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Friday, August 24, 2012

The Hare and the Tortoise: the race for 4G/LTE in the UK

Robin Kent writes:

With this week’s announcement that Everything Everywhere has been given the green light to launch the UK’s first 4G service, competing operators such as Vodafone and O2 are getting hot under the collar. With every day that goes by, these operators lose vital competitiveness as the market creeps away them towards Orange and T-Mobile. This is a real life ‘hare and tortoise’ scenario.

However, rival operators should take solace from the fact that Everything Everywhere will not be able to launch 4G on handsets, as the handsets are not ready yet. This limits the service it can provide its users. That is, unless the iPhone 5 is 4G compatible upon its release, a day after Everything Everywhere can launch the first 4G service in the UK. Nevertheless, the operator will probably only be able to provide 4G in the form of a dongle until the rest of the industry catches up with the latest developments. First when the gun goes off, but by no means the overall winner.

The real opportunity for LTE is that together with new tools such as deep packet inspection (DPI), operators will be able to move away from the ‘all you can eat’ data plans towards more flexible services and sophisticated pricing plans which will benefit the operator and the user.

Everything Everywhere is committed now and under pressure to deliver. The public may be expecting it to be the first to feed their appetite for 4G handsets so will they be happy with data dongles instead?  But for the remaining operators the delayed 4G auction gives time to plan and strategise. Slow and steady may just win the race.

Robin Kent is Director of European Operations at Adax Europe. Adax has over 25 years’ experience in distributed signalling solutions, offering products that are designed to meet today’s challenges of I/O scalability, cost effectiveness and high availability. Its customers include some of the world’s premier telecom suppliers, value added service providers and system integrators.

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Opinion Articles

The fight against mobile bullying gets smarter with Bully Block

Mark Bridge writes:

With mobile phones becoming smarter – and increasing numbers of children using these smartphones – it's not surprising to hear that bullies are taking advantage of mobile technology. 'Cyber-bullying' is now in the Oxford English Dictionary... and some people have even called for a ban on mobiles in schools in an attempt to reduce bullying.

Taking a high-tech perspective in the fight against mobile bullying is Sedgrid Lewis, CEO of Spy Parent LLC.

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Never mind iPhone 5, it's the Apple iPad 3 that could change the world

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a bit of competition. It can encourage innovation, whether it's NASA's moon landings or Formula 1's telemetry. And it can be entertaining to watch, from Premiership football to the Tour de France.

It's one of the reasons the mobile industry still excites me. Although the frenzied growth of the 1990s is gone, there are still many competing forces.

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This week at The Fonecast: 17th July 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Much like the mainstream media, this week's news summary begins with 'voicemail hacking'. In our podcast feature on Friday we spoke to industry crime-fighter Jack Wraith about the security of voice messages. He explained how remote voicemail access was now much more secure than it was ten years ago, which is good news for everyone (except dodgy investigators).

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How safe is your voicemail... and how safe is your phone?

Mark Bridge writes:

In this week's podcast feature we're joined by Jack Wraith, chief executive for the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

He talks to Iain Graham about the current state of voicemail security and the improvements to mobile security we've seen in the last few years.

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Dead phone boxes are now ready for saving lives

Mark Bridge writes:

The public telephone box is disappearing as mobile phone coverage improves. In 2002, there were 92,000 BT phone boxes in the UK. Today, there are a total of 51,500 payphones… including 11,000 traditional red boxes. In order to preserve the appearance of rural life - if not the landline connection - BT has been asking parish councils across the UK if they'd like to adopt their local kiosk. Just £1 lets a community keep its red BT phone box (with the payphone taken out)… and 1,500 have been adopted so far.

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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

Podcast - 6th March 2015

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

Podcast - 27th February 2015

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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