UK comms regulator Ofcom has forbidden
BT from increasing wholesale service charges on other ISPs to part-fund a reduction
in its pension deficit.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)

Giffgaff has rewarded its customers with their first payout – for acting as its sales and technical staff

A new “community-run” mobile phone company, which is offering the chance to earn hundreds of pounds a year by spreading the word about it, has announced its first payments to customers.

One Giffgaff user received £654, and more than 40 others earned at least £200 apiece. Payouts are earned by recruiting and by helping other customers with their technical problems.

Giffgaff, which went live in November as a “sim-only” service (you use your existing handset), is the latest example of a web-based business that gives people the opportunity to make money by, in effect, becoming a salesperson or troubleshooter. The scheme therefore allows the company to save on advertising and call centre costs.

Who’s behind the company?

Giffgaff – an ancient Scottish word that means “mutual giving”, apparently – describes itself as a mobile phone company “where the community is at the heart of it”, and which does things differently to the “faceless” big networks. It is online only, with “no wasteful shops or excessive call centres”.

So some might be surprised to discover Giffgaff is wholly owned by 0₂ – and runs on its network.

While some potential customers might be disappointed that this isn’t a truly mutual, member-owned organisation, others may feel more comfortable signing up with a company backed by a big name.

Mike Fairman, the chief executive, says that while 0₂ provided the capital for the business to start up, Giffgaff operates independently, with its own offices and staff. “It’s very much an arms-length arrangement … this is very different from 0₂.”

The company declined to divulge its customer numbers, but says it has a 6,000-strong online community.

Is it worth signing up as a customer?

If you are looking for a cheap pay-as-you-go service, Giffgaff’s pricing is quite competitive. UK calls are 8p and texts 4p – this matches Asda Mobile’s pricing – with free UK web browsing on your handset until 1 October. After that, mobile internet will be charged at up to 50p a day for most people, says a spokesman. Customers can get free calls to one another.

As the company points out on its website, 0₂ charges 25p for calls to other networks and 10p for texts.

It is offering a range of “goodybags” – a mix of UK minutes, texts and mobile internet that last for a month.

You can order a free sim card online and top up by card or voucher.

What about those payments to customers?

Promoting the company and helping out other customers in Giffgaff’s online forum earns rewards. Promoting the company could include giving sim cards to friends or even making your own video and putting it on YouTube.

One point equals one pence. Sending your friend an email about Giffgaff would earn you 50p. If you send Giffgaff sims to several people, you get £5 for each one that is activated.

The rewards for helping with customer queries vary depending on criteria, such as how the person who asked the question rated the answer.

How is the money paid?

The points earned are converted into pounds, and the cash paid out twice a year – in June and December. You can have the cash paid into a PayPal account (you can’t have it paid direct into your bank account), get it as airtime credit for your phone, or donate it to Cancer Research, the charity chosen by members.

How much can people make?

Giffgaff claims the amounts people can earn are “limitless”. It says more than 40% of members were rewarded last month. The average user received £14, while 42 people earned more than £200.

One 19-year-old Londoner received £206 for spreading the word among his friends and helping on the community forum. He is putting the cash towards a new laptop for when he starts university in September.

Liam Salomone (pictured), 30, of Northolt, Middlesex, earned £654 for sending emails to contacts, answering queries on the forum, and encouraging friends to sign up.

“It’s much better that a mobile firm pays its customers to market their product than to waste money on advertising,” he says, adding: “I’m saving the money for a trip to South Africa with my mum. We’ve both spoken about visiting there for years, and now we have an opportunity to do it.”

Does anyone else do this sort of thing?

Mobile network 3 runs the “Free Agent” scheme, where £5 is paid into your PayPal account every time a friend with a 3G phone orders a sim from you and tops it up by £10 or more.

You don’t have to be a 3 customer to sign up to the scheme, and the company is offering a number of online tools to help people promote the offer.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Satnav launches an on-the-ropes, ninth-round-style counteroffensive against greatly exaggerated reports of its death

Photo by Ben Oh on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Reports of satnav’s death are greatly exaggerated – and retailer Garmin has launched an inspired marketing fightback to prove just that.

The arrival of Google Maps Navigation was touted by many – including the Guardian’s own Jemima Kiss – as a “satnav killer.” Google Maps Navigation is free (at the point of sale), familiar, and feature-rich. But don’t count on traditional satnav retailers to give up the ghost just yet.

Seeking to capitalise on customer (and industry?) confusion surrounding mobile data charges – not to mention what happens when you dare to venture outside of the UK – satellite navigation specialists Garmin have embarked on a Top Gear-esque experiment.

Using Google Maps on an O2 Pay As You Go tariff, the company set out to see how much a summer tour of France would cost with only an Android phone for company. Twenty pence per mile is the (approximate) answer.

A return Calais-to-Paris (185 miles) trip by car notched up £74 of data roaming charges, using 12-13 megabytes of data. Here’s what return trips further afield cost:

• Avignon, 614 miles: £245.60

• Saint-Tropez, 730 miles: £292

• Grenoble, 540 miles: £216

• Marseille, 667 miles: £266.80

• Lyon, 474 miles: £189.60

• Cannes, 747 miles: £298.80

• Bordeaux, 540 miles: £216

• Valence, 539 miles: £215.60

• Saint-Etienne, 510 miles: £204

And the eye-watering bill you could find on your doorstep isn’t the only reason you should spurn Google’s advances and stick with traditional satnavs, says Garmin head of communications Anthony Chmarny: “Using free satellite navigation isn’t as free as it would like to make out, especially when you are using your mobile phone abroad.

“Many of the well known navigation products use the mobile phone network to download maps as they go, meaning people could end up with a nasty shock when their mobile phone bills arrive – the costs could be double that of the fuel used for the journey they were navigating.

“For someone using so called ‘free’ navigation abroad this could leave them in the absurd position that they get half way through a journey and no longer have access to navigation to complete it.”

Convinced?

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Don’t be taken in by the empty threats from the big four mobile operators

Readers of your news article could be forgiven for believing that the prospect of the vast majority of UK consumers paying lower prices for calling mobiles would cause the sky to fall in (Reform of mobile phone charges may leave poorest users worse off, June 22). The four biggest mobile operators have been scaremongering with variations on this theme for years.

