The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Archive for September, 2009
iPhone OS 3.1 – what’s new and improved
Sep 10th
You can’t have failed to hear that Apple had a little get-together last night – unless, of course, you don’t use Twitter, don’t watch the news or have spent the past 14 hours or so with a tin foil hat on your head.
New iPods – and the second coming of Jesus first public appearance of Steve Jobs in months aside, the event also saw the official launch of iPhone OS 3.1. So what’s new, and is it worth an upgrade?
The main featured additions seem to involve Apple’s clever ‘Genius’ recommendation system. Already a feature in later versions of iTunes, Genius on iPhone OS 3.1 will recommend you apps based on your appstore purchase/download history and, in conjunction with iTunes 9, turn your music library into mixes.
Also on the list for 3.1 is ringtones – and lots of them – over 30,000 in fact. Priced at $1.29 a pop, you can browse, preview and download them on a new ‘Ringtones’ section of iTunes 9.
Meanwhile there’s a whole heap of bug fixes and little changes over OS 3.0. Apple claim 3.1 brings improved syncing for iTunes and iPhoto content, better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when you’ve got Bluetooth switched on, anti-phishing warnings in Safari, improved Exchange calendar syncing, Bluetooth headset voice control for the 3Gs, and a few other bits and bobs along the way.
OS 3.1 is available now, and more details are on the Apple site here.
This article first appeared on Mobile Industry Review.
Vodafone UK Launches Vodafone One Net To Save Small And Medium Sized Businesses 20% On Fixed And Mobile Communications Costs
Sep 10th
From today, small and medium sized businesses can save up to 20% on their communications costs with Vodafone One Net, a service that combines fixed and mobile voice to deliver a simpler, more effective way to manage communications.
Vodafone One Net ensures that businesses are able to work effectively whether in the office or out and about. The single service ensures businesses are always available to their customers at the same time as giving them greater cost control on communications spend via a flexible, scalable service that can grow or contract depending on the size of the workforce.
Vodafone One Net offers a single number for landline and mobile phones, one voicemail for all fixed and mobile messages, one contract and a single point of contact to cover all communications needs. Business customers can switch seamlessly between their mobile and landline phone depending on where they are. This means making or receiving a call in the office on a fixed phone and continuing it on the move via mobile is now a reality.
Customers can opt to pay a predictable flat call rate, per user subscription, allowing flexibility as the business grows or contracts, with the cost of the call remaining the same whether fixed or mobile.
The Vodafone One Net service also offers customers the opportunity to have a virtual switchboard, fully hosted by Vodafone UK which can support businesses with multiple office locations. Rather than having a fixed switchboard or PBX, Vodafone UK takes care of the management of communications between locations, routing the call via the most effective channel. One Net also offers call quality monitoring, so customers benefit from business-grade service levels and network performance.
“Our small and medium sized business customers have told us that they want to deal with one trusted communications provider who can support them in improving business efficiency, delivering outstanding customer service and improving cash flow whilst remaining responsive to changing business needs,” says Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director for Vodafone UK. “Vodafone One Net delivers this by enabling businesses to work effectively in or out of the office, providing a one stop support service for fixed and mobile voice communications that also effectively reduces costs.”
Fixed calls are provided through Vodafone UK’s extended partnership with BT Wholesale.
The launch of Vodafone One Net follows the successful launch in July 2009 of Vodafone One, offering integrated voice, data and fixed line services for corporate customers.
Zmail of China selects Momail mobile mail
Sep 10th
Momail will supply Zmail with its award winning mobile email platform. Zmail is China’s largest local email hosting service provider, serving customers across greater China.
Beijing, China – September 9, 2009. Momail announces that it has signed a deal with Zmail of China. With Momails award winning mobile email platform Zmail can offer their email hosting customers across China, a very easy and fast way to enable mobile email.
“When looking for a mobile extension of our very popular email service, Momail meet all the criteria we had. Besides working on most mobile handsets, we found it very easy to get started and to use, and very fast and cost-effective in the use of mobile data. We also like smart functionality like the Momail superinbox and dynamic sender. Furthermore the Momail mobile mail platform promises some very interesting add-on services and possibilities, which our customers will be able to get”, says You Mei-Rong, General Manager of Zmail.
Zmail is the largest local email hosting services provider in China. The company serves small and medium sized companies with email hosting and domain name services. These SME customers will soon have a mobile mail extension to their email. With the mobile email platform from Momail, Zmail’s customers can get their email on the widest range of mobile phones, today more than 1500 different models. Furthermore these customers will get the fastest and most cost-effective mobile email solution available on the market today. With Momails patented Mobile Message Optimization & Protection Engine (MMOPE) all emails, including attachments like photos and documents, are optimized with up to 99,9% before reaching the mobile. This speeds up the transfer and saves cost for mobile data traffic.
