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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

Monday, October 17, 2011

Last week at The Fonecast: 17th October 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple and Blackberry crumble. There, I’ve said it. Twitter’s favourite joke from the past seven days. The reality wasn’t so funny.

It was last Monday when part of RIM’s infrastructure failed - and the backup system didn’t work properly. As a result, a data backlog started to build… and build… and, before long, BlackBerry messaging, browsing and email were disrupted. Here in the UK - and much of Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa - it took around three days before things were getting back to normal, with Latin America, Canada and the USA also suffering problems for a day or so.

The Apple issues weren’t such a big deal but the joke’s much funnier with the second fruit reference. Although there was the inevitable upbeat media frenzy when Apple’s iPhone 4S went on sale, some users suffered lengthy downloads and file problems when trying to upgrade older devices to iOS5. In addition, a number of customers were disappointed to find that elements of the Siri voice recognition service didn’t work in the UK yet.

Sticking with bad news, Samsung - and potentially the Android world in general - suffered a legal blow in Australia. A somewhat lower blow was suggested by the discovery of e.coli on one in six mobile phones. And Sony Ericsson was told off by the ASA for the way it described ‘standby time’ (although it’s an industry-wide issue, I’d say).

Talking of Sony Ericsson, it revealed its quarterly results and said that it would become a smartphone-only business by the end of 2012. The days of the feature phone may indeed be numbered.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news. In fact, the GSMA has calculated that the number of connected mobile devices worldwide will double from more than 6 billion today to 12 billion in 2020. Everything Everywhere has started enabling UK customers on Orange and T-Mobile to use the 3G signal from either network. Outdoor advertising company Clear Channel has said it’s putting NFC connectivity in its new digital poster sites, while O2 UK is trialling a WiFi voice-over-IP service that’ll behave like the customer’s regular mobile number.

Yes, it’s a dynamic industry we’re working in. Having said that, Nokia’s latest forward-thinking move has raised some eyebrows. It’s decided to include a dubstep version of its classic Grande Valse on more than 100 million handsets over the next few years. If you fancy starting early, you can download the MP3 file here.

On the subject of downloads, have you listened to last week’s special feature from Droidcon UK?  You’ll hear from event organiser Thibaut Rouffineau, HTC’s Michael Ludden, Marcus Hansson from Sony Ericsson, Marcus O’Sullivan of Cisco and InMobi’s Terence Eden. Listen on our website, via iTunes or by downloading the MP3 file.

You can receive this news summary by email every week. Simply register at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page.
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