You report the end of telecoms watchdog Ofcom’s consultation on “its plans to slash the cost of calling a mobile phone … by reducing so-called mobile termination rates – the price networks charge each other and fixed-line companies such as BT to connect calls”. The article states that O2 has “warned the regulator that its proposals are ‘irresponsible’ and could force millions of people on low incomes to abandon their phones”.

Every time the prospect of lower mobile termination rates is raised, operators have cried that prices would go up and that people would stop using their phones. But a quick glance at the facts shows that when rates have come down the exact opposite has happened.

My company, Three, is part of a broad campaign along with BT and 65 other organisations – ranging from charities to financial advisers – that recognise high termination rates as a barrier to lower mobile prices. Orange, Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile seek to pull off a bold double act by threatening to raise prices yet at the same time quietly introducing more competitive rates every time termination rates come down – as they have done again this year.

The article states: “The industry has warned that the likely shake-up will lead to the reintroduction of controversial ‘expiry dates’ on prepay top-ups.” Again, effective competition will address this threat.

High termination rates have been a net subsidy to the mobile industry from landline users for years, but the bills paid to call mobiles by vulnerable landline users and the organisations that support them never feature in the analysis from the big mobile companies. The Terminate the Rate campaign includes Age UK, Crossroads Care and Carers UK who work with the vulnerable all day, every day and know their experience.

Low termination rates will enable effective competition in the UK voice market. They will drive better value for mobile and landline users alike. Since these threats are being made by those who want to delay this change, then as the only mobile operator supporting it we have to make our own case. While Vodafone claims that changes “could see the end of mobile handset subsidies”, we have committed to continue to offer subsidised handsets. Rather than cutting off prepay customers, we expect to serve more.

That the four major operators don’t welcome change is no surprise. But ultimately it is our firm belief that high mobile termination rates don’t protect low users, they create them.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Subscribers to discount website Groupola can pick up handset for £400 less than Apple charges – if they are quick enough

A discount website specialising in ‘city deals’ is offering users the chance to purchase the new Apple iPhone 4 on 1 July for just £99, compared to the £499 Apple charges . Groupola.com only has a limited number of handsets available and is offering them exclusively to its email subscribers.

It says it is able to offer such low prices because it relies on group-buying to regularly offer discounts of up to 90% on events and products across the UK’s major cities and tourist attractions.

O2 is selling the 16GB iPhone 4 for £209 if you sign up to an 18-month contract and spend £30 a month, while Vodafone wants £219 for the 16GB version if you also spend £30 a month for 18 months. You can compare packages here.

Mark Pearson, managing director of Groupola, says: “Given that the iPhone 4 sold out through pre-orders alone in just 48 hours through the Apple store, we thought it was only right to offer loyal Groupola.com discount hunters another bite of the cherry. We’ve proved that the concept of group buying can work within the UK.”

To purchase the iPhone for £99 you need to be an email subscriber, so you’ll need to visit the site and sign up to receive daily alerts. You will be sent a link on 1 July which will allow you to purchase the phone on 2 July on a first come, first served basis.

“My advice is to open the link the second the clock ticks over at 9.30am – by 9.31am you may already have been too late,” adds Pearson.

The firm has admitted that the deal is a loss-leader and there is only a limited number of phones available. It has also said that people can easily unsubscribe from the daily alerts should they wish to.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

The European Union (EU) has confirmed that from 1 July the maximum
data-roaming charge users can incur from mobile operators will be 50 (£40).

Read Full Story…
(Source Yahoo UK News)

Jonathan Ive has designed his masterpiece, says Stephen Fry. And there’s video-calling and the crispest display ever

Just as the frenzy of the iPad launch subsides, it is time for anti-Apple frothers to have a new device waved in their angry faces and for pro-Apple droolers to get verbally bitch-slapped in the blogosphere for falling once more for Steve Jobs’s huckstering blandishments.

A year ago, iPhone 3GS was released with a new operating system and now iPhone 4 arrives with iOS 4.0, offering an array of long-awaited functions. Since that 2009 3GS launch, the Taiwanese manufacturer HTC in particular has upped its game and risen to Apple’s challenge, producing handsets for the Android OS that offer slews of features, including free turn-by-turn navigation, multi-tasking, removable batteries and highly customisable interfaces. What can Apple do to wrench back the crown?

The iPhone 4 is an object of rare beauty. Noticeably slimmer but a trifle heavier than predecessors, its new heft only adds to the profound feeling of quality and precision that the device exudes. Sharper edged, it is girt by a stainless steel band which cleverly houses all the antennae required by a modern smartphone. Jobs himself made a comparison between iPhone 4 and a classic Leica. With this device in my hand, I feel that I am holding its designer Jonathan Ive’s personal prototype, hand-machined as a proof-of-concept model. Ive is surely one of the most influential and gifted designers Britain has ever produced and the iPhone 4 may well be his masterpiece.

The phone is available unlocked in the UK. Mine came with a Vodafone mini-SIM which I swapped for an Orange, the network change working perfectly straight away. On the front can be discerned the lineaments of a forward-facing camera and, in the glorious glass obverse (which leads one to speculate that future models might allow solar charging), an extra eye reveals that LED flash has finally arrived. The existence of the front-facing camera allows video calling: Apple’s new open standard for this, called FaceTime, neatly and transparently turns an initial mobile phone call into WiFi video chat, saving data charges.

Once I had located someone else with an iPhone 4 (not easy the week before launch), I found FaceTime worked with astounding ease and in very impressive resolution. The main camera has been upgraded to 5 megapixels (crucially, without diminution of pixel size) and produces stunning images that might be, for many, reason enough to upgrade, especially when you consider the iPhone 4′s remarkable new Retina display. Retina delivers the crispest images I have ever seen on a smartphone. I found myself staring at onscreen text in disbelief.

