The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Posts tagged Mobile Data
INQ1 handset owners are top mobile data users
Jun 10th
INQ Mobile, makers of the INQ1 mobile handset for 3, have released data on how the network’s UK customers use the handset.
According to the company an average of 65% of INQ1 customers are using Facebook, with the majority of users accessing once a day or more. 30% of INQ1 customers are regularly using email, and Windows Live Messenger usage is 3-4 times higher than other 3G phones on the 3 UK network – with approximately 50% of INQ1 owners using it at least once a month.
Unsurprisingly Skype usage is also quite high – with 19% of the INQ1 base using the VoIP service to chat and make calls.
“3 have always led the industry when it comes to widespread data and mobile internet activity amongst the base but the numbers we’re seeing on INQ’s Social Mobiles really pushes us to a new, truly mass level,” said Marc Allera, Director of Sales and Marketing at 3G only operator 3 UK. “The INQ results with high customer take-up of the integrated services, confirms that 3′s strategy of delivering easy to use, well priced mobile internet solutions for everyone is right. If an internet communication service is well designed, always on, and simple to use then the take-up potential on mobile is huge. The reason people don’t use internet services on most devices (except the iPhone) is because the user experience on nearly all devices isn’t good enough. The INQ team has very successfully addressed this.”
“The iPhone and Blackberry are great devices, but it is important to remember that smartphones only make up 12% of the market.* We see a huge opportunity to provide an internet and social networking experience on a handset that costs operators a fraction of what they’re paying for higher end phones,” said Frank Meehan, CEO of INQ Mobile. “Consumers with an INQ1 can get unlimited data, internet and texts on £15 pay as you go tariff. And now we have seen that they are actually using the phone to access data services like Skype, Windows Live Messenger, email and Facebook at an astonishing rate. We are very happy to see that the simple, well integrated approach we’ve taken to creating a Social Mobile is resonating with the other 88% of the market.”
INQ is also seeing strong numbers in the Hong Kong market, which launched with the INQ1 in March 2009. 50% of INQ1 customers regularly use data services on a level that is four times higher per subscriber than the typical 3G user base. Facebook usage is also three to four times higher than the average on other 3G devices on the 3 Hong Kong network.
Openwave Launches Mobile Analytics 7.0
Jun 2nd
Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV), one of the world’s leading software innovators enabling revenue-generating personalized services which converge the mobile and broadband experience, today announced the launch of Openwave Mobile Analytics 7.0, a solution that provides deep analytics and rich reporting for mobile devices, including feature phones, smartphones, netbooks and other mobile devices. Openwave Mobile Analytics 7.0 is designed to help carriers better understand mobile data usage, segmented by various subscriber demographics, peak usage times, and identify data consumption patterns that ultimately can help an operator better price and deliver targeted content to users, as well as better optimize their network bandwidth.
“There has been exponential data traffic growth, driven by an increase in the number of users accessing the mobile internet and increasingly sophisticated devices being introduced to the mass market that has caused operator network traffic to spike, and this growth is expected to continue to dramatically increase in the coming years with the introduction of netbooks and an ever increasing proliferation of internet-enabled consumer devices,” said Brent Iadarola, global program director for the mobile & wireless communications group, Frost & Sullivan. “As operators plan strategies for managing the onslaught of data traffic that will likely overtax their networks, solutions that allow operators to analyze traffic usage patterns to better manage capacity and optimize bandwidth will help them to affect the topline in the near- and long-term.”
Openwave Mobile Analytics 7.0 empowers operators with the ability to better monitor, manage and monetize various types of mobile data traffic, including mobile internet, messaging and social networking usage, to better understand consumption patterns and user demographics. The product provides early identification of mobile data trends, enabling operators to make timely decisions to avoid bandwidth and capacity problems and target business opportunities while increasing revenues. The offering’s business intelligence and reporting capabilities not only describe what is happening in an operator’s network, but also provide insight as to why it is happening and what is likely to take place in the near future based on both historical and current data analysis. Unlike other analytics solutions on the market, Openwave Mobile Analytics 7.0 does not require cookies or JavaScript to tag and monitor user activity.
