Shaves tariffs

Last month, we reported T-Mobile UK’s price-plans for the iPhone 4. Today the telco start shipping the iphone, and has come in with lower tariffs .…

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Free broadband firm TalkTalk promises competitive prices in mobile services deal with Vodafone

Internet and phone firm TalkTalk has struck a deal with Vodafone to launch a mobile service under its own brand.

TalkTalk, which helped revolutionise the broadband market by introducing “free” internet access four years ago, will offer both contract and pre-pay tariffs to existing customers from the autumn.

Market watchers will be looking to see whether the company, the second-largest residential broadband provider in the UK, will have as big an impact in the mobile industry as it did in on internet services.

Chairman Charles Dunstone said TalkTalk, which was spun out of Carphone Warehouse earlier this year, would make a “gentle” entry into mobile services, but would offer competitive prices.

“It will be a way to add a very good value mobile package to the account you have with us for your fixed-line phone and broadband,” he said.

TalkTalk entered the phone market in 2003 and the broadband market in 2006. Carphone Warehouse, meanwhile, still has its own mobile venture called TalkMobile, which also uses Vodafone’s network.

News of the mobile phone service came as TalkTalk announced first-quarter results which showed it added 34,000 net broadband customers in the second quarter, taking its total to 4.23 million. That puts it ahead of Virgin Media, which announced earlier this week that it had 4.21 million customers, having added 28,100 in the quarter. BT said yesterday it had 5.2 million broadband customers, adding 96,000 in the last three months, although it does not split out its residential customers from its large base of business users. The UK’s fourth-largest broadband provider, BSkyB, meanwhile, added 119,000 broadband customers in the quarter, taking its total customer base to 2.6 million.

TalkTalk’s average revenue per broadband user was £23.90, slightly up on a year ago. TalkTalk, which bought rival Tiscali a year ago, said its share of net broadband adds was about 10% this quarter, keeping it on track to add 140,000 to 180,000 customers over the year as a whole.

Revenues climbed 31% in the quarter to £444m, broadly in line with expectations.

The company said it remained confident it would deliver 6-8% revenue growth, and 20% growth in normalised earnings per share and dividends per share for the year to 31 March 2011.

Vodafone, meanwhile, has a number of other wholesale deals which allow companies to use its network to become what are termed mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). It provides network coverage for BT, Asda and Lebara, which targets the UK’s immigrant population.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Internet and phone provider TalkTalk signed a deal with Vodafone to launch a mobile voice and data tariffs under its own brand, creating a larger bundle of services from the autumn.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Internet and phone provider TalkTalk signed a deal with Vodafone to launch a mobile service under its own brand, adding mobile voice and data tariffs to its bundle of services to match competitors.

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The Sony Ericsson Zylo is out now on The One Plan from 3. For just £28 per month you get 2000 minutes to any network, virtually unlimited texts and free calls to other phones on the same network. It also comes with 1GB of data per month. Amazing value for money. Other tariffs are available from just £13 per month.

The Sony Ericsson Zylo has social networking at its heart and includes a Walkman player for enhanced audio quality. Facebook and Twitter come pre-loaded to get you to the latest wall updates and tweets quickly and easily. Web browsing with HSPA offers a speedy browsing experience with Google Search to help you find the information you need.

The 3.2 megapixel camera features Photo fix, 2x digital zoom and geo-tagging. You can post your snaps on Picasa and Flickr to share the moment with family and friends. The camera can also capture video clips and the pre-loaded YouTube application allows you to upload your clips or view a huge variety of other videos.

The walkman player features shake control, Clear Stereo and Clear Bass to make the most of your music. Listen to your favourite tracks out loud or enjoy stereo sound on a Bluetooth headset. The internal memory can be expanded up to 16GB so you can carry your music collection with you.

Entertainment options include a FM Radio with RDS, video player and video streaming. All message options are included with SMS, MMS, Email and instant messaging.