Apple has produced, and third parties will doubtless emulate and improve, rubberised wraparound belts for iPhone 4 called Bumpers. They come in all kinds of colours and give the device great resilience. (I saw an Apple executive gleefully hurling his bumpered iPhone 4 across a room). With 720p HD video, a full-featured iMovie editing app, sweet multi-tasking, better mail, spellcheck, a bigger battery, inbuilt 3-axis gyroscope (wait for the gaming implications of that alone), extra pep and polish and that droolworthy form factor, Apple has once more leapfrogged the competition. HTC Android handsets still impress and offer a viable alternative for many, but iPhone 4′s star quality is irresistible.

stephenfry.com/blog

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Ofcom aims to cut £800m off UK’s annual mobile bill but networks say proposals will force millions to give up their phones

Millions of British mobile phone users who rely on their handsets to keep them in touch with family but only use them in emergencies could be cut off – because of plans by the telecoms and media watchdog that are supposed to bring down the cost of making calls.

Ofcom will Wednesday end a 12-week consultation on its plans to slash the cost of calling a mobile phone. But the industry has warned that the likely shake-up will lead to the reintroduction of controversial “expiry dates” on prepay top-ups.

The mobile network O2 is understood to have warned the regulator that its proposals are “irresponsible” and could force millions of people on low incomes to abandon their phones.

Orange has already branded the plans as “a backward step”, while Vodafone has claimed that the proposals, outlined in April, could see the end of mobile handset subsidies. As a result, consumers would have to pay for new handsets when they sign up or renew a long-term contract.

Ofcom hopes to save consumers and businesses almost £800m a year from 2015 by reducing co-called mobile termination rates – the price networks charge each other and fixed-line companies such as BT to connect calls – from 4.3p a minute today to just 0.5p by 2015.

BT, which last year teamed up with the UK’s smallest network, 3, to fight the charges, has argued that mobile termination rates are an unjustifiable subsidy for the mobile phone industry. But the mobile phone companies argue that they use these charges to subsidise a service to lower-income customers.

More than half the UK’s mobile phone users have a pay-as-you-go phone, and many of these have handsets only so that friends and relatives can call them. They only make calls themselves in emergencies but the incoming calls generate enough revenues, through termination rates, to make them viable customers for the mobile phone companies. Under Ofcom’s plans, however, it would cease to be economic to provide many infrequent callers with a mobile phone.

In its 155-page consultation document, which comes with 234 pages of annexes, the regulator argues that the networks should only be able to recoup the actual cost of carrying other people’s calls and should look to other ways of generating revenues to cover their other costs. Ofcom suggests the mobile phone companies could impose “minimum monthly spending commitments” on pre-pay users to recoup their costs.

O2, which has 11.5 million pre-pay customers, argues in its submission to Ofcom that this risks a return to the days when pre-pay mobile phone users saw their credit expire after a set period, whether they had used it or not.

When pre-pay services first appeared in the UK more than a decade ago, many companies issued top-up vouchers that had a “use it or lose it” expiry date. After a wave of consumer protests about what came to be known as “the ‘ouch’ in ‘voucher’”, they dumped these time limits. The four main networks now count as “active” any user who has made or received a call within the previous three months, and there is no expiry date on pre-pay top-ups.

Ofcom’s proposals, O2 argues, would see time limits reintroduced. O2 estimates that millions of pre-pay customers do not regularly top up their phones, only making calls in emergencies. These customers would be forced to waste money topping up phones or risk being disconnected.

The fight over the scheme for termination rates that will take over in 2011 has already lasted over a year and is likely to be acrimonious. When the current caps were imposed, the mobile phone companies launched a protracted legal fight that involved the Competition Commission and Competition Appeals Tribunal.

Ofcom says it must reduce mobile termination rates to comply with EU guidelines. The networks, however, believe the regulator is trying to grab headlines to curry favour with the coalition government. Before the election, Conservative politicians made it clear that they wanted to reduce the regulator’s powers.

3G television tests

Separately, O2, Orange and Vodafone will announce tomorrow that they have teamed up to test a new TV broadcast service that could offer British mobile phone users the chance to watch a host of channels on their handsets.

The three companies, which together control the bulk of the UK mobile phone market, are testing technology that would enable them to provide broadcast television over the existing 3G mobile phone spectrum without clogging up their networks, which are increasingly being used by smartphone users to access the web and send emails.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Having lost its exclusive rights to sell Apple’s new phone, the mobile network now seems to have an inverse pricing at its low end to discourage 24-month contracts

O2 has announced the pricing for its iPhone 4 handsets – and seems to be trying to push people away from buying longer-term contracts.

Under the 24-month contracts, the phones are more expensive than the 18-month contracts, by between £70 (for the white 16GB version priced at £209 for 18 months, or £279 for 24 months) and £24 (for the black 32GB version, costing £299 for 18 months and £323 for 24 months). Even though the price plans at that tariff differ by £5 per month, over 18 months the 16GB handset works out cheaper on the lowest tariff by £10.

Pricing plans for Vodafone’s iPhone 4 leaked out earlier this week, although the company has not formally announced them and is only letting people indicate interest in ordering it.

Orange’s charges start at £169 for a 16GB phone on a £30-per month 24-month contract (£229 on £30 for 18 months)

O2′s pricing decision has puzzled people on Twitter: “O2 seems to have forgotten the idea is to lure people onto longer contract by *lowering* upfront costs. Duh.,” commented journalist Scott Colvey.

The decision – tied to O2′s decision to introduce strict caps on data downloads per month, varying between 500MB and 1GB, replacing its previous “unlimited” data contracts that many are still using – may mean a migration of former iPhone customers away from the company, which until last Christmas had the monopoly on iPhone sales in the UK. Now the phone is sold by Orange, Vodafone and 3 – though only Orange and Vodafone have announced prices.

Many iPhone owners who bought the second-generation iPhone in 2008 on 18- or 24-month contracts will be eligible to upgrade with O2 – or possibly to shift to another carrier.

Apple has apologised to would-be customers after overwhelming demand meant that its own and AT&T’s servers crashed when the phone went on sale in five countries on Tuesday. It says that 600,000 phones were ordered on the day – which suggests that it has tapped into huge pent-up demand from owners of older versions, as well as new buyers seeking to join the smartphone bandwagon.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

We’re not made of money

New payment technologies should be cheaper to use than existing card systems, not more expensive, retailers have said. Shop operators have claimed that card fees are already too high, running into hundreds of millions of pounds in the UK.…

Read Full Story…
(Source The Register)

People have been talking about the coming mobile revolution for 20 years, but on a recent book tour with my Android phone, I realised it’s finally here

I’ve just come back from a month-long, multi-city, US and Canada book tour for my new novel, For the Win. I’ve done book tours before, but this one was different: this was the tour with an Android Nexus One phone, and it was game-changing.

