ExclusiveConnecting London Car Telephones to TheFonecast.com Opinion The Fonecast - June 4, 2026 It was 1996 when I started working at the Cricklewood head office of Peoples Phone [writes Mark Bridge], initially in a sales support role before becoming part of the Marketing team. The company was an independent mobile phone retailer with a growing network of high-street shops and connected customers. In November 1996 the company and its customer base were acquired by Vodafone, which had already taken over the Talkland retail business and was soon to add Astec to its portfolio.
ExclusiveOfcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges News Mark - November 3, 2024 New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.
ExclusiveGlobal smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast News Mark - November 23, 2023 A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
ExclusiveVodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses Networks and operators Mark - June 20, 2023 Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
ExclusiveUK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023 News Mark - December 18, 2022 UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
ExclusivePodcast - 19th October 2011 Podcasts Mark - October 18, 2011 This week we talk about the 'BlackBerry crumble', discuss legal challenges to Android, look at mobile advertising and thoroughly wash our hands before making any calls. Listen to find out why!
ExclusivePodcast - 14th October 2011 Podcasts Mark - October 13, 2011 Mark Bridge reports from Droidcon UK, where he meets Thibaut Rouffineau of WIP and then talks Android mobile application development with the HTC Dev team, Sony Ericsson, Cisco and Terence Eden of InMobi.
ExclusivePodcast - 12th October 2011 Podcasts Mark - October 11, 2011 Listen to the week's mobile industry headlines from TheFonecast.com - covering everything from 4G delays in the UK and the mysteries of Alien Dalvik to a Nokia ringtone remix.
ExclusivePodcast - 7th October 2011 Podcasts Mark - October 6, 2011 Mark Bridge visits Over The Air 2011, a unique event for mobile developers. In this report Mark meets Andy Williams, Craig Heath and Denise Stephens to talk about crime, security and design.
ExclusivePodcast - 5th October 2011 Podcasts Mark - October 4, 2011 With two big-name product launches in the last seven days - the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Apple iPhone 4S - there's a distinct product focus to this week's mobile industry podcast.