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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, November 29, 2011

Farmers want QR cows, infrared sheep and mobile-controlled sheepdogs

Mark Bridge writes:

A brainstorming day run by T-Mobile UK with a dozen farmers, M&C Saatchi Mobile, the National Farmers Union and EBLEX (the organisation for the English beef and sheep industry) has resulted in some fascinating mobile-focussed solutions. The aim was to raise awareness of the benefits that smartphone technology can bring farmers and other small business owners.

Although some of the ideas were - a cynic might suggest - designed to be headline-grabbing, there was also some genuine innovation. Mobile apps proposed by the group included…

Real-life Angry Birds: a scarecrow controlled by a smartphone, complete with night-vision cameras in the scarecrow’s eyes to helping monitor for livestock rustlers.

Heat-seeking sheep: an infrared camera that identifies each animal by their heat signal and send an alert to the farmer’s phone if the number of heat signals decreases.

GPS field measurements: the smartphone’s GPS function can be used to measure fields, with an app then calculating the approximate harvest size and anticipated yield price. Information could also be uploaded to the Rural Payments Agency.

QR codes on cows: instead of tagging cattle with a ‘chip’, farmers could brand their cows with unique QR codes. Each cow would have its own mobile webpage that included the animal’s age, inoculation history and breed.

Disease diagnosis: a smartphone’s camera could be used to identify crop diseases. After the farmer had taken and uploaded a photo, experts could provide live advice via a video link.

Location-based health and safety: an employee would be warned if they attempt to use equipment without having received training. The app would track the location of dangerous equipment and links to the individual employee’s health and safety records. In an emergency, the app can shut down the equipment and call the emergency services.

The flying sheepdog: a farmer could use a remote-controlled flying drone to supplement a sheepdog. A video feed from the drone to a smartphone would allow farmers to control sheep that were out of sight.

Martin Stiven, Vice President of Business at T-Mobile, said “With farmers being one of our most important customers, we were keen to find out how mobile technology could really supercharge their business. People frequently talk about small business owners being wedded to their smartphones but overlook that farmers are micro businesses in their own right, often adopting mobile technology well ahead of the field. According to research in America, 94% of farmers now own a smartphone . It’s a trend we’re starting to see amongst British farmers as they look at how mobile technology can cost effectively increase productivity and boost efficiencies. If mobile developers are as excited as we are by these apps, we predict they’ll be available to download by the end of 2012.”

The best apps from the day will now be pitched to agriculture technology businesses.

T-Mobile QR Code on a cow

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