I’ve been told about the coming mobile revolution for 20 years now, but frankly, mobile phones are generally rubbish. The carriers are awful and abusive. The apps suck. And so on. Something’s changed.

Take directions: Google Maps are, of course, the ne plus ultra of navigation, so having them in your pocket is powerful. But combine that with Android’s stellar turn-by-turn directions, which incorporates Google’s traffic data to get you round the terrible snarls, and things get really easy. What’s more, the ability to program the map destination by speaking it (Google’s various voice apps have given it improbably good voice-recognition performance, producing a training set that is wide and deep), or by photographing it on a printout (using the Google Goggles app that converts images to words to Google searches), felt futuristic and deeply right.

Young adult book tours involve a lot of school visits, often in deep suburbs that the media escorts supplied by your publisher aren’t that familiar with (these escorts often come armed with confusing Mapquest printouts that seem to come from an earlier century). When you’re not running late to a tour stop, you’re often running early, with just enough time to stop for a cup of coffee and a snack. Add Google location search to that and you can avoid going to a petrol station or (even worse) McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts and find hidden gems that you’d have to be a local to get at otherwise. I ate better on this tour than I ever have before.

I “rooted” my Nexus One, breaking into the OS so that I could easily “tether” it to my laptop, using it as a 3G modem between tour stops (we didn’t have to root my wife’s matching phone, as Google supplied us with an unlocked developer handset). My typical tour day started at 5am with breakfast and work on the novel, then a 6am interview with someone in Europe, then pickup, two to four school visits with a short lunch break, three or four interviews, then a bookstore signing or a plane (or both). As busy as that sounds, there’s actually a fair bit of dead time in it while sitting in the escort’s car, trying to find the next stop.

This time round, I plugged the laptop into the cigarette lighter and the phone into the laptop – this gave the phone a battery charge and the laptop internet access. And best of all, it meant that I could harvest those dead minutes to answer emails, keep on blogging, and generally stay abreast of things.

Which meant that I got lots more of the touring author’s most precious commodity: sleep. On previous tours, returning to the hotel meant sitting down for three to four hours’ worth of emails before bed, which cut my sleep time to less than four hours some nights. But this time round, I got back to the room completely caught up, and was able to flop down in bed, eat some minibar cashews, and hit the sack.

Travelling with your own internet source is brilliant. At Atlanta airport, I was stuck for four hours while a monster storm hammered the building with barrages of lightning. Immediately, every one of the expensive Wi-Fi networks in the building went dead as thousands of stranded travellers tried to use them all at once. I found a corner with a mains outlet, plugged in the laptop, tethered my phone, and enjoyed my own private network connection. It wasn’t fast, but it was free and it worked.

I still have a US T-Mobile account from when I lived in the US, and I pay for the unlimited data plan there (which, like the Orange UK Sim I use here, has a bizarre and fraudulent definition of “unlimited” that includes a data cap). It’s easily worth keeping the account alive for those times that I’m back in the US – one day’s 3G savings (not having to pay for expensive hotel and airport broadband) pays for a month’s mobile service.

But when I travel to places where I don’t have a Sim, such as France or Germany, where I’ll be touring in September, it’s not pretty. Orange charges nearly £1 per megabyte, and its bolt-on Euro traveller plans charge something like £30 for 30MB, and limit you to 30MB per month. I can’t figure out who the putative customer for this is: the travelling exec who really needs email on the road, but receives a tiny trickle of email every day, apparently.

The most absurd part is when you take an Orange UK Sim to France (France Telecom being Orange’s parent company) or a T-Mobile Sim to Germany (Deutsche Telekom has the same relationship to T-Mobile except in the UK, where it’s a joint venture with France Telecom) and the company charges an extortionate roaming charge for using their parent company’s network, on the grounds that they’re “different companies”.

Which is the fundamental paradox of mobile – so long as the mobile carriers remain a part of mobile computing, it will only work for so long as you don’t go anywhere.

• Cory Doctorow’s new novel, For The Win, is out now

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Anyone going to the World Cup or abroad can minimise the cost of mobile calls, text messages and internet fees

As if the thousands of UK travellers trapped abroad after the recent volcanic ash drama hadn’t suffered enough damage to their bank balances, many are now facing mobile phone “bill shock“.

These holidaymakers, many of whom are just receiving their latest mobile phone bills, may be dismayed when they discover how much they have spent on calls and data roaming while stranded abroad. The Observer recently ran a story about William Harrison, a student who accidentally ran up an £8,000 phone bill with Orange while in France by using his mobile to access the internet.

In theory, mobile bills should no longer be too painful for those travelling to Europe, as from 1 March all European mobile operators have been obliged under EU roaming rules to offer their customers a cut-off limit of €50 (about £45) for using the internet on their phones. However, it is still early days and not yet clear whether all operators are complying with this rule.

In a month’s time the regulations will tighten further, as at the moment customers need to opt-in to this limit, whereas from 1 July the cut-off limit will be set at €50 by default unless they opt out.

For those travelling further afield the cost of calling, texting and using the internet on their mobile can still be an expensive pastime. Independent consumer body Consumer Focus warned World Cup ticket holders last week that costs for calls, texts and data use could add up to more than £100 on a match day – more than the face value of a ticket.

Mobile phone operators are expected to start bringing out more competitive overseas mobile phone packages in the next few weeks as the holiday season hots up.

But for now, anyone who is about to go abroad has a number of options: doing nothing and sticking with their operator’s standard overseas charges (expensive); switching to their operator’s overseas calls package (cheaper); buying a global or local sim (potentially even cheaper, depending on usage).

Mike Wilson, mobiles and broadband manager at moneysupermarket.com, says: “Don’t underestimate how easy it is to rack up a hefty mobile bill if you are going overseas and planning to use your phone.

“Before escaping the country be sure to check with your operator how much calls, texts and internet use will set you back when you’re away, because you won’t be charged the same rates as your UK tariff. I would advise asking if there is a cheaper international tariff available.”