Compare all Sony Ericsson Zylo deals

This new Android phone from ZTE is available on The One Plan from 3. For just £28 per month you get 2000 minutes to any network, virtually unlimited texts and free calls to other phones on the same network. It also comes with 1GB of data per month. Other tariffs avaialble from £13 per month.

The ZTE Racer sports the Android 1.6 operating system that opens up a massive range of downloadable applications, many of which are free, to boost the already impressive feature set. Styled on a Palm type design the Racer offers an up to date look that will impress.

The front fascia is dominated by the large 2.8 inch QVGA touch-screen display thus providing plenty of space for operation and content alike. 3G Internet access opens up a world of virtual shops, news and sports sites wherever you are, and finally means the laptop can be left at home or in the office. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi and wireless Bluetooth, crucial for today’s need to connect with each other quickly and safely. The ZTE Racer provides entertainment with a FM radio and offers guided navigation with GPS support.

Compare all ZTE Racer deals

How low do they go?

Network operator T-Mobile has at last revealed its price-plans for the iPhone 4.…

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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?

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Mystery Shopper is interested in the new iPhone 4 and the costs of upgrading early, data limits, tariffs and staff thoughts. Will it be as good as the hype suggests?

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Sooner or later someone was going to challenge the way tariff pricing has been formulated and revolutionise the industry with a new and simplified pricing method that makes sense. So, it should be no surprise to most that it is the 3 network that has taken the initiative and created The One Plan.

The One Plan offers peace of mind and freedom of use by removing the so-called ‘unlimited packages’ that are capped with a fair usage policy that can often cripple users with large and unexpected bills. Instead, The One Plan brings a huge amount of clearly defined free usage that comprises of 1GB of data, 5000 text messages, 2000 minutes to any network any time and 5000 minutes for calling other mobiles on 3.

If you’re thinking about an iPhone 4 then you’ll be delighted to see a SIM only option with The One Plan at a low price of £25pm on a 12 month contract. Pick up a SIM free iPhone 4 direct from Apple for £499 and it works out cheaper than any of the deals available on Orange, O2 or Vodafone.

If you prefer a new phone on The One Plan then 24 month contracts are available. The cost of line rental depends on which phone you choose, it starts at £28 per month for phones such as the Nokia E63 or the LG Viewty GT. The HTC Desire is available for £35 per month.

The The One Plan has placed 3 at the forefront of the UK networks with probably the most attractive and easy to understand price plan that simply makes sense.

Most popular deals on The One Plan

Google claims new software, dubbed Android 2.2 Froyo, could facilitate fivefold increase in performance speeds

Nexus One users can today get their hands on the latest Android software update, dubbed Android 2.2 Froyo. The over-the-air update will be restricted to Nexus One handsets initially, and will be gradually rolled out throughout this week.

Six months after the release of Android 2.1, Google says the new software – revealed at the company’s annual I/O conference last month – could increase performance speeds by up to five times. Good news, too, for those wanting to use their Android-powered device as a portable WiFi hotspot, as the Froyo software upgrade now allows.

What else do we get with the 2.2 upgrade?

Certain mobiles using 2.2 software will be able to share their WiFi connection with up to eight other devices. And you can now use 2.2-powered devices as a 3G connection for Windows and Linux laptops by plugging in with a USB cable. CPU performance has been given a boost, with the software upgrade able to load data two-to-five times faster. An upgrade to the memory should result in faster app-switching and a “smoother performance” on memory-constrained devices, Google said. Performance of the browser has also been bolstered when loading ‘JavaScript-heavy‘ pages and pages with Flash.

Users can now access the three pages – phone, applications finder and browser – from any of the five home screen panels.

The camera and galleries have been given a modest overhaul as well – everything from white balance to geo-tagging to flash can be done with on-screen buttons. An LED flash also lets users film in the dark or in low-light settings.

Apple released its own software upgrade, iOS4, last week compatible with iPhones 3G, 3GS and 4, as well as the new-generation iPod Touch.

