur Bjarnason.
Síminn CEO Brynjólfur Bjarnason introduced the new service with Kristinn Jón Bjarnason, the managing director of the Icelandic Association of the Deaf. Síminn has agreed to donate 3G cell phones to all members of the association and all deaf elementary school students in the capital region.
“The 3G mobile network system is more powerful than what we have had so far and it offers lots of new opportunities for individuals and companies,” Brynjólfur Bjarnason said, according to a Síminn press release. “The 3G system is a revolution for the deaf.”
Arnar Aegisson, a member of the Association of the Deaf, demonstrates how the deaf communicate with sign language using 3G mobile telephones.
“We, the members of the Association of the Deaf, are very pleased with the 3G service and with being able to communicate with sign language via mobile telephones,” Kristinn Jón Bjarnason said. “3G has proven successful for the deaf in the Nordic countries and we have been anticipating the technology here.”
Síminn is working on establishing 3G networks outside the capital region and aims to have the network reach at least 60 percent of Iceland’s inhabitants who live outside that region in the next two and a half years.