Paying as standard

For standard call charges in Europe, T-Mobile and Virgin are the most expensive at 43p a minute, according to moneysupermarket.com, while 02 is the cheapest at 35p a minute. Network operator 3 is the cheapest for receiving calls at 15p a minute compared to Orange, T-Mobile and Virgin, which all charge the most at 19p. Sending texts is 11p a message with all networks, and all are free to receive.

The cost of using the internet is where operators’ charges vary hugely, and where holidaymakers are most likely to run up large bills. T-Mobile, 3, 02 and Orange all charge a flat fee per megabyte (MB) of between £1.25 (3) and £3 (02 and Orange), while Vodafone and Virgin offer the option of either paying per MB, or paying either a daily or hourly fee for web usage (with a cap on how much data can be used).

Virgin, for example, charges £5 a MB, or £4 for a one-hour pass with a 3MB limit and £6 for a 24-hour pass with a 5MB limit.

Whichever package you have you need to be careful about how much data you download. One MB is not much – watching a two-hour film uses about 800 MB.

All these charges when incurred within Europe are considerably lower than in some other countries. For example, if you visit Egypt with your Orange phone you will pay £1.75 a minute to call home and £8 per MB of data used, while in Australia you will pay £1.20 a minute per call and £7.50 per MB of data with T-Mobile.

Package things up

To keep costs down, a good alternative is to opt for your operator’s travel package. Vodafone’s Passport deal, for example, means you pay your standard home rate to call the UK from more than 35 European countries (and from Australia and New Zealand) after paying a 75p connection charge. These calls can be part of your inclusive minutes if you are on a contract. To receive calls you pay the 75p connection charge and you can talk for up to 60 minutes free of charge. After that you pay 20p a minute.

02′s My Europe Extra, on the other hand, is £10 a month for 25p-a-minute calls, free received calls and 11p texts.

Go global – or local

You can avoid your UK operator’s charges altogether by switching your network sim card for a global or local sim using websites such as 0044.co.uk and UK2Abroad.co.uk. A global sim card will work across a number of countries so is particularly good for frequent travellers or backpackers, while a local sim will only work in one country. You can buy these before you travel, but you might need to get your phone unlocked by your operator so you can switch cards.

Most global and local sims cost somewhere between £15 and £30 and come loaded with differing amounts of call credit, which you can top up by credit or debit card at any time. For those travelling to South Africa for the World Cup, for example, 0044′s South African local sim costs £29.99 and gives you ZAR 55 (about £5) of credit.

After that, local calls cost 10p a minute off-peak, calls to the UK are 63p a minute, while texts to the UK are 15p. This compares with the standard pay-as-you-go rates on Orange where charges for local calls within South Africa and to the UK are £1.45 a minute and texts are 50p a message.

Buying a local or global sim will mean you temporarily have a new phone number, so you will need to make sure people know this before you go.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

• Mobile internet use as much as £8 to view 20 pages
• Fans urged to check with phone operators before travelling

Football fans lucky enough to be travelling to the football World Cup this summer are being warned that they could face huge mobile phone bills if they call, text, tweet or surf the web while in South Africa.

Many mobile phone companies count the country in their most expensive bracket when calculating the cost of mobile phone calls and texts, while accessing the web costs as much as £8 per megabyte with some operators. Football fans will run up that much data usage after accessing as few as 20 web pages, while any that download an “app” while abroad could run up far higher data charges.

Mobile phone operator 3 will this week slash its prices for customers going to the tournament, which starts on 11 June, while Vodafone has already announced it will extend its Passport cheap calls package to include the country.

But with more and more mobile phone users carrying smartphones that can access the internet, use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and send emails, the tournament could turn out to be very expensive for football fans who do not check first with their mobile operator.

“The rise of smartphones, like the iPhone, means that all it takes is a bit of browsing or a downloaded app and you are going to get absolutely stung if you don’t know what you are paying for,” warned Mike Wilson, broadband and mobiles manager at moneysupermarket.com. “The high cost of roaming is always an issue in the summer but the fact that the World Cup is being held in South Africa has upped the ante.

“The first thing that anyone considering travelling this summer should do is speak to their existing provider and find out what they are going to charge and whether there are any special deals that will reduce that amount. Don’t forget to also shop around for better deals.”

This week 3 will announce that it is dropping its data roaming prices by more than 50% during June and July. It will charge £1.25 per megabyte of data, which compares with as much as £8 per megabyte with Orange.

Owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, 3 is also dropping its call charges for South Africa – making calls from the country to anywhere else in the world will be charged at £1.40 per minute, while receiving calls will be 99p per minute and texts 25p.

While 3′s data roaming charges are cheaper than its rivals, its voice prices are still relatively high. Both O2 and Vodafone charge less, while all four rival networks offer discounts to customers who sign up for special international calling promotions.

Vodafone, for instance, has extended its free Passport service to include South Africa for June and July, meaning football fans who register before they travel can make calls from their existing bundles, after an initial 75p connection charge.

Vodafone has also dropped its data costs but only from 15 June, which is four days after kick-off in the first game. It currently charges £14.99 for 25MB of data a day in South Africa, but from 15 June it will charge £3 per megabyte for the first 5MB used by customers and £15 for every subsequent 5MB.

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(Source The Guardian)

All the networks that will be offering mobile broadband for Apple’s iPad have now set out their price plans

All three mobile phone networks that will be offering mobile broadband access for iPad users have now announced their pricing and buyers of the latest Apple gadget are likely to find themselves choosing between O2 and Orange when they want to access the web on the move.

Vodafone was the last of the three networks that will provide mobile coverage for the 3G version of the device when it goes on sale at the end of the month to reveal its prices. But neither of its two 30-day offers – one of which gives less downloading capability than Orange’s weekly bundle – have any wi-fi component and they are by far the least attractive options.

Orange, meanwhile, does not allow users of its pay as you go, daily or weekly offers to access wi-fi hotspots. The two monthly packages that it offers – at £15 and £25 a month – do come with wi-fi access but that access is capped at a rather paltry 750MB. The reason, it would seem, is that Orange customers can not only access BT’s 3,800 Openzone hotspots, but also a further 150,000 BT Business Hubs, giving users a total of 153,800 places in which they can browse the web over wi-fi.

O2, however, allows anyone signing up to its three tariffs unlimited wi-fi access to BT Openzone hotspots as well as locations operated by The Cloud. In total that will give iPad users with O2 access to wi-fi in 7,500 places across the country.