Android 2.2 is expected to reach HTC Desire devices by Q3 this year. An HTC spokesperson told Recombu: “We are working hard with our partners to update the HTC Sense experience on Froyo and distribute it to our customers as fast as possible. We expect to release updates for several of our 2010 models including Desire, Legend and Wildfire beginning in Q3.”

Vodafone told the Guardian that it is in the process of getting approval of its own version of Android 2.2, and that the software upgrade will be rolled out to customers in due course. The mobile network also encouraged those planning to make use of Froyo’s tethering capabilities to consider signing up to a Vodafone price plan, saying that 3G tethering would eat into a user’s data tariff.

More follows

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iPhone 4 will be available to order in 24 hours, on the 24th of June. Customers will have the option of 16GB/32GB memory options and a traditional glossy black or modern smooth white colour scheme. In addition to this the iPhone 3GS 8GB becomes available with superb pricing entry points and range of tariffs to suit all needs.

T-Mobile and 3 have yet to reveal their pricing and we’ve heard from a reliable source that there could be some cheaper options for business users and self-employed within the next couple of weeks. But for now, let’s take a look at the initial offers from Vodafone and Orange, which will be available to buy online tomorrow, and O2’s deals which will only be available to buy in-store.

iPhone 4 16GB – To buy the handset for just £29 all three networks are offering 1200 minutes for £45pm on a 24-month contract. Here the similarities end though with Vodafone offering 1GB of Internet/Web mail per month, 1GB of Wi-Fi usage with BT Openzone and 5MB of European roaming data usage per day. Orange has offered ‘unlimited’ mobile Internet and Wi-Fi with BT Openzone with a fair usage policy of 750MB per month. Unlimited access to The Cloud and BT Openzone Wi-Fi (fair usage policy in force) is provided by O2 along with 750MB of data usage.

For those wishing to keep the monthly line rental to a minimum, O2 and Vodafone offer £25pm rentals with the iPhone available at £279/£219 respectively and Orange offer a rental at £30pm with a fantastic price of only £169 for the handset. The same data offers apply as above but with O2 lowering their data usage 500MB per month and Vodafone removing their free European roaming data.

iPhone 4 32GB – Things get a little shaken up here so those who desire the high-end memory iPhone 4 can really take advantage of the networks different takes on what the user may want.

Vodafone and Orange tempt those who want a low handset cost with Orange pricing the iPhone at £29 with unlimited minutes, data and Wi-Fi for £75pm whilst Vodafone costs the handset at £59 with 3000 minutes, 1GB of data, 1GB of Wi-Fi and include their 5MB daily European roaming promotion.

Lower monthly line rentals see the handset costs ballooning up to £300+ but O2 provide some nice middle ground. Its £45pm/1200 free minutes and 750MB of data plan have the iPhone priced at £129 with unlimited access to The Cloud and BT Openzone.

iPhone 3GS 8GB – The release of the iPhone 4 opens up an attractive set of offers here for the new 8GB release of the iPhone 3GS. Provided free of charge across all three networks with 600 free minutes at £35pm the iPhone 3GS becomes a tempting, low cost offer. Various amounts of data and Wi-Fi usage are on offer to ensure the best of the iPhones features can be enjoyed without the threat of large bills arriving through the letter box.

A full set of 18 month contracts are also available with Vodafone providing the handsets at the same cost but with an additional £5pm added to the rental. Orange has taken the opposite route with the line rental remaining the same but with a significant increase in the iPhones cost.

We think the networks should be praised for being brave enough to take a range of different approaches to the device and line rental costs as this has ensured that you, the user, can get the very best deal tailored to your own needs.

Compare iPhone 4 16GB deals

Sending mobile data over your broadband with paid-for femtocell will count against monthly tariff

Vodafone has a nasty shock in store for would-be users of its “femtocell”, which boosts patchy mobile signals indoors by sending the voice and data signal over the customer’s home broadband. Any mobile data sent over the home broadband connection will still be charged against customers’ monthly usage, the company has told the Guardian.

