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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

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Ofcom trebles the annual licence fee for UK mobile networks

UK communications regulator Ofcom has decided that the annual mobile fees for mobile operators will treble, following a government direction that the fees should reflect ‘full market value’.

Ofcom has concluded that mobile operators should pay a combined annual total of £199.6m per year for the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands, which are used for 2G, 3G and 4G voice and data services.

The figure is 13% lower than Ofcom’s earlier proposals in February but more than three times the current fee. Half of the increase will be payable from 31st October 2015; the second phase will be effective a year later.

Philip Marnick, Ofcom’s Group Director of Spectrum, said “We have listened carefully to the arguments and evidence put forward by industry, and conducted a complex and comprehensive analysis to determine the new fees. The mobile industry has not previously had to pay market value for access to this spectrum, which is a valuable and finite resource, and the new fees reflect that value.”

Dan Howdle from consumer mobile and broadband advice site Cable.co.uk said "There can be absolutely no doubt as to the fairness of simply ensuring the UK's mobile network providers pay a fair price for what is absolutely a finite resource. But, of course, the money has to come from somewhere. And while, on paper, O2, Vodafone, Three and EE appear in arguably rude health from the perspective of their announced operating profits earlier this year, behind closed doors they are unlikely be happy to see their war chest diminished. That Ofcom is 'phasing in' the move to a yearly lump-sum payment for the licence fees will make it especially difficult to detect when, if and how these costs will be passed on to consumers, either directly or indirectly via the fees paid by mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) such as Virgin Mobile and giffagaff to piggyback their network infrastructure."

[Ofcom statement]

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