“The growing popularity of smartphones and other mobile-capable devices is sharply increasing data traffic, placing many operator networks at full capacity,” said Sean MacNeill, vice president of global services and support, Openwave. “Openwave’s analytics offering enables operators to improve their understanding of mobile data usage, view mobile traffic patterns and make adjustments accordingly to optimize network bandwidth and deliver targeted content to users
MacNeill will deliver a 30-minute presentation on Wednesday, June 3rd at Mobile Marketing Forum New York on Mobile Analytics where he will discuss why a deep level of business intelligence is the key element in monetizing the mobile internet through service differentiation, mobile advertising and other mobile marketing means.
The Openwave Mobile Analytics 7.0 solution is expected to be generally available through Openwave at the beginning of the third quarter of calendar year 2009.
Orange mobile data usage rockets by 4,125%
May 14th
Mobile operator Orange have unveiled their fifth Digital Media Index – and revealed dongle data usage has increased by 4,125% in the past twelve months.
In addition to the rather impressive usage of its data dongle products, the company also revealed dongle subscriptions have risen by 504% over the past year. Handset mobile browsing has also shot up – by 109%. That brings the monthly total data usage to a rather giddy 386,000 Gigabytes.
So what exactly are people using all this data for? According to Orange, music and video downloads have both increased by 38%, with social networking sites showing a 129% increase in monthly page impressions and 48% increase in monthly unique users.
Paul Jevons, Director of Products, Portals and Services for Orange, said: “The Orange Digital Media Index shows that the ‘mobile data era’ has truly arrived. Customers are repeatedly enjoying the intuitive and seamless mobile internet experience to access a greater quantity and quality of content that is designed specifically for the mobile portal – whether that’s music, videos or games – helping to drive consumer traffic. An explosion in the number of mobile applications and new embedded laptops will boost mobile data demand even further in the coming months.
“We’ve seen an enormous increase in data usage across all our entertainment and communication services, including internet, email, multimedia messaging, music downloads, photo uploads, and gaming. It is clear that innovative, exciting and accessible content for the mobile platform is increasing the popularity of mobile services which are embedded on handsets or downloaded through applications stores.”
Vodafone offer free mobile broadband for a day
Apr 30th
Customers of Vodafone UK are to get a new flat rate 50p daily rate for mobile data starting from May 1st – and to launch the offer the operator is offering free browsing for 24 hours.
Tomorrow (Friday) is ‘Freeday’, so pay as you go and contract customers who don’t already subscribe to a monthly mobile internet bundle will be able to surf the web for nowt. After May 1st it’ll just be 50p a day flat rate – a 50% reduction on the old £1/day flat rate tariff. The usual ‘it’s unlimited but really there’s a limit’ terms apply – and Vodafone are upping the cap from 15MB to 25MB.
If you’re more of a power user than a casual browser, and assuming you’re a pay monthly contract customer, Vodafone’s add-on packs are still better value for money – £5 a month for the length of your contract or £7.50 a month with no ties.
More curious, however, is what Vodafone customers do with their mobile internet connection. Stats from the company reveal that the most visited sites are Facebook, Google, BBC, YouTube, Windows Live, Bebo, and eBay. The top Google searches are Facebook, Bebo, eBay, Hotmail, YouTube, Yahoo, MSN, Google, Flirtomatic and BBC.
Yes that’s right, the top eight most searched term on Google by Vodafone customers is ‘Google’. Now we all know who to blame if the Internet breaks.
What’s the best way to fix the economy? Stop regulating the mobile industry
Apr 3rd
In one of those ‘you couldn’t make it up’ moments, the mobile industry has figured a way to fix the credit crunch – by asking the G20 to stop the regulators interfering.
Forget pumping $1 trillion into the economy – the GSM Association reckons it can single-handedly fix the credit crunch by creating 25 million jobs over the next five years, and in turn boost global GDP by 3-4% – but only if government regulators let them do what the hell they like.
In a letter to the G20 leaders yesterday, 25 industry leaders – including Nokia, NTT DoCoMo and Ericsson have said they’re prepared to spent $550 billion on mobile broadband networks, and connect 2.4 billion people worldwide to their data networks by 2013.
Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSM Assocation, told Reuters yesterday, “We’re not looking for a bail-out. We’re looking to invest. The business case for mobile broadband is highly dependent on regulatory policies. In recent times we have experienced a trend of increasing regulatory intervention, often where this is not appropriate”.
