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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, January 19, 2011

What difference will the Amazon and LOVEFiLM deal make to the mobile industry?

Mark Bridge writes:

If you’ve read any of the tech press today you’ll have seen that Amazon.com is buying LOVEFiLM. Yes, that really is how the company writes its name. Amazon already had quite a collection of LOVEFiLM shares, so it’s really just buying the remainder.

LOVEFiLM, in case you’ve missed the TV ads and online promotions, does DVD rental by post and also streams video over the internet. Oh, and it does games rental as well.

Needless to say, both companies have issued statements saying how great it is for them and their customers. “We look forward to a productive and innovative future”. “We can significantly enhance our members’ experience across Europe”.

But what does all this mean to the mobile industry?

Well, Pocket-Lint.com has interviewed LOVEFiLM CEO Simon Calver and Amazon VP of EU retail Greg Greeley in an article headlined “Lovefilm and Amazon to bring movies to your phone”. Although neither man explicitly says they’re planning this, it certainly seems an obvious next move for the online side of the business.

In fact, if you’ve been following the LOVEFiLM Twitter feed, you’ll know that just yesterday the company Tweeted “We have a number of exciting developments underway for mobile devices in 2011, more news available soon” in reply to a question.

However, the idea of streamed movies on smartphones – as opposed to downloads – raises the usual questions about data. LOVEFiLM (the novelty of that lower case i is starting to wear thin!) says an average video stream over your home broadband will transfer approximately 500MB of data for a 90 minute film. That’s your entire T-Mobile ‘fair usage’ allowance for a month.

Is that realistic for mobile devices?  Well, US-based video streaming service Netflix – arguably one of the reasons Amazon decided to snap up LOVEFiLM – has an iPhone and iPad application. A quick look at various online figures suggests the ‘500MB per film’ figure sits somewhere towards the higher end of individual mobile experiences.

It’s possible to adjust video quality (and therefore data usage) based on connection speed and type, so the cost of video streaming needn’t be quite as scary as it first seems.

Yet without higher or truly unlimited mobile data allowances, it’ll still be a luxury to download full-length movies to mobile phones.

Will the Amazon and LOVEFiLM deal affect the mobile industry?  Almost definitely, I’d say. Will it make a big difference?  It’s much harder to answer that one.

With current tariffs, I’d say no. But just imagine a colour-screen Kindle with the same kind of inclusive mobile data deal available on the company’s current eBook reader. Watch out, iPad – the LOVEFiLM tablet could be on the way!

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