iPhones for all !
Posted: September 29, 2009 Filed under: Business, iPhone, Telecoms | Tags: 3, 3g, 3gs, h3g, iPhone, iphone 3gs, o2, orange, T-Mobile, three, vodafone Leave a commentIn two seperate press releases this week it has been announced that 02 exclusivity of the iPhone has ended and other networks have been keen to pick it up.
There are over 1 million iPhones in the UK and all the networks have already claimed to have seen unlocked versions live on their networks, it was first thought that 02 would retain the exclusive deal for the latest model and Orange & T-Mobile would run a product behind, however it now appears that both Orange and Vodafone have been able to pick up the lucritive 3Gs deal.
Orange now have the iPhone availalbe in 28 countries and have the largest 3G network in the UK. Both Vodafone and o2 will be able to offer the product across the UK and Ireland and it is rumoured that T-Mobile (who will get the phone anyway when the Orange merger goes through) and H3g are also in negotiated to get the product.
Orange will go live with the iPhone 3g and 3gs this year whilst Voda will have to wait until the new year.
What does this mean for the customer ?
We will have to wait and see how these deals will effect the price of the handset. Apple are very clever at setting and sticking to thier prices, the Macbook Pro is availalbe in mulitply competing retailers but you will struggle to get it for less that £899.
It does mean more choice for customers though and more competitive tarriffs. People will be able to choose a network that gives them the coverage that they need, something that 02 have suffered from greatly in Northern Ireland is the lack of 3G coverage.
See below – Vodafones press release.
29 September 2009
VODAFONE TO SELL iPHONE IN UK AND IRELAND
Vodafone and Apple today confirmed that they have reached agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to the UK and Ireland in early 2010.
Beginning today, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Ireland customers can register their interest in iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS at www.vodafone.co.uk/iphone and www.vodafone.ie/iphone respectively. Pricing, tariffs and availability information will be announced locally in the future.
Vodafone now offers iPhone through thirteen of its operating companies.
Mobile broadband speeds fall short
Posted: September 22, 2009 Filed under: Business, Telecoms, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: bbc, mobile broadband, o2, orange, T-Mobile, three, vodafone, Wi-Fi Leave a commentAlmost three and a half thousand broadband connections were tested over a five month period.
The firm found that users recorded an average download speed of 1.1Mbs, substantially lower than advertised.
However, some experts queried the results, saying that quantifying mobile broadband was almost impossible.
Rob Webber, Broadband Expert’s commercial director, explained how they did the tests.
“These are tests performed by users on the Broadband Expert website. They select their internet service provider, their promised connection speed, and the sort of connection they have.
“As a result, some providers got tested more than others and we did not have enough data on British Telecom or Virgin Mobile to give a valid result,” he said.
Mr Webber said that mobile internet service providers should advertise the average download speeds, rather than than the maximum possible speed. “Advertising this way will not help the long-term growth of mobile broadband or the reputation of the providers if customers feel they are being misled,” he said. ‘Variables’ But Ian Fogg, an analyst with market research firm Forrester Research, said that there were so many variables involved with mobile broadband an average speed comparison would be “meaningless”. “While an average comparison of home base broadband [ADSL and Cable] has some merit, it just isn’t practical for mobile internet,” he said. “People move – that’s the whole point of mobile broadband – and their physical location will have a huge bearing on what sort of connection they will have. “They may have a good or poor signal, which will instantly affect connection speeds. Then there is the type of connection, a rural network may still be an a 2G network with speeds, at best, of a few hundred kilobits. “And, of course, there is time of day. The number of users on line using a network makes a far bigger difference than on home base broadband,” he added. Vodafone, who had the lowest percentage of advertised speeds according to the Broadband Expert survey, issued a statement saying that “reliability and consistency were more important to customers than speed”. “We’ve been careful to communicate what customers will typically experience from mobile broadband and give examples on our website to show how long a presentation, image or document will take to download using 1.2Mbps,” the statement read. Mr Fogg said it was hard to compare different mobile ISPs in a meaningful way. “There is no easy way of marketing the speeds that would fit into a headline,” he said. “What networks are saying is that their infrastructure is being upgraded and so are giving the highest peak speed that their network is capable of.” |
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Oh Dear Kanye
Posted: September 17, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentDon’t think you are going to live this one down in a hurry Kanye, best think before you speak in future !
