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Saturday, July 9, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 9th July 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Roaming charges are back in the news this week. Not the latest round of price cuts (or, to be technically correct, lower price caps) but the European Commission’s plans for the future. As well as continuing the downward pricing trend for a few more years, Neelie Kroes also wants wholesale interconnection at capped rates and the option of a separate ‘roaming contract’ when you travel abroad.

The European Parliament needs to vote before this becomes law… but I wouldn’t like to bet against it. Certainly not the price reductions, anyway.

Talking of money, eBay is splashing out around $240 million to pick up mobile payment company Zong. It looks like we’ll see Zong’s direct carrier billing – adding purchases to your mobile phone bill – being incorporated with PayPal’s services. Yet another reason for shopping by mobile – and a further explanation of why the mobile payments market is expected to almost treble in value by 2015.

It’s been a mixed week for Three UK. The company has followed Vodafone’s example by partnering with an application store, choosing Ovi rather than Vodafone’s Android deal – but it’s also had another run-in with the Advertising Standards Authority. Once again, giffgaff came out on top. Victory for the smaller guy (and no sign of a broken toe).

On the subject of virtual networks, it’s been reported that Lebara could be sold or floated on the stock exchange. Sticking with the subject of takeovers, HTC is acquiring graphics technology company S3 Graphics (and its patent collection) for $300 million. And while we’re discussing handset manufacturers, Nathan Vautier is expected to leave his role as MD of Sony Ericsson UK and Ireland in the next few months.

Finally, in a week when voicemail hacking has been all over the media (to varying degrees), it seems somehow appropriate to end with a report about overheard conversations. A study from Intel says talking too loudly on a mobile phone in public is the worst breach of mobile manners, coming ahead of texting during a date or using your laptop at dinner. Smoking and swearing were deemed the most inappropriate behaviour for public spaces, with those mobile phone conversations in third place overall. Shhh!


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Opinion Articles

Why a mobile TV service is just like a zombie

Mark Bridge writes:

Here in the UK, we’re struggling a bit with mobile TV. Which made me wonder what the problem really was. Well, after a long evening with the finest stilton and the cheapest port, the answer came to me in a dream. A mobile TV service is just like the lurching, drooling nightmare creatures that appear in every zombie film. And once consumers understand zombies, they’ll understand the problems with mobile TV. Let me explain.

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Selling your way out of a recession? Of course you can!

Iain Graham writes:

Everybody these days (apart from a lucky few!) is suffering from a lack of business or reduced sales due to the current 'downturn in the economic climate'. In my opinion, this is the time when sales people should stand up and be counted!

No, I don't mean the hard nosed, foot in the door double-glazing, second-hand car or mobile phone types (no offence!), I mean EVERYONE! Selling is a concept as much as it is a profession.

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Mobile & Contactless Payments

James Rosewell offers his opinion on the current state of mobile and contactless payments.

The banking and mobile industries have big plans for Near Field Communication (NFC) as the mobile payment mechanism of the future. Barclaycard has been leading the way from the credit card sector forming a partnership with Orange, having previously worked with O2, and running a catchy TV advert prompting contactless cards using VISA’s paywave system.

However the reality of NFC payments appears a lot further away. The Point of Sale (POS) technology appears to be badly deployed by some of the first-phase retailers mainly made up of low-value high-volume businesses like coffee shops, fast food outlets and newsagents.

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Insecure Mobile Browsers

James Rosewell writes: I note with interest Barclays mobile on-line banking home page extolling the safety of mobile banking whilst claiming it’s as secure as their non-mobile equivalent. This is on the same page that recommends customers use Opera Mini to access Barclays mobile on-line banking.

Yet following the link to the operamini.com web site and looking at the help section we can read Opera’s answer to the question “Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?” and the answer is “No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.”

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