And in a rather scathing attack at the EU Commission, the industry group’s Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer Tom Phillips said: “What we’re saying is…that piecemeal approach is very damaging.It’s just about being expedient, short-term, politically popular. It’s no way to run such a strategically important industry”.
So, in other words – scrap the roaming caps, let us make huge amounts of profit, and as long as we’re alright and we’re screwing our customers we’ll be happy.
via Telcos say can help recovery if regulation eased | Deals | Regulatory News | Reuters.
More dotMobi domains up for grabs
Oct 30th
Following the success of their first auction in September 2007, mobile domain name registrar dotMobi are having another auction, kicking off tomorrow (31st October 2007).
Amongst the 100 “premium names” in the auction are such gems as car.mobi, gps.mobi, gay.mobi, kiss.mobi, love.mobi and map.mobi. If the first auction is anything to go by, the stakes will be high – back in September hosting.mobi sold for $101,000 plus bank.mobi and download.mobi both sold for more than $50,000 apiece.
“The success of our first online auction generated more than $850,000, proving that the market is seeing a strong demand for mobile content. Already, more than 7.5 million pages of .mobi content have been created, many of them using tools that dotMobi makes available for free like http://ready.mobi/ and http://site.mobi/,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “The auction proceeds allow dotMobi to make tools like these available to encourage the growth of the mobile web.”
Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo, said, “dotMobi’s premium names are specifically designed for brands wanting to reach a mobile audience The success of dotMobi’s first auction showed that there is a strong market demand for the mobile web in general and for .mobi names specifically. Additionally, the auction approach of making these premium .mobi domains available for ownership gives countless people and brands an equal opportunity to secure these most desirable domains.”
The auction – handled by domain specialists Sedo – is open to any company or individual, subject to Sedo’s standard auction terms and conditions with additional dotMobi requirements for buyers. Full information, including the list of auction names, is located on the dotMobi web site at http://premiumauction.mobi/.
Rogers ups the speed stakes
Oct 29th
Canadian mobile operator Rogers is uping the stakes with mobile data speeds in North America, unveiling what it calls the fastest download speeds in the country.
Following the expansion of it’s HSPA service to 25 Canadian markets earlier this month, Rogers – which offers service in the country under the Rogers and Fido brands – has today announced it’s begun field trials of its 3.5G 7.2Mbit/s service in Brampton and Montreal.
“The consumer appetite for mobile applications is undeniable in Canada and around the world,” said Rob Bruce, President, Rogers Wireless.” The data speeds achieved in this trial will enable Rogers to meet our customers’ needs with the most advanced, innovative services today and in the future.”
Rogers is the first wireless provider in North America to trial peak speeds of 7.2 Mbps and is among the top one percent of GSM carriers worldwide supporting 7.2. This trial launches the next evolution of Rogers GSM network, and represents a significant investment in leading-edge technologies. Rogers will have spent approximately $500 million over the past two years upgrading its network towards providing Canadians with the fastest and most reliable wireless network.
“Rogers is continuing to trial, launch and deliver innovative and reliable next generation wireless telecommunications services to Canadians,” says industry analyst, Mark Goldberg, of Mark H. Goldberg and Associates Inc. “The availability of 3.5G mobile services in our own backyard keeps Canada at the front of the world stage with respect to telecommunications services and applications.”
O2 unlimited data? Oh dear..
Sep 28th
Link: Consumer Data Bolt On – Tariffs – Mobiles & Tariffs – O2
SMS Text News reader Barry got in touch just now to highlight O2′s rather stupid ‘unlimited’ data offering. They’re trying to hard to match similar options from T-Mobile and Three, but manage to completely screw it up by throwing in loads of conditions and exclusions.
Here’s what they have to say:
O2 Web Bolt On gives you unlimited* browsing through your phone for £7.50 per month
So far so good. What do you reckon their definition of ‘unlimited’ is? 1Gb? 2Gb? Maybe even three? Nope – not a hope in hell. Buried in small print on the page, they say:
A fair use of 200MB per month applies to the O2 Web Bolt On. A fair use of 3GB per month applies to O2 Web Max.
Eh? Let’s compare this with T-Mobile. Web’n'Walk on your phone is £7.50 a month, and gives you 1Gb of data. You can even do pay-as-you-go Web’n'Walk for a quid a day.
