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 - 4th November 2009 Podcasts Mark - November 3, 2009 This week's edition of The Fonecast has more Orange and Google news than usual, although there's also plenty of talk about all the other recent industry headlines. And there's an in-depth review of the Movon MB80 Bluetooth wristband as well.
ExclusivePodcast - 28th October 2009 Podcasts Mark - October 27, 2009 Iain, James and Mark talk about mobile phone health concerns, Nokia's legal action against Apple, the return of the rumoured Google gPhone, open source software, an art exhibition controlled by text messages... and much more.
ExclusivePodcast - 21st October 2009 Podcasts Mark - October 20, 2009 This week's edition of The Fonecast includes talk about Motorola's next Android phone, the introduction of '999 roaming' in the UK, quarterly results from Nokia and loads of other industry news stories as well.
ExclusivePodcast - 14th October 2009 Podcasts Mark - October 13, 2009 The Amazon Kindle and the Palm Pre arrive in the UK... and a texting bottle-top causes a disagreement. Plus, in our feature, Tom Hume from Future Platforms talks about mobile marketing.
ExclusivePodcast - 7th October 2009 Podcasts Mark - October 6, 2009 With the Apple iPhone still making headlines, Faisal Sheikh from Fone Doctors tells us what the new multi-network deal will mean for everyone. And, as usual, the team takes its regular look at the rest of the week's industry news.