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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

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

4G doesn't come to Three

Mark Bridge writes:

Earlier today, Three.co.uk published a blog post headlined “4G comes to Three”. But it hasn’t.

I spent most of this morning here at Mobile World Congress muttering about the blog before returning to it this afternoon. And suddenly it’s changed.

The blog post remains. The headline is completely different. Now we’re told “Three to launch leading edge 3G service”.

Just as well, really, because the news wasn’t about 4G coming to the Three UK network. It was about HSPA+ service being rolled out to Three’s UK customers. And that’s not 4G. It’s more like fast 3G. In simple terms, the technology is different.

Now, admittedly the original blog did go on to say “this isn’t 4G as in Long Term Evolution… instead it’s the leading-edge version of 3G technology”. But that doesn’t forgive the original misleading headline... and the moderator’s comment of “it’s not 4G, we weren’t trying to claim that” falls a little flat.

Particularly when the company told us last year that “we currently operate on an HSPA network, and have already started moving towards HSPA+. We don’t have any immediate plans to start referring to this technology as 4G as some others have done.”

How quickly things change.

In recent months, Three has been using its ‘unlimited’ tariffs to build a reputation as a network to trust when it comes to mobile data.

Today, I think that hard-won reputation has been somewhat dented.

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Categories: Networks and operators, OpinionNumber of views: 13170

Tags: uk opinion 4g three data 3g

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