Latest Podcast



Featured Articles

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.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

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.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
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.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

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.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
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.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS

Opinion Articles

Thursday, November 27, 2014

GSMA warns that UK national roaming could adversely affect service, impede law enforcement and delay the roll-out of 4G services

The GSMA has published a response to the UK government’s suggestion that ‘national roaming’ could be mandated to reduce areas of poor mobile phone coverage. A consultation period was launched on 5th November and ended yesterday.

A separate response has been published by EE, which commissioned a research report that shows how national roaming could cut investment and delay the rollout of 4G by up to two years. It says any benefit from national roaming would be wiped out by ‘signal locking’: unnecessarily connecting to a rival network and losing data connectivity for several minutes.

In a statement, EE described the Government‘s proposal for national roaming as “a flawed concept”. It says the UK’s major network operators have a proposal “that helps solve the problem of rural coverage, without any of the technical, economic and competitive barriers of National Roaming.”

Tom Phillips, Chief Regulatory Officer at the GSMA, said “The GSMA believes there are alternative solutions for tackling the issue of partial not-spots in the UK outside of mandated national roaming, which is technically complex, expensive and would impede law enforcement activities. Most importantly, as such a scheme is likely to result in issues making, receiving and maintaining calls, we need to look at other ways of ensuring that the consumer experience is continually enhanced.”

“Mobile communications are an essential part of everyday life, with 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers and 7.2 billion connections globally. Mobile has had a profound impact on all aspects of life, from simply allowing people to communicate with each other, to providing access to services such as education, healthcare and financial services. In the UK alone, the mobile industry made a direct contribution to the economy of £13.5 billion in 2013; around one per cent of GDP.”

“We are concerned that mandated national roaming would limit incentives for investment in future mobile network infrastructure, in turn restricting future socio-economic growth. Research from Capital Economics suggests that it could lead to a reduction in industry capital expenditure by £360 to £440 million each year, reducing GDP by 0.1 to 0.2 per cent.  Furthermore, the report finds that the current rapid rollout of 4G in the UK could be delayed by 18 to 24 months as resources are diverted to implement national roaming, just as increasing numbers of the population are starting to enjoy the benefits of 4G.”

“The GSMA proposes a number of key actions to enable voluntary coverage expansion to address the issue of partial not-spots. In particular, we urge the Government and Ofcom to:

  • Reassess the level of annual spectrum charges to ensure that hundreds of millions of pounds can be diverted back to vital investment in network infrastructure.
  • Reform the Electronic Communications Code (ECC), which governs the right of UK operators to access land to deploy infrastructure to increase the speed and extent to which UK operators can voluntarily reduce partial not-spots.”

“In conclusion, we believe the solution to tackling partial not-spots is through continued investment in our mobile networks, enabled by a favourable regulatory environment. In our commitment to ensuring the best possible consumer experience, the GSMA and its members are actively engaged in a range of ongoing initiatives aimed at improving 2G, 3G and 4G coverage and the capability of mobile infrastructure, both in the UK and around the world.”

[EE research report, commissioned from Capital Economics (pdf)]

We discussed the UK government plans for reducing so-called 'not spots' in our podcast on 12th November 2014. You can listen to the programme on our website audio player, via iTunes, by using our RSS feed, on the Stitcher.com mobile app or by downloading the mp3 file directly.

Print
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Categories: Networks and operators, NewsNumber of views: 18541

Tags: gsma uk research legal roaming ofcom ee

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Recent Podcasts

New phones, new CEOs, mobile payments and 4G growth

Podcast - 20th March 2013

In today's podcast we're talking about Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone, BlackBerry's record-breaking purchase order and Intuit's mobile payment service.

There's also a discussion about the changes at ST-Ericsson, a new CEO coming to ARM, Vodafone's sponsorship plans, management moves at Android and the 2013 Mobile News Awards.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Cutbacks for Motorola and no increases for Tesco Mobile... plus the rest of the week's news

Podcast - 13th March 2013

Today's podcast talks about job cuts at Motorola, a tariff promise from Tesco Mobile and a departing CEO at ST-Ericsson.

There's also news about acquisitions, application stores, European network standards and a chilly way of breaking into an encrypted smartphone.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

All the big news from Mobile World Congress... and much more

Podcast - 6th March 2013

We're back from Mobile World Congress 2013 with the latest news for the UK mobile phone industry.

Today's conversation covers new handsets, forthcoming operating systems, apps, mobile payments, VoIP, 4G and Facebook's two-tier internet.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

We report from Mobile World Congress 2013

Podcast - 1st March 2013

Today's podcast was recorded at Mobile World Congress 2013, where Mark Bridge has been reporting on the latest news from handset manufacturers.

He also drops into the Global Mobile Awards - and finds out who won the inaugural Dead Technology Award at the unofficial festival fringe.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: 5.0

What to expect at Mobile World Congress 2013: Windsor Holden of Juniper Research

Podcast - 23rd February 2013

In today's special programme we're preparing for Mobile World Congress 2013. To find out what to expect, Mark Bridge talks to Dr Windsor Holden of Juniper Research.

Their conversation covers everything from Apple's absence to connected cows - and from new operating systems to paying for applications.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS
First2122232426282930Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«November 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
28293031123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
2526272829301
2345678

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement