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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

Monday, February 10, 2014

Last week at The Fonecast: 10th February 2014

New deals and old problems

Mark Bridge writes:

Mobile phones have been hitting the mainstream news over the past few days. There was Channel 4’s report about data on second-hand phones not being properly deleted before the handsets were re-sold, there was the latest round of the Smart UK Project and there was Tim Muffett’s story about the mobile-enabled high street on BBC Breakfast this morning.

Also big news was Microsoft’s decision to pick long-time employee Satya Nadella as its new CEO. There’s a new role for founder Bill Gates as well, which suggests he’ll be doing more hands-on stuff in the future.

Partnerships have been another recent theme. MasterCard has teamed up with UK mobile payment and advertising business Weve to develop a contactless mobile payments system. I can’t imagine Visa is especially happy, given the relationships it has - or had - with O2, Orange and Vodafone.

And in other network news, EE and Three are reported to have signed a sharing deal for 4G services in the UK. Meanwhile Nokia and HTC have agreed a patent licensing deal with each other, as have Cisco and Samsung.

But there’s been breaking up, too. Sony Corporation has agreed to sell its PC business to Japan Industrial Partners and will stop making Vaio-branded computers, while Alcatel-Lucent says it’s talking to technology investment business China Huaxin about the sale of its Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise division. The times, they are a-changin’.

Finally, figures from Cisco anticipate an almost 11-fold increase in global mobile data from 2013 to 2018. A total of 190 billion gigabytes of data is expected to be consumed on mobile devices in 2018, which is the equivalent of every person on earth streaming a YouTube video clip every day. Mond you, more than half of this will be carried on WiFi rather than via cellular networks.

Which, as James talked about in our 2014 predictions podcast last year, prompts the question: exactly what is ‘mobile’ anyway?

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in an email newsletter that’s very much like this article. To receive it, simply register your email address at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page.
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Recent Podcasts

BlackBerry contemplates its future, Vodafone reveals its 4G plans and ZTE puts its phones on eBay

Podcast - 14th August 2013

This week we're talking about BlackBerry's options for the future, Vodafone's 4G launch, Apple's patent victory and LG's new smartphone.

We also discuss ZTE selling its Firefox phones on eBay, Nokia's acquisition of NSN, the cost of phone calls in Europe, the controversy about recycling bins that monitor footfall and the new face promoting HTC.

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Motorola reveals the Moto X, O2 readies its 4G and the UK government cures black spots

Podcast - 7th August 2013

The Motorola Moto X smartphone opens this week's show, despite not having a European release... but there's plenty of other UK news.

We talk about O2's plans to launch 4G mobile services later this month, we look at the ASA's ruling against EE, we contemplate the government's plans to eliminate some mobile 'black spots', we wonder when Android's market share will start to shrink - and we discuss many other mobile telecom stories as well.

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Interview with Ruth Barnett of SwiftKey

Podcast - 2nd August 2013

James Rosewell interviews Ruth Barnett, head of communications at British-based technology company SwiftKey.

As well as talking about the SwiftKey keyboard app they also discuss competition in the mobile application space, working with manufacturers and the opportunities presented by 'Bring Your Own Device' schemes.

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Google's new gadgets, freedom for 4G frequencies and many mid-year mobile results

Podcast - 31st July 2013

In this week's show we look at Google's new product announcements, O2's closure of its mobile telecare service and the clearance of radio frequencies for 4G services.

We also talk about the latest collection of quarterly results from Apple, Samsung, Amazon, LG and Facebook. Who's doing well - and should anyone be worried?

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Challenging results, crowd-sourced smartphones and cracked SIM security

Podcast - 24th July 2013

We start this week's show by discussing the recent quarterly results from Google, Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft.

There's also time to talk about SIM security, Ubuntu's crowd-funded smartphone, the HTC One mini, smart watches and an unusual process for recharging your phone battery.

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