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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, November 9, 2011

What my granny taught me about online shopping

Mark Bridge writes:

When it came to telephones, my granny was an early adopter. She had a landline phone for as long as I can remember - and that’s quite a while when you consider the town only got an automatic telephone exchange two years after I was born. Recent research has now suggested that my granny was also well ahead of the game when it came to consumer behaviour.

This week, the UK’s Interactive Media in Retail Group - an industry association for e-retailers - has published an interesting study.

It’s found that a fair number of people whip their mobiles out when in a shop to see what competitors are doing. Quite a few of them end up buying from the online rival and not the real-world store they’re standing inside.

What can these high-street retailers do?  Well, they could block mobile signals by building a Faraday cage from tinfoil and chicken wire. They could offer a well-publicised ‘price match’ promise. They might want to introduce a WiFi network for customers, offering promotional deals and distracting consumers from their mobile network. They may even want to combine those last two options, as John Lewis has just announced.

But what does any of this have to do with my late grandmother?

Granny was living in her own house well into her 90s. Every so often she would walk to the shops, pulling her shopping trolley - which was a unique construction that combined pram wheels, a walking stick and an umbrella stand. I’m serious. She’d occasionally sit on someone’s garden wall and catch her breath. But when it was time to vote, the polling station was a bit further away.

Fortunately, one of the political parties would offer elderly voters a free lift to the polling station. It wasn’t the party that granny wanted to vote for, but this wasn’t a problem to her. She’d get a lift, place her vote, and get another free lift home.

If they’re not careful, some high street shops could well find themselves in the same position as granny’s helpful political party. Shoppers would browse their aisles for inspiration rather like using a catalogue - and then they’d head to John Lewis for free WiFi, a cup of coffee and some online shopping!

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