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Thursday, April 19, 2012

You're gonna need a bigger tariff

Mark Bridge writes:

“You're gonna need a bigger boat”. The words of Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody spots the shark in the film Jaws.

37 years later and O2 UK CEO Ronan Dunne is facing another all-devouring monster... but this is no aquatic predator. It’s in the air - and it’s invisible.

No, we’re not talking about a Pteranodon (that’s Jurassic Park III) but a 4G mobile broadband connection. A real-life data monster.

O2 has just released some new information about its 2.6GHz 4G trial in London. Customers are enjoying speeds that hit 150Mbps and regularly connect at between 20Mbps and 50Mbps. Not only is that something like 20 times faster than a 3G mobile connection, it’s also considerably faster than most of us enjoy on our home broadband. Good times ahead, eh?

A 40MB file can be downloaded in a matter of seconds, says O2, with most active trial members using something in the region of 200GB per month via a USB dongle or personal WiFi hotspot.

Hang on a sec. 200GB per month. Not megabytes. Gigabytes.

At the moment, I’m on a tariff that includes 500MB of data every month. I reckon that kind of usage would cost me somewhere over £4000 at my current rate.

Tariffs may change, of course. In the last few years we’ve seen ‘unlimited’ data allowances disappear and then reappear again. O2’s Ronan Dunne expects 4G services to increase capacity by 20 to 40 times from today’s levels, which means today’s 1GB limits could become 40GB limits. But that’s still a long way off 200GB.

Something’s got to change. We’re gonna need a bigger tariff.

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Categories: Networks and operators, OpinionNumber of views: 14961

Tags: o2 uk opinion 4g data tariff

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Opinion Articles

A Sure Signal from Vodafone

Mark Bridge writes:

Today I've been using my mobile phone at home. For many people that’s not an unusual thing to do – but it is for me because, around here, coverage indoors isn’t particularly good. Downstairs it’s previously been non-existent. But this morning everything changed.

Author: The Fonecast
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Physician uses cell phones to bring health care to the poor

Natalia Ardanza of voanews.com writes:

In Africa there is another use for mobile phones. Public Health workers in Kenya are now using mobile phones to gather health information from patients in remote areas and upload it to the internet for instant analysis at distant centers. And it is all happening thanks to Dr Joel Selanikio.

Author: The Fonecast
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Making dumb touchscreen phones was a smart move

Mark Bridge writes:

I remember a report from last year that said ‘non-smart’ touchscreen handsets – generally those without a popular operating system – would be bad news for mobile operators.

Conventional touchscreen smartphones tended to result in higher-than-average ARPU thanks to their early-adopting tech-loving users, their web-friendly browsers, their email programs, their app-friendly operating systems and their fast 3G connectivity. However, dumber touchscreen devices – those with a manufacturer’s own proprietary OS and perhaps a clumsier browser – could generate 23% less ARPU than smarter phones. So, if touchscreen dumbphones weren’t good for networks… and weren’t really good for consumers either… manufacturers wouldn’t really bother with them. Right?

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"Hello Nexus One" I say...

James Rosewell writes:

Mark’s been encouraging me to write an opinion piece on the Nexus One for the last few days and I’m finally putting fingers to keyboard to share my experiences. It’s taken so long because this phone has so many features. On a positive note I could go into details about the gorgeous screen, the Android Marketplace that will out-sell Apple’s over the next 18 months, the built-in satellite navigation service and the speedy processor that makes everything run smoothly in real time. Or on a less positive note, the touch screen keyboard that sucks (think carefully about this if you’re a heavy texter or emailer, it’s even worse than the original iPhone), the lack of ActiveSync for Calendars and Tasks, no support for WMA music files or the clunky zoom functions on the web browser.

However I’m going to focus on voice dictation. Nexus One is the first phone I’ve used with this feature.

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The Amazon Kindle prepares to fight the Apple iPhone and Tablet

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a curious thing. Firstly, Amazon creates the Kindle. It starts selling the Kindle in the USA with a mobile deal that lets users download electronic books and newspapers wherever they are. Then it starts selling the Kindle to us in the UK, although – hang on a moment – it’s not talking about a UK mobile deal. Instead it still seems to be ‘roaming’ from the AT&T network. Next comes the larger-screen Kindle DX – also roaming away when it reaches our shores. And now Amazon is talking about third-party downloadable applications for the Kindle. Yes, a mobile device with downloadable apps. Hold that thought; I’ll be returning to it.

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