“We’re excited that Zmail decided to base its mobile email extension of its very successful email hosting service on our mobile email platform. Very soon the Zmail customers can enjoy the fastest, smartest and most cost-effective mobile email solution available on the market”, says Kenneth Lundin, CEO of Momail.
The Orange/T-Mobile merger – what we know so far
Sep 9th
It may have only been unveiled a matter of hours ago, but the PR teams at both T-Mobile and Orange have been busy assembling a veritable ream of information about the proposed merger of their two businesses. And some video too (at the end of this post).
First, some headline figures. As mentioned in the post earlier, the joint venture will create the UK’s biggest mobile operator – with an approximate 37% market share based on figures from the end of 2008. Orange have also revealed if you combined the 2008 figures from both operators you’d get revenue of approximately £7.7 billion, and EBITDA (profitability to you and me) of £1.7 billion.
People-wise, Richard Moat – T-Mobile UK’s current CEO, will take up the COO position, with the CEO hotseat being taken over by Tom Alexander, current CEO of Orange UK. Whilst it’s far too early to predict redundancies, there are already plans in place to reduce the number of retail outlets, and combine customer service, network and general/adminstration functions. These activities – along with the decommissioning of duplicate cell sites – is estimated to cost between £600m and £800m between 2010 and 2014.
Talking about cellsites and networks – most of that £600m-£800m cost will be taken up by decommissioning redundant duplicate radio network infrastructure. T-Mobile will contribute the 50% share of their joint radio network with Hutchinson 3G (3 to its friends and customers) to the pot, who incidentally already use Orange’s 2G network for fill-in coverage. Assuming T-Mobile and 3 put both their radio networks into the joint venture, you’ll end up with the interesting situation of 3 using a joint 3G network shared with Orange and T-Mobile, and a GSM network operated by Orange and T-Mobile.
Back to the subject of money, but still on the point of the shared 3G network currently (pre-merger) owned 50/50 by T-Mobile and 3, that’s clocked up gross tax losses so far of at least £1.5 billion. Looking at the bigger picture, France Telecom will be contributing, along with Orange UK, £1.25 billion of intra-group debt to the pot. Deutsche Telekom will then loan £625 million to the joint venture, which will be immediately paid back to France Telecom. After all is said and done, that leaves a joint debt of £1.25 billion, split 50/50 down the middle with £625 million of loans owed each to Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.
So will the T-Mobile and Orange brands be disappearing from our High Street just yet? Not for a while, it seems. Both companies have committed to maintain separate brands for 18 months after the completion of the merger – so it could be at least a couple of years until we see a new (and as yet unnamed) ‘super brand’ hitting the mobile world.
(This article was first published on Mobile Industry Review)
T-Mobile and Orange to announce merger tomorrow?
Sep 7th
Just in: Reuters is reporting T-Mobile UK and Orange are set to announce they are in exclusive talks to form a joint venture.
Whilst neither party will comment on the report, sources close to both companies said an official announcement could happen as early as tomorrow (Tuesday).
Reports over the weekend in the UK Sunday newspapers claimed Vodafone and O2′s parent company Telefonica had already submitted bids of £3.5bn for Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile UK business unit.
A combination of O2 and T-Mobile would bring around a 42% market share in the UK, Vodafone and T-Mobile 40%, whilst a joint venture with Orange could grab 37% of the market.
Why are 3 UK blocking Wapedia? (updated)
Sep 3rd
I sometimes think I’m like ‘Jonny 5′, the robot out of the cult 80′s movie ‘Short Circuit‘. Need input.. information, information and more information. That’s why I like Wikipedia – once you’ve done with browsing the usual mobile-tailored news portals you can pass many a dull journey on public transport by typing in something random into Wikipedia and seeing what comes up.
I started using Wapedia the other day. Whilst it’s been around since 2004, I’ve never really stumbled across it. Run by Taptu.com it gives you a nice fast way to access Wikipedia on the go – and, in my humblest opinion, looks nicer than Wikipedia’s native mobile interface.
Anyway, when I clicked on my Wapedia bookmark on my E71 a day or so ago I got the following message:
Blocked? Eh? Maybe I’d bookmarked it wrong, so I typed in wapedia.mobi into the browser. Again, the same message. So I left it a day or so, and tried again. Still blocked.