A spokesman for O2 said there is no “fair usage policy” on wi-fi access but the operator reserves the right to limit someone’s access if they are “clearly abusing the service”. But many early adopters of the iPad are likely to think twice about relying upon O2′s network for a device that requires a fast data connection. O2 came under fire last year for the poor quality of its network, especially in London. UK boss Ronan Dunne admitted in December that the firm had suffered “a short-term blip” in network quality in the capital.

The poor perception of its network, which O2 has been fighting hard to rectify, is one of the reasons why both Vodafone and Orange have done so well in sales of the iPhone since O2′s exclusive clutch on the device was broken last November. Vodafone, however, is unlikely to pick up many iPad users as it is offering just two deals – £10 a month for 1GB of data and £25 a month for 5GB – both of which are easily beaten by Orange and O2.

Based on the current pricing:

Best for light/irregular 3G usage: Orange’s 5p/MB pay as you go tariff

Best for regular 3G usage: Orange’s pay monthly £15 for 3GB

Best for heavy 3G usage: Orange’s iPad Monthly £25 for 10GB

Best for light/irregular 3G and wi-fi usage: O2′s £2 a day/500MB offer (unlimited wi-fi on 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)

Best for regular 3G and wi-fi usage: O2′s £10 a month for 1GB offer (unlimited wi-fi on 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)

Best for heavy 3G and wi-fi usage: O2′s £15 a month for 3GB (unlimited wi-fi on 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)

O2′s unlimited wi-fi offering makes its offer best for customers who expect to use their iPad on the go.

None of the mobile phone companies are demanding that iPad users sign up to long term contracts. The “monthly” deals from O2, Orange and Vodafone can all be cancelled at the end of the month, given 24 hours notice.

If iPad users breach the usage caps on their tariffs they will be charged an additional fee. For Orange, all its data bundles charge 5p per additional MB used with no apparent pricing cap. The exception is Orange’s 5p per MB pay as you go offer, under which users can only be charged a maximum of £40 in a single month. So once a user has exceeded £40 worth of data (800MB) they will not be charged for any more that they use. But it’s a rather expensive way of getting unlimited 3G access.

O2 customers, meanwhile, can buy the bundle again or switch to a daily rate. So an iPad user who buys its £10 a month for 1GB service and exceeds the 1GB in just a few days can either buy a new 1GB bundle and re-start the 30 days or use the £2 daily option whenever they want to access the web until their previous monthly bundle recurs.

Vodafone, meanwhile, does not automatically charge people who exceed their monthly allowance. It treats the 1GB and 5GB limits as “fair usage” caps and a spokesman said if a user consistently exceeds the limits they can expect to get a call from customer services.

O2 also maintains that it is the only operator that will allow iPad users to easily manage their tariffs, adding and changing bundles directly from the iPad device. Orange and Vodafone customers will have to register their SIM cards, either by calling the network’s customer service centre or going online. The iPad is the first device launched in the UK which makes use of micro-SIMs and according to the mobile phone companies it will be possible for consumers to request micro-SIMs from all three networks and use whichever SIM card they wish. As a result, consumers will be able to switch between networks just by switching SIMs.

Micro-SIMs can be ordered from the operators themselves or through Apple. In fact, Apple’s pre-order site restricts iPad users to just one micro-SIM per device; any customer looking to try other networks will have to deal direct with their chosen alternative network. Apple also charges 20p per micro-SIM while the networks are giving them away for free.

For many consumers the easiest thing to do at first is to order both an Orange and an O2 micro-SIM and experiment with their networks using their pay as you go and daily bundles, before signing up to anything more long term.

Here’s the full list of offers:

O2

£2 a day for 500MB (unlimited wi-fi across 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)

£10 per 30 days for 1GB (unlimited wi-fi across 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)

£15 per 30 days for 3GB (unlimited wi-fi across 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)

Orange

5p per MB pay as you go (no wi-fi; unlimited 3G usage, but maximum charge £40/month)

£2 per day for 200MB (no wi-fi)

£7.50 per week for 1GB (no wi-fi)

£15 per month for 3GB (wi-fi capped at 750MB/mth but available in 3,800 BT Openzone and 150,000 BT Business Hubs)

£25 per month for 10GB (wi-fi capped at 750MB/mth but available in 3,800 BT Openzone and 150,000 BT Business Hubs)

Vodafone

£10 per 30 days 1GB (no wi-fi)

£25 per 30 days 5GB (no wi-fi)

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(Source The Guardian)

O2′s combined broadband and landline bundle is cheaper than TalkTalk and BT

Are you paying separate bills for your landline and broadband? If so, it may be time to switch to a combined deal.

Mobile phone giant O₂ this week launched one of the UK’s cheapest bundles, undercutting the likes of TalkTalk and BT.

For £17 a month, it will supply your landline and phone package including free calls in the evenings and weekends, alongside 8Mb broadband.

Most people, though, will want to opt for the £20-a-month deal which includes all the phone calls you can make to other landlines and 0845 numbers, as well as calls to 20 popular international destinations.

O₂ says it is open to anyone with a BT line into their home – some Sky and TalkTalk customers may be able to switch depending on their local exchange, assuming they are out of contract.

To get these prices, households have to be an O₂ mobile customer. All those with a contract can access the deal. Pay-as-you-go users have to top up at least £10 every three months. Non-O₂ customers pay £5 a month more.

You have to sign a 12-month contract – and the only downsides that we have spotted are that you have to pay an extra £1 a month for the 1571 answer phone package, and that those on the £17-a-month deal have to pay for calls to 0845 numbers.

Unlike most other basic internet packages, O₂‘s home broadband is not subject to download limits. And the offering is certainly going to cause some shockwaves. Until recently, TalkTalk prided itself on the UK’s cheapest home phone/broadband packages. They start at £18.48 a month – but you need to add £4 a month for unlimited calls any time and a further £2 a month for international calls. BT’s similar package costs in excess of £30 a month compared to O₂‘s £20/£25.

One of the advantages of signing with O₂ is that it provides good customer service – meaning any problems should get sorted out relatively easily – not always the case in the market.