However, there is one ray of sunshine in this whole mess. They give you a free trial of data services to all customers before you decide to commit. How much do you reckon you’ll get for free? If you’ve got a tariff with less than 600 minutes, it’s a very generous 100KB. Wow, what a lot. It gets even better if you’ve got over 600 minutes a month on your tariff – you get a whole 512KB to play with.
The bottom line? Utter crap. Sorry and all that, but it is. If these are the basis for the T&Cs for EDGE data on the iPhone, then I’m wondering whether Apple realise they’ve really shot themselves in the foot.
Update: SMS Text News reader Paul got in touch, pointing out that the T&Cs for the Web Bolt On are even more strict than first thought. Witness these points, from the O2 terms and conditions page
The O2 Web Bolt On can only be added to a consumer voice tariff and allows you unlimited use of O2′s 3G/GPRS Mobile Data Services for Permitted Uses only.
Permitted Uses of theO2 Web Bolt On are uses of your SIM Card within a handheld mobile device for the purposes of Internet Browsing and email (excluding BlackBerry® email) only.
Any other use of the O2 Web Bolt On will not be a Permitted Use, including but not limited to:
1. Use with Data Cards or Modems;
2. Instant Messaging,
3. IP Telephony,
4. Point 2 Point file sharing and file transfer,
5. VoIP (e.g. Skype™),
6. Video and TV streaming,
7. Slingboxes; and
8. Use in conjunction with routers.O2 reserves the right to suggest an upgrade to O2 Web Max or to withdraw the O2 Web Bolt On from you at any time if O2 reasonably suspects you of using the service for uses other than the Permitted Uses or abuse of the service, including using an atypical volume of data as compared to normal users of the O2 Web Bolt On, which will normally be less than 200MB of usage within a one month bill cycle (termed ‘fair usage”).
O2 will contact you before the O2 Web Bolt On is withdrawn or upgraded. If for any reason contact is not possible then O2 may temporarily bar the service until contact can be made. In the event that O2 withdraws the O2 Web Bolt On, O2 is not obliged to offer any alternative replacement service. If O2 determines that you may upgrade to an alternative service which is more appropriate for your requirements then, if you consent, O2 will transfer you to the alternative service as soon as is reasonably practicable after you advise O2 that this is what you wish to do.
So basically you can’t use it for IM, VoIP, streaming, file transfer, or anything really useful. Do O2 realise the internet has changed a lot since the early 90′s?
dotMobi’s having an auction
Sep 24th
Ever fancied getting your hands on a really cool .mobi domain name, but found it was taken? You might be in luck, as some of the 5,500 commonly used words the registry ‘reserved’ before offering registrations to the public are to be auctioned off via Sedo starting this Wednesday.
“The mobile web is bigger than the PC-based, wired web with more than 1.6 billion Internet-enabled consumers walking around the world. Brands need an easy-to-remember way to attract consumers on the go. dotMobi has one of the highest sought-after list of in-demand domain names in the world,” said David Ryder, dotMobi’s VP of Marketing and Sales. “dotMobi is selling these highly- sought after names through Sedo because they are one of the main places on the Internet where brand managers search for domain names.”
Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo, said, “dotMobi’s premium names are specifically designed for people wanting to reach a mobile audience. Sedo’s buyers have been lining up for more than a year now to get a chance to buy these dotMobi names. We are excited that dotMobi will use us as their first online auction.
Full information, including the list of auction names, is located on the dotMobi web site at http://premiumauction.mobi/.
O2 to offer flat rate data
Sep 17th
Link: O2 to join flat rate club – www.mobile-ent.biz
Mobile Entertainment are reporting that O2 are about to launch a flat rate data plan in the UK – although quite when that’ll be (and how much it’ll cost) is anyone’s guess..
An O2 insider said: “O2 will offer wholesale data, but we think most of the problems associated with the cost of downloading rich media through direct-to-consumer channels will disappear once all-you-can-eat data plans are widespread – you can expect us to make an announcement in the coming weeks.”
.. which is nice. I wonder how much of this has been forced through by O2 getting the UK iPhone gig (still allegedly, but as it’s now possibly the worst kept secret in the industry)..
(Thanks to Barry for the tip)
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