The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Posts tagged o2
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)
O2 drop non-geo from bundles
Sep 6th
Link: O2 starts charging for calls to non-places | The Register
With the world and his wife now seemingly having a non-geo number (0845, 0870, 0800), it’s curious to hear that O2 have become the last UK mobile network to drop these numbers from customers inclusive minutes packages.
According to The Register, O2 customers who’ve signed up since March have already had to pay for calls to these numbers, with older customers being notified last week by text of the impending changes.
O2 have also decided, rather kindly, that this change is “significant”, so much so that they’re offering users the chance to cancel their contract early. If you’re in that position, get your skates on – you’ve got until the end of September to cancel.
O2 ink BBC content deal
Aug 21st
Link: BBC NEWS | Business | O2 agrees BBC phone content deal
BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC) have inked a deal with O2, which will allow the operator to offer clips from popular TV shows including Little Britain and The Office to it’s O2 Active subscribers.
Peter Percier, head of mobile for BBC Worldwide, says: “O2 is the largest UK operator by subscriber numbers so this is clearly a great deal for us”. He added that BBC Worldwide has “access to some of the best known and most loved TV brands”.
According to reports, O2 customers will initially get access to about 300 pieces of media content, increasing in time.
3.5G to get upgrade by end of 2007
Jul 21st
UK mobile operators T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone have confirmed plans to begin rolling out the High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) standard in the UK by the end of the year.
The technology - which uses packet scheduling – takes the performance enhancements found in the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) standard and brings them to the upload side of a data connection. The net effect is a balancing of the theoretical maximum upload and download speeds.
Vodafone have already launched the technology in Germany, and will begin rolling out their UK service later this year. Rivals T-Mobile and 3 will also be aiming to start upgrading their network by the end of the year, with Orange planning to introduce the HSUPA service in 2008.
The only UK operator not figuring in these plans is O2 – who have at present not announced plans for HSPA enhancements to their network.
(Thanks to SMS Text News reader Mike for providing additional information to correct this article)
O2 drop the ball on video and voice shortcodes
Jul 20th
Link: O2′s failure to launch voice and video shortcodes ‘holds up entire industry’
According to a couple of industry players, UK mobile operator O2 is “holding back the entire industry” by not being able to offer video or voice shortcodes.
Speaking to The Inquirer, MX Telecom’s Mark Fitzgerald has said: “You couldn’t have an X Factor vote, for example, which worked for everybody in the nation except those on O2. So customers won’t buy into the concept while one network’s subscribers are excluded.”
Meanwhile Jeremy Flynn from mobile video specialist D2See asks: “Given the amount of money O2 has made from SMS shortcodes, how come they find it so difficult to provide equivalent voice and video shortcodes?”
“There are over 100 video shortcodes in use in UK – how come they don’t seem to want to let their consumers access these services, and make money from this?”
EU drops investigation into roaming overcharging
Jul 19th
Link: Brussels drops mobile roaming case – Times Online
After seven years, millions of pounds and many thousands of man hours later, the EU have decided to drop an investigation into overcharging on overseas calls by mobile operators.
The anti-trust investigation against Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile, which could have led to multi-million euro fines against the operators, was quietly dropped, as the Commission decided it was redundant following recent roaming caps introduced.
In a statement the Commission said: ‘This (new) regulation addresses the same issues as those raised in these antitrust cases, and clearly resolves them for the future … The Commission has decided to close the case.”
Meanwhile, UK mobile operators have until the end of August to bring into effect the recently agreed roaming charge caps, which limit the cost of making a call whilst abroad to 49 eurocents per minute and receiving a call at 24 eurocents per minute.
O2 launches mobile broadband in Ireland
Jul 9th
Link: ENN – Ireland’s IT Newswire
Lucky consumers in Ireland will be able to get their hands on a 3G HSPDA-powered mobile broadband service shortly, giving them speeds of up to 3.6Mbit/s.
The service includes up to 10GB of data transfer per month, and O2 claim will reach 75% of the population from launch. There’s a three month introductory of €15 per month for existing contract customers – or those taking out a new O2 mobile contract, then €30 after that. Non-O2 mobile customers will get the service for €20 per month for the first three months then €40 per month thereafter.
No truth to O2 iPhone rumour
Jul 5th
Link: Tech.co.uk | News | No truth to O2 iPhone rumour
So now O2 are denying they’ve got the iPhone gig.
At this point, I think I’m beginning to lose interest. Pass me my trusty non-touch screen Nokia, I’m heading out for some fresh air before my head explodes trying to piece this lot together.
O2 to get UK iPhone gig
Jul 5th
Link: BBC NEWS | Business | O2 ‘to get iPhone contract in UK’
The BBC are reporting this morning that O2 are about to sign an exclusive contract for selling the iPhone in the UK, with the handsets in stores ready for Christmas. Funnily enough an O2 spokesman “declined to comment on the reports”.
The agreement with O2 is reported to include Apple receiving a continuing share of the revenue generated for the network operator.
The handsets are expected to be sold for about £300 and O2 will be hoping that the lure of the fashionable phone is enough to win customers from rival networks.
Update: O2 have denied they’ve got the iPhone gig. See this blog entry for more details.
Bus mobile ticketing to hit the UK
Jul 4th
Link: Mobile ticketing on the buses – vnunet.com
Bus company Go North East have announced plans to introduce a mobile ticketing service this Autumn.
The service, supplied by IT company Atos Origin, will be a prepaid service – with funds being added via a website. Before getting on the bus, the end user texts a supplied code and gets a barcode ticket in return. When they get on the bus, they just have to show the barcode – or scan it on a special modified ticket machine.
Honest opinion on this? As a long time user of London’s Oyster contactless ticketing system, it’s a lot less hassle than what’s been proposed here. I can top-up my Oyster account in quite a few stores locally, online, or at a tube station. No fiddling around texting and waiting for a barcode to come back just to go 5 minutes down the road. Besides, with Nokia, O2 and Orange already in talks with Transport for London over combining the technology with mobile handsets, I wonder how much mileage is in this?
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