Outlining plans for future deployment, Vodafone senior marketing manager Lee McDougall said Vodafone is confident that consumer uptake of femtocells will be high. However he declined to give figures for sales since the launch in July 2009, or to say what increase in mobile use had been seen by femtocell users.

Femtocells – whose name comes from the prefix “femto”, meaning one millionth of a billionth – are designed to improve mobile network coverage by plugging into a home broadband network and providing a 3G connection to attached phones.

Vodafone remains the only UK mobile operator in the UK to offer femtocells, through two different price plans. The current range – dubbed Sure Signal boxes – are retailing at £50 for existing customers on contracts over £25 per month, or £120 – £5 per month for two years – for those on smaller contracts or pay-as-you-go contracts.

But though femtocells effectively relieve load on the mobile network, and send them via the broadband paid for by the customer, any minutes used calling via the femtocell will be taken from a customers monthly allowance, despite having already paid for the bandwidth in the original package. And mobile data sent via Sure Signal – and through the customer’s broadband – will count against the data tariff for the contract as though the customer were outside using a mobile mast.

In Japan, mobile corporation SoftBank offers free femtocell packages to existing customers. Asked why Vodafone would not be following its lead, McDougall said: “Different markets have different drivers. We know we’ve got a competitive product.”

At a time when data traffic is doubling every four months, according to O2, femtocells are an inexpensive solution to rapidly growing demand. Data transfers over femtocell are also far less expensive to the network operator than other means, as Dave Nowicki of mobile technology firm Airvana confirmed. “The marginal cost of delivery per gigabyte is much lower,” he said. “Femtocells are complementary to Wi-Fi.”

The Advertising Standards Authority last week upheld four complaints from rival mobile operators who said that advertising for the product was “misleading”.

Vodafone’s poster campaign pictured a man leaning out of his apartment window, apparently struggling to get a mobile signal, headed: “Only Vodafone can guarantee mobile signal in your home.”

The most pointed complaint came from rival mobile operator O2 which said Vodafone did not make clear users would have to pay additional costs for a femtocell device. On this, the ASA said it was reasonable for people to infer that a guaranteed signal was part of the original mobile package – but because this was not the case, the advertisement was likely to mislead.

McDougall told the Guardian the campaign would be modified to take into account the ASA ruling, maintaining that Vodafone Sure Start boxes would not be a hard sell to would-be customers.

“Customers have told us the product is lifechanging for them,” McDougall told the Guardian. “They said it had made a significant difference to their life. The more they hear about them the more they’re interested.”

Although he said he couldn’t put a figure on it, internal reports showed a higher-than-predicted uplift in data usage for customers trialling the Sure Signal boxes.

“Feedback from an 8m-leaflet door drop indicated that 90% of potential customers were willing to pay up front; unsurprisingly the desire to boost mobile signal was the biggest driver,” he said.

In the US, AT&T is taking the same approach to mobile data sent through femtocells as Vodafone, and counting it against the customer’s bill. AT&T argues that it is costly to install the systems at ISPs which will collect the voice and mobile data being sent by broadband and route it through its own network.

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(Source The Guardian)

O2 has announced prices for the iPhone 4, but there has been some confusion
over the cheapest monthly tariff.

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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.

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(Source The Guardian)

Apple sees sales of 600,000 units on Tuesday, with demand in Germany 10 times ahead of that for last year’s model

Apple has reported overwhelming demand for its new iPhone 4 model, selling more than 600,000 in a single day on Tuesday which saw ordering websites crash in the US and UK.

In Germany, demand for the new model, which was only unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs at the start of the month, is running 10 times ahead of that for last year’s model, the iPhone 3GS, reported Deutsche Telekom.

By comparison, when the iPhone 3GS went on sale last year, 1m were sold in its first three days. But that debuted in eight countries, whereas the iPhone 4 has gone on sale only in five.