Matthew Wheeler, communications expert at uSwitch.com, says: “O₂ has been voted best broadband provider for the last two years in our independent Customer Satisfaction Awards.

“If it’s able to maintain these very high standards with its home phone service it will provide an extremely viable alternative to existing bundle suppliers. Obviously O₂ mobile customers get the best deal, but £25 a month is still a great deal. The other really good thing is that they are upfront about the line rental cost which is wrapped into the price they promote.”

He says home phone and broadband bundles usually bring better value to consumers, “but they are also very easy for people to get wrong. If you are dissatisfied with one element of your bundle you may not be able to cancel that part of the service without sacrificing the rest of the deal,” he warns.

Customers can text their home phone number to 61202, call 0800 954 1427 or visit O2′s website to check if they can get O₂ Home Broadband and Home Phone.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Holidaymakers are being milked by extortortionate charges to access the internet on their mobile phones

We are planning to go on holiday next month to France. Which is nice. I am also planning to take my phone now that the mobile internet is exploding. Which is also nice. The trouble is that I am actually planning to use my phone in order to access the web (email, Twitter, Flickr etc), and that’s where the problems start. I have been ranting about excessive data charges abroad for years so I was interested to see how things had changed now that “unlimited” data packages are widely available in the UK.

The man in the T-Mobile shop said they charged £1.50 a megabyte in data charges for mobile phones accessing the internet in France. To give some idea of what that means, I recently uploaded a three-minute video to YouTube, which was over 80MB. For nothing. If I had done that on T-Mobile’s tariff, it would have cost me £120. A single song these day could be 10MB, which would cost £15 to download.

I decided to ring my current provider, O2, to get a comparison. An extremely helpful assistant quoted me £3 a megabyte for France – twice the rate of T-Mobile, which was starting to look cheap. She pointed out that “bolt-ons” to my existing tariff were available offering a package of 10MB for £20 or 50MB for £50. A bit better, but still crap.

My final port of call was Vodafone, which used to be my operator of choice until they tried to charge me £250 for the privilege of staying loyal to them when I upgraded my phone. I wondered whether they had changed their spots. The man in the shop quoted me £4.25 a megabyte – which would have pushed the cost of uploading that video to £340 and a single track to £42.50, with no special bolt-ons to bring down the price.

So what is going on here? This is not something happening in a computer game, it is the real world. Unsuspecting people going abroad regularly get milked by those extortionate charges. And savvy people get caught as well. I know someone in the business who checked before he left for eastern Europe that he was not going to be exposed to these charges only to find out he had run up a £600 bill the first morning.

It is happening because the operators have treated their customers with scarcely concealed contempt for years. Not only did they build walled gardens around their phones, thereby shutting out rival products but they also paid content providers a pittance to create games and other stuff for their sites. This was not only bad manners but bad business. If they had paid content providers decent prices and had cheaper data charges they could have built up a market for apps years before Apple came on to the scene. But it took Apple to break their monopoly by popularising “all you can eat” data charges and letting developers keep 70% of the income (before VAT).

But where is the white knight who will ride to the rescue over data charges abroad? The European commission has done much to improve roaming charges, but hasn’t so far made much impact on data. It would be called daylight robbery except that it goes on through the night as well. It is not even in the interests of business because if international charges were capped it would lead to an explosion of data traffic, which would more than make up for the willful exploitation of their so-called customers.

There is an alternative – to use free Wi-Fi hotspots – but not everyone has access to them. The other possibility is that I may have missed something and there is actually a sensible argument for high data charges. Is there anyone out there from the operators who would care to put the argument for the defence? If not, then they should immediately put a stop to this outrageous scandal.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Time to get excited? Well maybe if the rumours of specifications and pictures of the new 2010, Apple iPhone are correct. The latest engineering marvel from Apple appears to have a high-resolution touch-screen display (640×960 pixels) that indicates a possible name change to the iPhone HD. The camera has been upgraded and a much-needed flash has been included. The front face of the handset also includes a camera to support video calling.

The call quality should be excellent with the addition of a second mic and longer use between charges can be achieved with the new battery that is 18% larger than the previous model. The new iPhone also utilises the latest technology by using a MicroSIM card and with SIM card readers available or by using wireless Bluetooth, transferring information from an old SIM card shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.

Having taken a detailed look at the pictures it is apparent that the iPhone 4 commands a high quality finish. With no sharp edges the metal frame and ceramic or glass fascias blend seamlessly together. The slimmer frame includes a power button and audio jack on the top and volume keys on the side.

A full news release is expected from Apple on the 22nd June to confirm full specifications.

Compare all iPhone 3GS deals

Ofcom’s assault on Sky is the battle that captures the imagination, even if the actual cost to the broadcaster in terms of lost revenue and profits may turn out to be small beer. The media regulator’s latest proposals for the mobile telephone industry are rather different: changing the methodology used to be calculate “mobile termination rates” sounds deeply tedious but the effect of reform could be dramatic.

On the face of it, Ofcom’s idea sounds gentle – make the price of terminating calls match the cost of termination. What could be simpler? The problem is that the big boys of the mobile world have grown very fond of their revenues from termination rates set at significantly higher levels. In Britain, the figure could be 15%, say the industry analysts at Ovum. If that slice of income is suddenly cut by 90%, something has to give.

Naturally, the likes of Orange and Vodafone are crying foul and warning of dreadful consequences for a successful industry that is meant to be building vital national infrastructure. Ofcom should expect a legal battle as fierce as the one with Sky.

But, again, the regulator’s logic looks reasonably robust. The current regime on termination rates favours big mobile operators over fixed-line incumbents. That arrangement was easier to justify when the mobile networks were in their infancy and their youthful owners needed encouragement. The picture is rather different today.

There remains the unanswered question of how next-generation super-fast mobile network will be funded. There are no easy answers. But relying on skewed termination charges wasn’t a long-term solution.

Read Original Story…
(Source The Guardian)

Mobile phone companies protest that digital investment will be cut if they are forced to reduce charge to use their networks

Plans by Ofcom to slash the cost of calling a mobile phone could stifle investment in the next generation of super-fast mobile broadband networks, end free mobile handsets for contract customers, price millions of pay-as-you-go users out of the market and lead to a flood of job losses, mobile phone industry executives said tonight.

