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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Last week at The Fonecast: 28th November 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

The really big news last week wasn’t good: 17,000 jobs worldwide are being lost at Nokia Siemens Networks (which, incidentally, is a separate company from both Nokia and Siemens). That’s not far short of a quarter of the total workforce. The company is going to focus on mobile network infrastructure and services, with a particular emphasis on mobile broadband, and is likely to sell off other parts of the business.

To an extent, the rest of the week’s headlines pale into insignificance – particularly with the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the USA reducing the amount of newsworthy activity – but there’s still been plenty happening here in the UK.

Ofcom’s had a busy few days, warning fixed-line and mobile internet service providers to clarify the ways they manage their internet traffic. It also published customer service satisfaction levels for mobile and fixed-line communications providers, although little had changed in the mobile arena since Ofcom’s figures from earlier this year.

On the subjects of customer satisfaction and mobile internet services, a new survey from UK comparison website Broadband Genie found that most users are unhappy with the speed of their mobile broadband connection. I can’t imagine many complained it was too fast.

Once again, mobile payments were in the news. International coffee shop Starbucks plans to bring its iPhone mobile payment app to the UK in January, enabling customers with a Starbucks pre-paid card to pay for items by using an on-screen barcode. Meanwhile Telefónica and RIM have announced a mobile wallet trial using NFC-equipped BlackBerry devices in Spain.

Product news included luxury mobile phone brand Vertu launching its first touchscreen handset – running Symbian – and LG confirming there’d be a new Prada phone next year. (You may remember the original Prada phone in 2007 was announced as the world’s first touchscreen handset. How times have changed). Aiming for a completely different market, Sony revealed its forthcoming PlayStation Vita gaming device would be supplied with a Vodafone SIM card in the UK when it launches next February.

Finally, if you’re looking for a single news story that combines many of the separate topics we’ve covered in the last seven days – including mobile networks, product innovation and data charges – with the added bonus of a wet nose, you can’t do better than looking at dog tracking company Retrieva.

The UK-based business, which produces dog collars with built-in GPS tracking, has announced a deal with specialist virtual mobile network Podsystem. This’ll make it easier for Retrieva to sell its products to a much wider market, with consumers enjoying simpler charges and better coverage... and they’ll be able to let their dogs roam across Europe. Quite literally.

Start your week with a reminder of the latest headlines. Simply register at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page and we’ll send you our weekly news summary by email.
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Opinion Articles

Everything Everywhere, Orange and T-Mobile: how much longer for three brands?

Mark Bridge writes:

This story starts with Mercury One2One and Orange. They were acquired by Deutsche Telekom (which changed One2One’s name to T-Mobile) and France Telecom. Next, Everything Everywhere was created to run the T-Mobile and Orange brands in the UK.

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Multiplayer Computer Games are Big Business for Small Devices

Greg Flakus of voanews.com writes:

Millions of people are addicted to playing games on mobile devices, with rivals and teammates spread around the world. A company in Austin, Texas has developed such a game, known as a mobile multiplayer online game, for the Apple iPhone and iPad, basing it on a pen-and-paper game that was popular in the 1970s called Traveller.

Author: The Fonecast
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Last week at The Fonecast: 30th April 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week mobile phones and health were back in the headlines together, rather like love & marriage or salt and vinegar. The news is pretty much as we’ve heard before; this time it’s the UK Health Protection Agency’s independent Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation telling us there’s no convincing evidence that mobile phone technologies cause adverse effects on human health – but longer-term research is still needed.

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Big headlines for Three UK... but no big changes

Mark Bridge writes:

The headlines sound pretty dramatic. “Three exits business market”. “Three parts company with Phones 4u”. It sounds like the 3G network operator is cutting back and reorganising. But let's look a little closer.

Author: The Fonecast
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Last week at The Fonecast: 23rd April 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

We’ve had a few sets of quarterly results in the past week. Let me summarise as best I can.

Qualcomm: doing very well, thank you.
Microsoft: pretty decent, although no-one’s talking much about phones.
Intel: not as good as before, although better than expected.
Nokia: sorry, we’ve lost a billion Euro. Well, we did warn you...

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Recent Podcasts

Reviewing our 2015 mobile industry predictions... and looking forward to 2016

Podcast - 15th January 2016

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

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Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

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Looking back at February: from security scares to multiple MVNOs

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We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

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Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers

Podcast - 24th February 2015

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

Podcast - 30th January 2015

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

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