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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, 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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