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Monday, December 23, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 23rd December 2013

Something for everyone this Christmas

Mark Bridge writes:

'Twas the week before Christmas,
when all thro' the mobile industry
came a sudden burst
of news-related activity.

There’s been something for everyone in the wireless telecoms industry during these final festive days of 2013.

Tablets?  Most certainly. How about the new Datawind UbiSlate tablet for £29.99?  You’ll struggle to find a cheaper tablet, although admittedly you don’t get high specs for the low price.

Accessories?  Oh yes. Let’s take a look at the Samsung GamePad, which connects via Bluetooth and will work with most of the company’s Galaxy devices. There’s an accompanying app that’ll help you find compatible games, too.

Mobile payments?  A deal with Eurostar will see iZettle devices used when passengers want to upgrade after they’ve started their high-speed train journey.

Quarterly results?  Go on then, if you insist. BlackBerry has reported a £2.7 billion quarterly loss. However, it’s also announced a Foxconn manufacturing deal and an agreement to pre-load BBM on some LG phones, so it wasn’t all bad. But mainly bad, you might say.

4G?  Starting to go mainstream, it seems. EE has set up the first 4G roaming agreement for visitors to the UK, while Strategy Analytics is forecasting there’ll be two billion 4G LTE connections worldwide in 2018, up from 238 million this year.

Festive concerns?  Yes, thanks to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO has been warning consumers not to get carried away on 25th December – the busiest day for app downloads last year – by reminding users to protect their personal information when installing new mobile apps. As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus might say, “let’s be careful out there”.

Finally, I’d like to wish you and all our other readers a very happy Christmas. We’ll now be taking a short break and look forward to returning in the New Year.

Our final podcast of 2013 included the team’s mobile industry predictions for 2014 and a not-too-embarrassing look back at our thoughts from last year. You can listen to the podcast on our website, by downloading the mp3 file, by finding us via iTunes, by using our RSS feed or on the Stitcher.com mobile app.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a newsletter that’s very much like this article. To receive it, simply register your email address at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page.
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Opinion Articles

When it comes to mobile network coverage, the customer isn't always right

Mark Bridge writes:

The adage that “the customer is always right” has apparently been disproved by a recent survey of mobile phone users.

Mobile News reports that virtual networks Virgin Mobile and Tesco Mobile outperformed their network partners in a recent customer satisfaction survey carried out by research firm YouGov for price comparison website uSwitch.

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Catherine Zeta-Jones and the security of touchscreen passwords

Mark Bridge writes:

I knew I’d seen it before. Towards the end of last week I read about a study from the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania that said it was pretty easy to identify passwords from smudges on touchscreen mobile phones.

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Unlimited Internet means just 1GB at O2

James Rosewell writes:

Yesterday I received the following text message from O2: “You’ve gone over your data allowance on your mobile. You need to cut down or get a bigger Bolt On to keep using the internet.” I thought this was strange as I’ve an unlimited data bolt on applied to my O2 UK contract so I decided to telephone O2 customer services to find out a little bit more. Here’s what happened.

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Carnival of the Mobilists #235

This week's Carnival of the Mobilists – the best mobile blogging (and podcasting!) of the last seven days – is online at Tam Hanna's new TamsBada site. As always, you'll find a wide variety of mobile-related subjects and discussions.

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I want to live in a world... where mobile tariffs are easy to compare

Mark Bridge writes:

Supermarkets. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Actually, that’s not true. Most of us seem to be happy enough with a half-price bottle of wine but less convinced about globalisation and supplier relationships.

But none of that’s bothering me today. Instead, I’m troubled – as I have been for several months – by the TV commercial for Tesco’s prepay mobile phone tariff.

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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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