CES 2008: Sony Ericsson gets fashion focused with Z555

Sony has launched a fashion focused mobile phone as apart of its Z range at CES in Las Vegas.

The new model, called the Z555 will come with an optional "Design Collection" of four leather bags all offering unique and creative carrying solutions, as well as three new sleek Bluetooth Headsets, HBH-PV708, HBH-PV770 and HBH-PV712.

"The Z555 is designed to reflect your look and attract attention," said Sven Totte, Head of Style Marketing at Sony Ericsson. "We've created it for people who are looking for a beautifully designed phone that reflects their personal style and does not compromise on features or performance."

However rather than tie up with a fashion like most of the competition, Sony Ericsson is hoping a bit of bling design and some innovative features like gesture control that allows you to manage calls with a wave of your hand will seal the deal with beautiful people.

Available in Diamond Black and Dusted Rose the clamshell design won't feature an outside screen, but like the company's S500 model will have theme's that change with the seasons.

The Z555 will also come with a 1.3 megapixel camera and Sony Ericsson Blogger software.

The Z555i is an EDGE/GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 phone that will be available in selected markets from Q1 2008. The Z555a is an EDGE/GSM/GPRS 850/1800/1900 phone, available in the same timeframe.

Source:http://www.mobilephoneshopuk.net/blog/

Disgrace of mobile network coverage

AN INVESTIGATION into the quality of mobile phone coverage in Wales is to be launched by the telecommunications regulator Ofcom.

The move follows concerns about the credibility of industry claims that only 0.2% of the Welsh land mass cannot pick up a signal.

More detailed statistics suggest that mobile phone users in Wales get a poorer deal than those in England, where only last week mobile and broadband coverage was compared unfavourably with that in India and Malawi.

Last night Rhodri Williams, Ofcom’s director for Wales, said, “We have had a number of representations expressing concern about the claim that 99.8% of Wales has mobile phone coverage. The point has been made to us that many people travelling between North Wales and South Wales by car or train experience difficulties with mobile phone reception as they pass through rural areas.

“We are planning to look into these concerns, and are currently considering how to bottom out the figures.”

According to international mobile phone industry trade association Groupe Speciale Mobile, both Wales and the UK as a whole have 99.8% coverage for so-called 2G coverage – the basic phone and text service.

Wales fares worse than the UK – predominantly England, of course – when it comes to districts served by at least four mobile phone operators. For the UK as a whole, 81.6% of districts have that degree of choice. In Wales the figure drops to 57%.

When it comes to so-called 3G coverage, where mobile phone users are able to browse the internet and send “richer” messages from their phones including videos, Wales is at a considerable disadvantage to the UK as a whole.

Across the UK, 91.4% of districts have 3G coverage, while in Wales the figure is 74.1%. The contrast is even starker for those districts having coverage from at least four 3G operators – 67.6% in the UK, and only 32.3% in Wales.

But the true picture appears to be even worse because of a difference in the way districts are counted. For the UK as a whole, districts are said to have coverage when at least 95% of the area has access. The figures relating to Wales alone, however, allow districts to be counted as having coverage when only 50% of the area is within reach of a signal.

Mr Williams said, “My personal view is that including districts as having coverage when only 50% actually have it is a strange way of counting.

“Historically, the deployment of mobile telephones in the UK has been entirely a matter for the private sector. Companies have rolled out their networks on the perceived judgment of the financial return available. The extent of coverage has been a factor in the competition for business. But there is nothing like the concept of universal service obligation that exists so far as conventional land-line telephones are concerned. That principle dates back to the time when BT was a public sector organisation.

“A decision was taken that, unless you lived at the top of a mountain in a very remote area, you would have a right to be connected to the land telephone network for the same price as someone living in Chelsea. That remains the case.

Mr Williams said the statistics released by GSM may suggest that the market will not necessarily ensure that everyone has coverage.

Asked what Ofcom could do, he said, “Ultimately this is not a matter for the regulator, but for the Government. In a very competitive market, where operators have an obligation to make a return to their shareholders, it is not feasible to impose an obligation that each of them must provide universal coverage.

“One possible solution is a government subsidy. When BT decided that it was not commercially viable to provide broadband capability to 35 telephone exchanges in Wales, the Assembly Government decided to provide a subsidy. But this is a matter for government.”

In Wales there has been criticism from some businesses in rural areas that the availability of broadband – a much faster internet connection – has been subject to lengthy delays.

In some areas, firms have been told it will cost them many thousands of pounds to be linked to the broadband network, in apparent contradiction of the Assembly Government’s stated aim of having universal broadband capability.

“Take-up of broadband in Wales has also increased considerably over the past few years. Up from 15% in 2004 to around 43% by early last year.”
Source:http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk

T-Mobile + 3 = Europe's Largest HSDPA Network

This could be one of the biggest mergers in the cell phone industry we've seen in quite some time. An announcement has just been made wherein T-Mobile and 3 UK are planning to merge their networks, effectively forming Europe's largest HSDPA network. This means that consumers will have coverage up the wazoo and the companies will save plenty of dough in the process.

