The Fonecast produces regular podcasts for the UK mobile phone industry. Its news review runs for approximately 30 minutes and is free to download. Separate in-depth features are also created regularly throughout the year. A number of advertising and promotional opportunities are available on the podcasts and also on the website. Please download the media pack (pdf) or listen to one of our podcasts to learn more.

In addition, the team behind The Fonecast are professional podcasters who can research, script, produce and present online broadcasts for your company, your organisation or your products. They’ll handle everything… including all the messy technical stuff.

To get in touch, please email info@thefonecast.com

Iain Graham

Iain Graham is the voice of The Fonecast. He’s a veteran of the mobile industry, having held senior positions with One2One (now T-Mobile) and Vodafone since the 1980s. Iain left his role as Vodafone’s Head of Indirect Business in 2005 to become a consultant and professional toastmaster. His sense of humour and no-nonsense attitude makes him the perfect person to host each edition of The Fonecast… and to work with your company.

James Rosewell

James Rosewell is the technical wizard who built The Fonecast web site and created his own easy-to-use podcast software. He started his career at the sharp end of technology, as a key member of a small team in a high-growth software start-up. James then spent 10 years with Vodafone, where he established a technology account management function that brought control to a £25m programme. He led the team of 100 people that replaced Vodafone’s Retail IT platform and grew service provision IT systems in line with Vodafone’s exponential expansion during the late 1990s. James passionately believes in the benefits mobile applications provide and is currently bringing those benefits to web developers through the open source project 51Degrees.

Mark Bridge

Mark Bridge is writer and podcast producer for The Fonecast. The rest of the time he’s a freelance writer who’s focussed on the mobile phone and IT industries. Mark has over 15 years’ experience working with fixed-line and mobile communications, beginning his career as a telephone engineer before finding sanctuary within the warmth of an office. As well as copywriting and consulting, he also turns up occasionally as the ‘gadget expert’ or 'mobile phone expert' on radio and TV. He’s committed to making technology easier to understand – through his writing, in his broadcasting and through his contribution to The Fonecast.

Recent Podcasts

Friday, June 17, 2011

Box Breaking in the UK

Mark Bridge writes:

In this week’s podcast feature, Iain Graham has been taking a look at ‘box breaking’ in the UK. Box breaking can take a variety of forms but it generally involves buying a ‘pay as you go’ mobile phone at a price that’s subsidised in part by a mobile network - and selling it at a higher price to someone who won’t connect it to the original network. The package of phone and SIM card is effectively ‘broken’, with the SIM often sold separately.

It’s a subject that returned to the headlines last month when Mobile News reporter Michael House contacted a number of UK retailers about buying prepay phones and shipping them out of the country.

Michael explained how some box breakers were claiming to make £60,000 from a single trip abroad, which could be costing mobile network operators hundreds of millions of pounds every year. Some retailers were happy to sell him dozens of mobile phones for export, while others maintained an in-house policy of not selling any handsets that might be exported.

For a different perspective Iain then spoke to Faisal Sheikh, who runs the Fone Doctors mobile business in London. Faisal said box breakers were simply entrepreneurs taking advantage of a market opportunity. Even without subsidised prices, he suggested that a lack of availability in some regions would ensure the continuation of box breaking and exporting.


Iain's conversations with Michael House and Faisal Sheikh are available if you click here. Listen to the full interview by using the built-in audio player on our website - or download all our podcasts automatically via iTunes or from our RSS feed.
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