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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

Friday, June 11, 2010

An extra 74 percent of nothing is still nothing

Mark Bridge writes

Ah, the joys of multiplying by zero. (Not to be confused with the joys of dividing by zero; I remember an old Casio calculator that didn’t have an ‘overflow’ error message and would simply keep counting until the batteries ran out. But I digress).

I was reminded of my school maths lessons when I saw a news release from Orange UK this week.

Steve Wallage, Head of Sport Partnerships and Services for Orange UK was quoted as saying “Based on the surge in demand for mobile TV during the Ashes last summer, we expect viewing figures could rocket by at least 74% during the World Cup”.

The small print at the bottom of the page explained that Steve meant viewing sessions, not necessarily the number of viewers or the total viewing time, but let’s overlook that.

In fact, let’s overlook the statement entirely. There’s no mention of what the ‘viewing figures’ were in the summer of 2009, so the statistic is pretty meaningless.

Now, call me cynical, but I’m sure Steve would have mentioned those figures if they were any good. Yes, I know people do use mobile TV. And I know streaming over 3G is replacing the dream of DVB-H and DMB, offering much greater availability.

But an extra 74% of ‘nothing specific’?  That’s not real maths, is it?

 

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Categories: Networks and operators, OpinionNumber of views: 9622

Tags: orange television

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Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take a look at mobile news headlines from the last seven days - including new mobile application stores from Sun and Carphone Warehouse, Apple's existing application store and we'll even discuss some news stories not related to application stores at all like GPS, Vodafone's tax challenge and termination rates.

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Podcast - 20th May 2009

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take a look at mobile news headlines from the last seven days - including Vodafone's new "roaming" promotion, Blyk's revised plans and the Carphone Warehouse's commission changes.

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The Fonecast takes its weekly look at the latest mobile news headlines, while Chris Caudle from the IMPDA talks about the falling number of UK mobile phone dealers.

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Podcast - 6th May 2009

This week's edition of The Fonecast includes an interview with Jonathan Viney from mobile web company Wapple. Plus, as usual, the team takes its regular look at industry headlines from the last 7 days.

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Podcast - 29th April 2009

Iain, Mark and James take their regular look at the week's mobile news headlines. There's also an interview with Dr Mark Smith, founder of ipadio.com - a service that turns a phone call into a live web broadcast.

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