Apple has apologised to people who tried to order the phone and gave up in frustration, saying demand was far higher than it expected. “We hope that they will try again.. once the iPhone 4 is in stock.”

Since its debut in June 2007, Apple’s smartphone has taken a huge chunk of the smartphone market and forced companies such as RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, and Nokia, which has the lion’s share of smartphone sales, to play catchup. Nokia issued another profits warning on Wednesday, and its share of the smartphone market is falling every quarter.

In the UK, where Apple is offering the phone without a contract through its online store, Apple’s website crashed as people tried to order it. And in the US, where it is only available with a contract from AT&T, the telephone company’s website froze as it tried to cope with an avalanche of orders each of which had to be verified on its own servers. That also led to problems in which some customers saw details of other peoples’ accounts – a reminder of the flaw exposed by a security group last week in which hundreds of thousands of Apple iPad users’ emails were stolen via weak security on AT&T’s site.

As a result of the heavy demand Apple has had to push back the delivery date for phones ordered online, and on Wednesday AT&T suspended orders, citing “unexpectedly high demand”.

Apple said “it was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.”

Last year in the UK O2 had exclusive rights to sell the new iPhone, and said then that more of those handsets were sold in the first two hours of trading than all handsets in an average day.

This year Apple is selling the iPhone 4 without a contract – at £499 for the cheapest version – and O2, Vodafone, Orange and 3 are competing to offer it on contract terms. However neither O2 or 3 have yet announced prices, or allowed customers to pre-order the phone.

However the new contracts being offered for the phones have sparked anger among web users, who say that the carriers’ use of the word “unlimited” for the amount of data that can be downloaded through the smartphone is misleading. The companies impose a “fair use” cap, while describing the service as “unlimited”.

Now, a formal review by the advertising regulator could be about to put a cap on the practice.

This could mean that fixed-line and mobile operators will not be able to use the term “unlimited broadband” unless they are offering a genuinely unlimited service – and that means nothing in the small print that lets the provider send warnings to customers if they reach a certain threshold.

The review is being led by the Advertising Standards Authority, reports New Media Age, which will work with two ad industry bodies to make a comprehensive assessment of industry claims and consumer complaints on both broadband speeds and “unlimited” tariff penalties.

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(Source The Guardian)

Claims about misleading “unlimited” broadband promotions have been brewing for years, but a formal review by the advertising regulator could be about to put a cap on the practice.

This is likely to mean two things. Firstly, that fixed-line and mobile operators will not be able to use the term “unlimited broadband” unless they are offering a genuinely unlimited service – and that means nothing in the small print that lets the provider send warnings to customers if they reach a certain threshhold. A Which? study last year found that had happened to 11% of a base of 11,000 broadband users.

Which? also found that increased consuer use of multimedia services is making it harder for providers to keep up with demand.


Photo by Gavin St. Ours on Flickr. Some rights reserved

The second implication is for smartphone tariffs, which are now starting to specify data caps. O2 is ditching “unlimited” data plans with the launch of the iPhone 4 in the UK on 24 June, while Vodafone ditched the term last December, based on feedback ahead of its introductory iPhone tariff. O2 have insisted that only 3% of the heaviest data users will notice the “limited” tariffs and will have to pay a data charge top-up for usage over their tariff allowance.

The review is being led by the Advertising Standards Authority, reports New Media Age, which will work with two ad industry bodies to make a comprehensive assessment of industry claims and consumer complaints on both broadband speeds and “unlimited” tariff penalties.

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(Source The Guardian)

Not cheap

Orange has posted its iPhone 4 tariffs, but you’ll need to spend big to get one of the handsets for free.…

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(Source The Register)

Read em’ and weep, Yanks

Apple’s iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan on Tuesday, and today Vodafone UK let slip its pricing policies — and US iPhoners have reason to be jealous.…

Free White Paper – Finding an upside in the downturn with data quality

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UK mobile operator O2 is scrapping its unlimited mobile broadband data
offering.

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(Source Yahoo UK News)