Who will buy Spinvox ?
Posted: September 12, 2009 Filed under: Business, Interesting, Internet, Wi-Fi | Tags: 3, communications, ebay, hutchinson, o2, orange, skype, spinvox, spinvox for sale, technology, telefonica, telephone, three, uk telcos, vodafone, who will buy spinvox Leave a comment
It has been alleged this week that Spinvox is to be ‘put up for sale’.
Spinvox is a texting service which takes your voicemail messages and texts them directly to your phone, allowing you to ‘read’ them when you can not make that call. Its a small and neich service with only around 130,000 global users. The firm is also trailing other service’s where you can hear a text and speak a reply whilst driving.
The speculation of the sale comes from their main investor Invesco Perpetual who has just reelavuated their £759,000 investment to just £76,000 on their balance sheets.
Spinvox HQ has deayed the rumour.
The company came used fire from the BBC earlier last year when they discovered that most voicemails where not translated by a mega computer but in fact an Indian call centre (Who care’s ?, this is how pagers used to work!!)
But who would buy Spinvox ?
It a difficult one to call, two years ago Ebay, Carphone Warehouse, Telefonica, Vodafone and a long list of firm technology firms would have been queing up to scoop the company. Things are different now, many of these big telcos do not have the bulging balance sheets of yesteryear and ebay is still trying to off load skype.
Who ever buys it (if it is for sale) would need to role it into compliment their portfolio, it would probably become a value added service as part of a telco like hutchinson who used to offer Spinvox to its 3 customers. With only 130,000 users though it is only a very small part of the mobile telco industry and it probably would not be missed in the market place.
I think the only future for Spinvox is to be bought out by a finance house and the techology licenced and backhauled to global telcos.
I guess like many things, only time will tell.
A nice message for the boys in roads and traffic
Posted: September 10, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
T-Mobile and Orange to merge UK businesses to become largest mobile telco
Posted: September 8, 2009 Filed under: Business, Interesting, Internet, iPhone, Retail, Web 2.0, Wi-Fi | Tags: 3, g1, hutchinson, Internet, mobile providers, o3, orange and t-mobile merger, orange uk, t-mobile uk, telco, telefonica, uk, vodafone Leave a commentDiscussions with other Telecoms people lately have left us all thinking the same thing. 5 Mobile operators in the UK is to much and not sustainable.
It was thought that eventually Hutchinson (3) would eventually merge or be purchased by one of the smaller UK operators such as Orange (once owned by Hutchinson) or T-Mobile (the worlds 6th largest provider).
In 2005 T-Mobile tried to purchase its smaller competitor O2 but was beaten to the post by Telefonica.
The UK messes things up and all is not as it appears, Vodafone the worlds 2nd largest provider (after China Mobile) is the 2nd largest provider in the UK but telefonica O2 which does not even rate in the worlds top 20 provider is and always has been the largest provider in UK, this is however set to change as Orange (France Telecom) and T-Mobile (T-Mobile AG) have announced they are to merge their UK businesses creating in the process, the UKs largest and leading mobile operator.
The deal (subject to competition commission approval) will take around 18 months to fully complete and see a full merger of all assets, transmitters, stores and customer bases into the new company – yet to be named.
The joint company will hold close to 40% of the UK mobile market.
From a backhaul point of view – both companies use GSM 1800 so this will make the merger of assets easier and from a customer point of view, customers will have access to more masts, faster data, edge and 3G – something that both companies have been poor at but combined the network will be not to shabby however you will have to share it with close to 30million other users.
It is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal and job losses are very likely !
Russell McQuillan 