I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of a reason 3 would block Wapedia. Is it an adult site? Not that I know of – besides, from what I’ve seen there’s a different message for that (if you’ve got a 3 phone try firing up something like www.thepiratebay.org on your browser). Is it dangerous? Well, if you believe everything you read on Wikipedia, maybe. But seriously though, it worked for a few days then BANG! – blocked for no apparent reason.
I’ll fire an email to 3′s PR team and Taptu (the people behind Wapedia) shortly – hopefully it’s a simple mistake and not something more sinister.
UPDATE: Less than 24 hours after I wrote the above, Wapedia mysteriously got unblocked. Chris over at Taptu says they’ve asked 3 to look into it – but doubts they’ll get to the bottom of this little mystery. Still – all’s well that ends well.
UK Government say mobile phones are safe for kids
Sep 1st
New guidelines from the UK Government’s Department of Health say that it’s perfectly safe for young children to use mobile phones – and any heating of the head caused by radio waves is no more dangerous than ‘taking a hot bath’.
According to the Daily Mail, the change in advice is likely to lead to phone manufacturers and networks blitzing kids with marketing in an attempt to persuade them they need a mobile.
Previous advice from the Government said: “The widespread use of mobile phones by under-16s should be discouraged for non-essential calls” – whereas the new draft leaflet seen by the Daily Mail claims “there is no scientific or biological evidence that radio waves cause cancer”, and on the subject of mobile phones heating up the brain, “Body heating is normal and happens with exercise or in a hot bath with no ill effects”.
Alasdair Philips from Powerwatch – an independent organisation leading the debate in health issues concerning electromagnetic fields and microwave radiation, said: “A number of international studies have found a significant increase in brain tumours among people who have used a cellphone for more than ten years.
“It’s incredible that the notion there is no good reason to restrict children’s use of mobile phones could be the official Government line. This would be completely irresponsible and immoral. Parents are under pressure to buy mobiles for their children at younger and younger ages. By doing this they may well be giving them brain tumours in 30 years’ time.
“The Government seems to be more interested in tax revenue from mobile phone calls – which is about £15billion per year now – than in the protection of public health. Children under 11 should not use a mobile, full stop. Older children should be encouraged to text only and hold their handset away from their body when they do so.”
Meanwhile, the official stance in other countries around the world remains unchanged. In France, advertising mobile phone products at the under-12′s is banned. In Canada, the government advise under eights should only use mobiles in emergencies and teens limit their calls to under ten minutes. Meanwhile in Russia, under-18′s are advised ‘against excessive usage’.
HSL Announce Managed Service for Zero-CAPEX Femtocell Deployments
Sep 1st
HSL, the mobile network and provider of mobile infrastructure, are today announcing a service for mobile network operators to enable their subscribers to gain the benefits of the HSL 2.75G Femtocell without the need for operator CAPEX and with minimal OPEX.
Many mobile users in rural, suburban and urban locations experience problems using their mobile phone indoors due to poor coverage. As a result of this users can experience very low mobile service availability or no service at all. This problem is particularly acute for 3G mobile users but also greatly impacts 2G mobile users. Poor coverage prevents a mobile user from making use of their mobile phone in a location important to them such as their home or office. Given that on average at least 30% of calls occur when at home, poor coverage in the home is a real issue for mobile operators.
The HSL 2.75G Femtocell enables operators to gain increased revenue per subscriber by increasing service availability for those 2G and 3G subscribers experiencing coverage quality issues. Unlike 3G-only femtocells the HSL 2.75G Femtocell can provide service to all 2G and 3G mobile phones, enabling an operator’s whole subscriber base to be addressed and provided with high quality voice, messaging and fast EDGE data.
HSL’s managed service allows operators to outsource the deployment and operation of their femtocell network, while maintaining control of their network and service quality through clearly defined service levels. The financial expenditure of such outsourcing is significantly reduced when compared with other forms of femtocell network deployment, particularly when coupled with HSL’s approach to deployment. Oprators can exercise a limited involvement in their femtocell network and outsource many aspects of the femtocell network to HSL.
Mark Hay, Managing and Technical Director, commented on this service: “The managed service being launched today provides mobile network operators with a fast and very low cost route to launch their own femtocell network. HSL are well placed to not only build the femtocell infrastructure required but also to operate this managed service to deliver the best from our hardware for our mobile network customers and their subscribers.”
HSL is now engaging with mobile network operators around the world to discuss the managed service in detail. One of the first major engagements with operators will take place 18-22 October at GITEX Technology Week in Dubai, UAE. Operators are invited to contact HSL Technical Sales at femtocell@haysystems.com should they wish to discuss HSL’s femtocell managed service and the HSL 2.75G Femtocell
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