Full details have not been released just yet, but by combining the 3G networks of the two British mobile giants, both firms stand to save about one billion Pounds Sterling (about $2 billion USD). Those are some rather substantial savings, but it's hard to say whether they plan on passing these savings onto their subscribers.

As far as I can tell, the two companies will continue to operate independently with neither owning the other; they'll just be sharing their 3G networks. Let's just hope this doesn't go the way of a drunken NYE one-night stand.
source:http://www.mobilemag.com

UK lags avoid mobile phone jam

THE UK government has apparently rejected the use of mobile phone jammers to prevent mobile phones smuggled inside prisons being put to nefarious uses such as drug dealing.

The plan was rejected on the grounds that such jammers might interfere with handsets being used in cars outside the prison grounds.

The revelation came as the result of a Parliamentary question from Lady Hermon, an Ulster Unionist, to Maria Eagle, the Labour MP, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

In the year to September 30th 2007, prison officers had discovered a total of nearly 3,500 mobile phones with SIM cards, mobile phones without SIM cards and SIM cards on their own.

Prison establishments are required to send all seized mobile telephones to HMPS Security Group for investigation. Investigators hope the lags will have left behind some incriminating phone numbers.

Curiously, Wandsworth Prison seems to be the worst offender. Out of the approximate 1,500 phones recovered from all England and Wales jails in five months, one sixth of them (circa 250) were found in
Source:http://www.theinquirer.net

T-Mobile to offer Samsung's Wi-Fi VoIP mobile

T-Mobile has started selling the much-rumoured Samsung Katalyst Wi-Fi VoIP handset in the US. Available at just £40, the question is when it will reach us here in the UK.

The Samsung SGH-T739 Katalyst allows you to call your friends and family free of charge using VoIP services when you're within range of a Wi-Fi network. When you're not, the phone automatically switches to a mobile GSM network so that you can continue yakking away without interruption.

The slider handset features quad-band GSM/GRPS/Edge connectivity, a 176 x 220 and 262,000-colour screen, 1.3-megapixel camera, expandable microSD card slot up to 2GB and Bluetooth 2.0, Register Hardware reports.

The Samsung SGH-T739 Katalyst is said to offer around five hours of talk time and up to 240 hours of battery life in standby mode. The handset is available on T-Mobile in the US, from around $80 (£40), depending on what contract you're on. T-Mobile could not confirm a UK release date.
source: http://www.tech.co.uk

China Produces 40 Percent of Mobile Phones

Roughly 500 million of the world's mobile phones, or more than 40 percent of the global total, were or will be produced in China this year, according to the country's Ministry of Information Industry.

Those numbers, which were reported via the Chinese government's press agency Xinhua, represent a 41 percent increase in handset production over 2006.

The report also says that 80 percent, or 400 million of those devices, were or will be exported.

Chinese handset makers saw a drop of two percentage points in domestic market penetration, however, due to increased competition in the space, namely from Finland's Nokia. Chinese mobile phone manufacturers shipped less than two-thirds as many devices to Chinese retail outlets than Nokia.

Nokia recently predicted that the global mobile phone market will increase by 10 percent in 2008 to roughly 1.2 billion units, according to Xinhua.

Another recent study by market research firm In-Stat, said the number of smartphones, or Web-enabled mobile phones, in use throughout the world will increase by an average of 33 percent each year through 2012, so demand for Chinese handsets will likely only grow as more and more people purchase such devices.
source:http://www.pcworld.com/logon

US mobile industry in turmoil

THE demise of the $US95 billion ($108 billion) US mobile phone industry as we know it is not quite imminent, but if the events of the past week are taken at face value, it seems a lot closer today than it was last Tuesday.

First Verizon Wireless, the second-largest US mobile phone operator, announced it would open its network to devices or applications bought by users from third parties, as long as they met its required technical standards.

While this is only the first step towards a wireless marketplace that encourages far more innovation and choice, it is significant because Verizon Wireless (55 per cent owned by its namesake parent and 45 per cent by Vodafone) has until now been the major player most resistant to growing pressure for openness from wireless consumers, regulators and firms such as Google and Microsoft.

Verizon's move was followed three days later by public confirmation that, as anticipated, Google will bid in the Federal Communications Commissions auction next month of the nationwide 700 megahertz spectrum being vacated by the US television networks. This potentially positions Google to exercise immense influence over the future direction of the US wireless and broadband markets either by working with partners to roll out services with dramatically different pricing models (probably supported by advertising and more use of low-cost voice-over-IP), or perhaps even by operating a wireless network itself.

As a result, the four major (and hugely profitable) US wireless carriers - ATT, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile - face an upheaval that will erode their margins, curb their control over the devices and services using their network, and eventually force them to scrap their current revenue model.

Verizon's announcement should be viewed cautiously until its minimum requirements are spelled out and it becomes clearer how open it really intends to be.

While in part triggered by Google's looming threat, at least the move is an attempt to get out in front of painful market changes, rather than being dragged along.

Combined, the two events are definitive evidence the command and control approach the telephone industry has pursued for most of its history, and which US wireless carriers insist is still the only way to guarantee reliable service to customers at all times, is quickly crumbling.

source:http://www.australianit.news.com.au