The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Archive for May, 2007
It’s cheaper to fly than call
May 31st
Link: Rebtel Blog » Blog Archive » Rebtel research: Cheaper to fly than to call
Some interesting research courtesy of Rebtel – in fact UK Sunday tabloid News Of The World found it so interesting they wrote an article all about it.
SKY-HIGH international mobile phone charges can make it cheaper to FLY abroad for a chat with a pal than to call them up.
Industry insiders have told the News of the World that UK customers are charged up to 50 TIMES what the networks actually pay for international mobile-to-mobile call time.
You got to feel a little sorry for the operators of late. If it’s not one thing it’s another.. but on the flipside, if they really are making such a ridiculously high margin, they’ve only got themselves to blame if the Government and EU decide to launch an investigation into it.
Free AQA 63336 bash tonight in London
May 31st
Link: Remember 63336: Free AQA 63336 gig
Bit short notice, but if you’re in London tonight and fancy some great music and wicked cocktails pop along to the AQA 63336 party in Camden.
It’s being held at UNDERSOLO, which is downstairs at Bar Solo, 20 Inverness Street, NW1. Doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start, and kicking out time is 2am. They’ve got some of the bands and artists involved in the AQA 63336 album appearing live, including Emmy the Great, My Albatross and The Brent Flood.
Registration is free – just follow this link.
£3m of Vertu phones nicked in Hampshire
May 31st
Link: BBC NEWS | England | Hampshire | £3m mobile phone raid near M-way
Masked men have stolen £3m worth of deluxe mobile phones which sell for £2,500 each after forcing a van off a link road to the M3 in Hampshire.
A van from mobile phone firm Vertu was targeted near junction 4a of the M3 in Farnborough on Wednesday.
If someone offers you a Vertu phone for cheap in a pub car park, I’m sure Hampshire Police would be grateful for a call. Although they’ve made a couple of arrests, it appears the phones are still out there on the missing list.
Vodafone losses down but still not great at £5.43billion
May 31st
Loss narrows at Vodafone Group – International Herald Tribune
Despite posting a second consecutive year of staggering losses, Vodafone Group on Tuesday forecast strong growth in emerging markets and was bullish about 2008, sending its shares to a five-year high.
The company, a European mobile phone giant, said it had a net loss of £5.43 billion, or $10.75 billion, in the 12 months ended March 31, a marked improvement from its loss of £21.9 billion a year earlier. Revenue increased 6 percent to £31.1 billion.
And here’s what Arun had to say..
Vodafone’s chief executive, Arun Sarin, said the company’s prospects looked brightest in high-growth emerging markets like Turkey and India. But he said mature European economies like Britain and Germany, where almost everyone has at least one mobile phone, would be squeezed by competition, government regulation and narrowing profit margins.
Google, O2, Nokia and MVNO gossip!
May 31st
Link: Ring Nokia: Google Phone = MVNO using O2′s network in the UK + Nokia + Google’s secret sauce
Gossip gossip.. apparently there’s an announcement due in the next couple of weeks!
Shall I compare thee by a text..?
May 31st
Link: Live poetry with SMS projector tool SMS Chatwall
Poetry has gone all high-tech recently, with a recent SMS love poem contest and now a ‘poetry slam’ by text in Germany.
The locally well known livelyrix poetry slam took place in Dresden last Friday again. Ten poets presented their poems and texts in the sold out event centre Scheune. Additionally, every guest was invited to send its poem as a text message from its own mobile during the show breaks.
Yemen government clamps down on SMS
May 31st
Link: Government restricts SMS news services
The government has been restricting some SMS news services and blocking certain media websites, said journalists and opposition parties. ‘SMS news service via mobile networks are facing a legal challenge, and I call on the government to make laws to issue licenses to the companies who want to offer this service,” said Chairman of Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, Nasr Taha Mustafa. Mustafa asked the Ministry of Information to settle the problem of the restricted SMS services with al-Nass Mobile and Without Chains Mobile, in accordance with the journalism law.
Looks like another government getting jittery about freedom of speech, following on from the news a month or so ago that Iran is planning to filter MMS traffic.
One of those weeks..
May 31st
It’s been one of those weeks this week.. With Ewan sunning himself on distant shores and me (Alex) in the midst of moving house, it’s been a busy time.
Apologies for the lack of posts for the past day or so – got plenty of good stuff to come shortly, so watch this space!
Cinemas top mobile search index
May 29th
Link: webitpr | Latest Mobile Local Search Index Shows Tech Savvy Consumers Want Wireless Internet
m-spatial have just released their Winter/Spring Mobile Local Search Index, which features some interesting results.
The index, based on searches made from mobile phones in the first quarter of 2007, shows that cinemas, food and accodomation are amongst the most popular things people search for from their handset. Odeon and Cineworld take the top two places with 18% and 17% respectively, and fellow cinema chain Vue grab the number seven position with 8% share of search terms.
Also in the top 10 are Domino’s Pizza (9%), Pizza Hut (9%), Tesco (14%) and Premier Travel Inn (7%).
Clickatell launches hassle-free variable cost SMS
May 29th
Global messaging company (and site sponsor) Clickatell have today announced the launch of a mobile terminated (MT) premium rate SMS service in South Africa.
Currently offered by Vodacom and MTN in South Africa, mobile terminated services are used for subscription-based content. Because the networks offer these services in different ways, Clickatell provides an easy-to-use open interface for value-added service providers to access the networks and bill their customers. Uniquely, Clickatell pays out the full revenue share to its customers.
Good stuff, and useful if you’re wanting to enter the South African premium SMS market. Here’s two interesting things I noticed from the press release.
Firstly, the service offers variable billing – so a shortcode isn’t tied to a particular price point like it is in the UK. It’s up to the operators to support such a service, and fortunately both Vodacom and MTN do. Here in the UK a shortcode is fixed to a certain price – so if you wanted to run a service on a particular shortcode at a different price to the one it’s locked to, you’d have to send the reply from a different number. A complete arse when it comes to branding and can confuse consumers.
Second, Clickatell pay out the full revenue share they receive from the mobile operators. That’s a refreshing change – most PSMS service providers take their cut along the way, and have a habit of hiding the true income they’re making from your service. Given a choice between a company who are open with their payouts and one that surrounds it with smoke and mirrors, I’d chose the former.
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