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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, March 22, 2013

The secret to starting a successful mobile-related business

Mark Bridge writes:

What’s the secret to starting a successful mobile-related business?

It turns out there’s no magic answer… but there’s plenty of useful advice worth listening to. There are also plenty of opportunities to get funding, whether in the form of a loan, a grant or an investment.

At the Mobile Monday London meeting this month, John Spindler of Capital Enterprise talked about the finance options available and later chaired a panel discussion that took a closer look at some of the challenges.

Afterwards, I asked John why starting a business involved in mobile technology was different from other start-ups.

“I think there are three things that mobile’s doing. One is - it’s a cliché but it’s true - it’s a disruptive technology. When you’re starting a business you need fissures to occur in the ground so new businesses can compete with those megalithic businesses that dominate. Disruptive technology puts them at a bigger disadvantage than a start-up. A start-up can innovate quicker, can do things which break business models that a big business can’t do. Big businesses are just focussed on paying the overheads, making money, looking after shareholders and not focussed on ‘how do I innovate, make a service better, help customers to achieve more’. I think investors like it because you can start small and scale quickly, you don’t need millions of pounds. And thirdly it’s important because it’s a talent-based industry. Lots of industries are asset-based; to be an oil prospector I need millions!  To be a mobile business I just need good brains, a good team, some contacts and some time.”

What are the attributes of a successful mobile start-up business?

“To be that disruptive game-changing business, the most important thing is you need to be solving a big problem for a big set of customers. People need to really care about what you’re doing because then they will search for it and they will try it. Secondly, you need to have a really good team. You need that hipster, hacker, hustler in the team. Someone has to be incredibly passionate to get their business off the ground. Thirdly, in the UK, you need at least prove some of the business model: how you’re going to make money. At least on a small scale - that if you made money here, if you had more funds, you could make it even bigger. And the fourth thing is to understand what you’re going to offer investors, why they should come down this journey with you.”

John’s presentation included a broad and detailed list of resources for mobile start-up businesses. I asked him to summarise the best place to begin and he gave me three recommendations:

John’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion with contributions from Alistair Hill, Nic Brisbourne, Sitar Teli, Michel Sabatier and Inmaculada Martinez. You can listen to their conversation via iTunes, from our RSS feed, by downloading the mp3 file or via our website audio player.

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