The regulator today prepared for a fight with the UK’s big four networks – O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone – by proposing a 90% drop in mobile termination rates, the charge the operators levy on each other and on fixed-line companies such as BT to connect calls, when the current price cap regime ends in 2011.

The move could save UK consumers and businesses almost £800m a year from 2015, and lead to cheaper calls for Britain’s 32.7m homes and businesses with a landline. But mobile industry executives accused Ofcom of attempting to grab headlines with its second consumer-friendly move of the week – following its call for Sky to drop the cost of Sky Sports on Wednesday – to fend off a Conservative threat to reduce its powers.

“This is a backward step for Britain,” said a spokesman for Orange. “If these measures are put in place they will stifle innovation.” “If these proposals come into force, the way our consumers currently buy, use and enjoy their mobiles may be forced to radically change. Handsets may no longer be subsidised, you may have to pay to receive calls and the rollout of Digital Britain and other network investment may be stalled considerably.”A Vodafone spokesman said: “A cut of this magnitude deters future investment, makes it less likely that the UK will continue to lead in mobile communications and is at odds with the government’s vision of a Digital Britain.”

But Ofcom is adamant that the mobile phone companies should be allowed to use mobile termination rates only to recoup the actual cost of carrying other people’s calls. The rates had been subsidising other parts of their businesses but operators will now have to recoup the cost of activities such as investing in new networks from the retail market. That could mean higher bills and an end to contract customers getting a new phone.

Ofcom admits it could even lead to customers being charged to receive calls – as they are on some US networks. In practice, however, mobile networks are likely instead to slash costs – possibly through job losses – and increase call charges, especially for pre-pay users who make up 60% of UK customers. The last time Ofcom reduced mobile termination rates, several networks increased prices for pre-pay users.

Morten Singleton, analyst at Collins Stewart, said: “One of the consequences of this move is the decreasing profitability of the prepaid customer.

“For years it has hardly mattered how many calls such customers made so long as they were on your mobile network. As a receiver of calls, prepaid customers generated quite decent revenue (and profitability) from the mobile termination rates alone. With these rates finally coming down to a level more commensurate with the costs of providing the service, operators will have to reassess the profitability of their prepaid customer base.”When Ofcom last cut rates, several operators warned that the price caps would lead to an end to subsidised handsets. Instead, price caps have led to the introduction of longer-term contracts with customers having to sign up for 18 months or two years.

As for the threat that the new prices will force the mobile phone companies to halt investment in super-fast mobile broadband networks using so-called 4G – or LTE – technology, an Ofcom spokesperson said it expected future investment in mobile networks to be driven by the growing demand for data services, so “network investment will therefore be less dependent on mobile voice call termination charges than it was in the past”.

Ofcom has, however, performed a strategic U-turn, in effect backing plans set out by the European commission two years ago – which it had initially rejected as ill thought out.. Ofcom said today it had carried out extensive research and now believes that termination rates should only be allowed to recoup the cost of carrying calls. It will consult on the proposals until June and make a decision towards the end of the year. If the proposals remain as they are at least one network is likely to launch a legal challenge, as happened last time the caps were tightened.

BT, which along with 3 has campaigned for rates to come down, welcomed Ofcom’s move. A spokesman said: “Reductions in mobile termination rates are good for businesses and consumers alike and BT will make sure its customers see the benefit with cheaper calls to mobiles, including fixed price all-you-can-eat packages that take the worry out of calling mobile phones.”

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(Source The Guardian)

BT pledges to pass on cuts to customers, while mobile users may see their bills rise following regulator’s plans

Telecommunication regulator Ofcom today announced plans to cut the cost of calling a mobile phone from a landline, which could save UK consumers and businesses almost £800m a year from 2015.

By forcing mobile firms to slash the ‘termination fees’ they charge another operator for connecting a call, Ofcom hopes that customers will benefit from smaller bills and increased competition.

“Lower termination rates will enable cheaper calls to mobiles for the 32.7 million UK homes and businesses with a landline. The proposals will also mean that both landline and mobile operators have more flexibility in designing competitive call packages, promoting competition for the benefit of consumers,” said Ofcom.

At present, Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile charge 4.3p per minute for connecting a call from someone who is not on their network. 3, the newest entrant to the market, charges 4.6p. Under Ofcom’s plans, this rate will fall to 2.5p across the industry in 2011-12, 1.5p in 2012-13, 0.9p in 2013-14 and 0.5p in 2014-15.

According to Ofcom, the volume of calls between fixed lines and mobiles in the UK comes to around 20 billion minutes per year, generating termination charges of £860m per year at the current rate. Under Ofcom’s charging plan, this will fall to just £100m by 2014-15. Ofcom said it expects fixed line operators such as BT to pass the saving onto consumers.

Mobile phone users will probably not see any benefit, though. Because the mobile operators levy this wholesale charge on each other, the saving in lower connection costs is largely cancelled out by the lack of income from those same charges.

Morten Singleton, telecommunications analyst at Collins Stewart, warned that some mobile customers might even see their bills rise.

“As a receiver of calls the prepaid customers generated quite decent revenue (and profitability) from the mobile termination rates alone. With these rates finally coming down to a level more commensurate with the costs of providing the service, operators will have to reassess the profitability of their prepaid customer base,” Singleton said in a research note.

Ofcom is now seeking views on its proposals. BT said it welcomed Ofcom’s move, and pledged to “make sure its customers see the benefit”. It also questioned whether consumers should have to wait four years to see the full benefit of Ofcom’s changes.

“What is being proposed is just the elimination of excessive prices and the mobile operators have had plenty of notice that termination rates are likely to fall,” said BT.

Shares in Vodafone dropped by 0.6% this morning, while BT rose almost 1%.

In a separate announcement, Ofcom said mobile operators should cut the time it takes a consumers to transfer their existing mobile phone number to a new provider, to just one working day. Currently this takes two days. Operators will also have just two hours to release the Porting Authorisation Code (Pac) that consumers need to switch provider and keep their old number.

“Our research shows that over 70% of consumers want to keep their mobile number when they switch providers,” said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.

“Reducing the time it takes to transfer a mobile number to one working day, and enabling consumers to obtain a Pac quickly, means consumers will be able to switch provider more easily without the costs or inconvenience of changing their number.”

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(Source The Guardian)