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Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

UK service providers must notify customers when they connect to a different network

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.
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Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

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.
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Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

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.
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UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

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.
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Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
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Opinion Articles

Friday, July 15, 2011

How safe is your voicemail... and how safe is your phone?

Mark Bridge writes:

In this week’s podcast feature we’re joined by Jack Wraith, chief executive for the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

He talks to Iain Graham about the current state of voicemail security and the improvements to mobile security we’ve seen in the last few years.

As Jack explains, the original process used for ‘voicemail hacking’ - listening to someone else’s messages on their answering service - is no longer possible. In the past, voicemail was automatically set up to allow customers to hear their messages remotely. You’d generally ring your own number, wait to hear your own voicemail answering message and then enter a 4-digit personal identification number. The big problem was that voicemail was set up with a default 4-digit PIN code on each network. (For example, all Vodafone handsets were preset to 3333). Although you were told to change your PIN, you didn’t need to. So, if you wanted to listen to someone else’s messages and knew what network they were using, you also knew what their default voicemail PIN was.

Fortunately, the process was changed several years ago. Exact details will vary between UK mobile networks… but the biggest change is that there’s no such thing as a default PIN for remote access. If you’re setting up a PIN code, you’ll need to make one up yourself – and you’ll often find that security features can only be changed from the mobile phone itself.

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Categories: Networks and operators, OpinionNumber of views: 11165

Tags: security voicemail crime micaf tuff

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Recent Podcasts

The week's top mobile news stories: Vodafone expands, EE celebrates and Europe prepares

Podcast - 19th March 2014

We begin this week's programme by looking at Vodafone's acquisition plans in Spain before moving on to discuss universal mobile chargers and 4G roaming.

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Johan Lodenius of MediaTek talks about wearable devices, smartphone evolution and the importance of driving costs down

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Mobile payments, new smartphones, wearable devices, connected cars, CeBIT and David Cameron

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The rise of OTT messaging and the future of SMS: we talk to Stacy Adams of mBlox

Podcast - 7th March 2014

Messaging was very much on the agenda at Mobile World Congress this year, following Facebook's announcement that it was planning to acquire WhatsApp in a 19 billion dollar deal. So if the future for this type of internet-based 'over the top' messaging service looks good, what does this mean for SMS?

To find out more, we spoke to Stacy Adams of mBlox to learn what was happening in the messaging world, to find out how SMS is being integrated with mobile apps - and to discover some of the other ways SMS was being used by businesses today.

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We talk about 4G LTE coverage and device sensors with OpenSignal at Mobile World Congress

Podcast - 6th March 2014

Even at Mobile World Congress, the relevance of the mobile network operator can sometimes be forgotten. So for a different perspective on this year's event, we spoke to Samuel Johnston from British mobile crowd-sourcing firm OpenSignal.

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