Roamware, Mumbai-based developer of roaming and mobile media solutions has signalled its sortie into the location-aware social networking territory at Mobile World Congress, opening in Barcelona today, with the launch of Mobileum, an information and content portal that powers a social network for roamers and frequent mobile users. Mobile operators can leverage attributes such as profile, location, and community, to deliver contextual and relevant information to the mobile subscribers, who can form transient groups based on their interests, activities, and events.

Bobby Srinivasan, CEO of Roamware Inc., pointed out that unlike other similar applications, Mobileum enhances the experience with information about the user. Even when using a PC, the location information from the wireless service is used to provide presence information that is richer that than that available to most web applications.

For example, Mobileum will alert a user if someone in his or her address book is also roaming at the same location. Users can also dynamically form groups of people that share common interests and enable group messaging, conference calling, and activity scheduling amongst each other, using SMS notifications.

“Mobileum has many social features that make the service viral,” said Sudhir Kadam, VP New Business Initiatives at Roamware. “MatchMe matches people with others with similar interests; MeetMe enables interactions; and, the peer-to-peer content exchange allows users to exchange photos and ringtones with others. In addition, the service includes free Yellow Pages that will are expected to generate word-of-mouth publicity. The service is invoked with a ##123.”

Mobileum incorporates safeguards to ensure that content is age appropriate before it can be exchanged. Users are also registered using their cell phone numbers that can be traced by the operator. While it is expected that the system will be self-moderated by users, there is a “click-to-report” feature available to users who want to report inappropriate content and behaviour.

The product is a managed service and operators can deploy this service to their subscribers in a matter of days.

Founded in 2002, Roamware develops mobile voice and data roaming solutions on an open standards service delivery platform. It claims installations in 305 operator networks in 126 countries.