"With more and more workers spending time out of the office, being able to do more business on the move becomes a fundamental productivity requirement and a source of competitive edge," Niklas Savander, in charge of business applications at Nokia Mobile Phones, noted.

According to a survey carried out for the Finnish group among European enterprises that supply their employees with handsets, 39 percent of the firms plan to provide them with access to mobile e-mail too in the near future.

As a result mobile e-mail usage is set to grow 35 percent in the next 18 months amongst businesses already using mobile phones, Nokia said.

Some 19 percent of the firms polled said that they also planned to supply their workers with mobile access to company networks and systems.

Field workers, sales, maintenance and IT personnel in sectors such as distribution, utilities, real estate, manufacturing and service industries are among those most likely to spearhead the use of the new services, Nokia said.

SPACE.WIRE