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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

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

US launches cell phone emergency alert system

Peter Fedynsky of voanews.com writes:

The United States is introducing a new public alert system that will deliver warnings to mobile phones in the event of emergency. The system is first being rolled out in New York and Washington and will operate nationwide by April 2012.

Top mobile phone company executives joined federal officials and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the World Trade Center site to announce the so-called Personal Localized Alerting Network, or PLAN. Bloomberg said the system will allow cell phones to receive free alerts about imminent safety threats.

“If people need to take action, the system will transmit instructions accurately and in a timely manner, which is something that could save countless lives," he said.

The warnings will be localized by using only local cell phone towers. The notifications could warn residents and visitors about an approaching tornado, hurricane or storm. If there is an urban terror threat, everyone in the area with a cell phone can be warned and advised what to do.

All major U.S. cell phone companies will participate in the system.

Phillip Humm is the chief executive of T-Mobile: “We will have a minimum of two plan-enabled devices this August," he said. "And our aim is to have the vast majority of handsets that we bring to market in 2012 to be plan-capable."

The system will give priority to emergency messages, overriding all regular telephone and text traffic. It was announced on a terrace overlooking Ground Zero, the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings. The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said that tragedy taught America the necessity of communication technologies in times of crisis and disaster

Originally published on voanews.com
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