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

Apple facing laggard O2 iPhone sales in UK?

Having witnessed the ridiculous hype and initial demand for the iPhone here in the States, overseas iPhone carriers are going to have a hard time matching the feverish rate of US iPhone sales. But, that didn’t stop O2 from expecting to sell/activate upwards of 100,000 handsets during the O2 iPhone’s initial launch window.

So, how did O2 fare in their initial iPhone sales? Not as well as they would have liked, apparently. “Slow” would be one way to describe iPhone sales in the UK. The Register reports that initial iPhones sales figures have yet to break 30,000 units - with 26,500 iPhones having been activated in the two weeks since the iPhone’s launch on O2. Carphone Warehouse reported sales of 11,000 units over the launch weekend. And, an unnamed source told AppleInsider that the premier Apple Store in the UK, located on Regent Street, was still working to sell the entirety of their initial iPhone stock - which was shipped to the store prior to the iPhone’s UK launch on November 9. The Regent Street Apple Store has reportedly been selling a laggardly 100 iPhone handsets per day (compare that with the LG Shine that effectively sold more than 10,000 units worldwide for every day it was on the market this past year).

TAG Heuer to launch mobile phone

Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer, part of French luxury goods group LVMH, said on Monday it had licenced its name to French customised design manufacturer Modelabs for a series of luxury mobile phones.

"The launch of the first TAG Heuer mobile telephone is foreseen for the second half of 2008," the companies said in a joint statement.

Luxury goods companies, which realised long ago their brands could be extended to more than clothes and bags, have been rushing to embrace the mobile this year.

Prada and Armani have both recently launched phones made by, respectively, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

TAG CEO Christophe Babin said in the statement the launch of its eyewear line in 2002 convinced it of the wider potential of the brand, popularised in its adverts by Formula 1 drivers like Kimi Raikkonen, actor Brad Pitt and golfer Tiger Woods.

"The success of this line, already market leader in luxury eyewear, confirmed for us the potential of TAG Heuer as a brand for contemporary, technological and timeless products...such as luxury mobile phones," he said.

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk

Free phone calls for UK mobile users

The United States is way behind when it comes to mobile phones, mobile broadband and even land line technology but our friends across the pond are finding entirely new things to do.

A new device may soon be on the market that would allow mobile phone subscribers to redirect those calls to a broadband line, almost like VOIP. In fact, exactly like VOIP except from your mobile.

That would make the phone call technically free but you would still need to buy the £100 ($206) device that makes it all possible, the femtocell. I think it could have used a better name but I can’t think of any right now.

The Telegraph reports that mobile phone companies may give the devices away so they can carve out a piece of the broadband pie for themselves. But, don’t count on it. Since when has a phone company done anything to benefit their customers (unless it was forced by the government).

Sony Ericsson concept phone with full-sized USB port

The image above does NOT present an actual phone - rather it’s a concept device designed by Vincent Palicki. I’ve no doubt Vincent is cool guy — after all he’s thinking the way (I believe) we all do. Yeah, we hate BOTH mini and micro USB ports, pop and all other cables. Why wouldn’t handset manufacturers made a device that has a standard USB port built inside. It doesn’t sound that hard, does it? .

T-Mobile forced to sell iPhone without a T-Mobile contract

Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile are to allow customers in Germany to buy Apple's iPhone without having to sign a T-Mobile contract, after rivals Vodaphone obtained a court injuction against it.
T-Mobile planed to sell the iPhone without a T-Mobile contract for 999 euros at its outlets.
The move will allow those customers in Germany who bought an iPhone since November 19th, to unlock the device free of charge so it can be used with other SIM cards.
However, that will not enable customers to make use of all the functions that the music playing Web-browsing iPhone offers.
The court's injuction prevents T-Mobile from locking iPhone's SIM to T-Mobile when making a sale

UK Mobile Phone Retailer Goes Bust

The UK based online mobile phone retailer, Phonebox Direct has filed for bankruptcy with reported debts of between £4-10 million. Phone Box had been actively marketing via the internet mobile telephones which offered cash-back inc­entives to customers, providing certain conditions were met by those customers. In a statement on the company's website, it says that the number of customers that were able to comply with the terms and conditions and hence became eligible for the cash-back payments exceeded the company's expectations. The company is therefore no longer in a position to meet its ongoing liabilities to those customers.

This is not the first time a mobile phone retailer has offered cash-back incentives to customers, then filed for bankruptcy before it was obliged to make payments to its customers. Dialamobile, another retailer following the same business model went bust a few months ago. The company was investigated by Trading Standards offices after the collapse.

Source:http://www.cellular-news.com

Sony Ericsson W910i phones recalled by Orange

The first wave of W910i’s are all being recalled by Orange. Why? Because the phone function is somehow causing the device to switch off after 10 seconds and its also not answering calls.

Well, that kinda makes a phone, well, not a phone, doesn’t it? Some people who are returning them, are getting exchanges, and then the exchanges are having the same damn problem.

Someone needs to do something, preferably Sony Ericsson, letting such a fiasco get this out of hand is ridiculous. So, I’d definitely recommend waiting to get the latest installment of Walkman line of phones
Source: http://www.slashphone.com/70/8808.html

Compare Mobile Deals UK

These days you find a lot of Mobile phone deals UK offered by the online mobile shops. These deals have attractive offers like a free handset, free accessories, cash back offers, free talktime, etc. You need to research thoroughly before opting for one that suits your mobile lifestyle. Mobile deals change so rapidly that every other day you would find the deal updated in the market. Before you compare a mobile phone deal in UK, work out your caller profile to find the best tariff for you.

The online mobile phone shops UK give you an opportunity to compare prices for mobile phone deals and look for the best deal in the market. Online comparison shopping is efficient than searching local retail stores for the best deals. So visit various websites and do comparisons of their best deals. You can find all the mobile phone deals being offered from the comfort of your own home. We are aware that to compare Mobile phone deals in UK are getting cheaper day by day. You can make your deal cheap through research and comparisons
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So collect information about various mobile phone deals available in the market and go through them and compare them with your needs. If you sms a lot, you can find deals which have free sms’s offer and if you talk a lot, you can find a deal with some free talk time. Compare offers offered by different mobile shops and choose the one that suits your communication needs. The best part of these mobile phone deals is that you can get to own a free mobile phone. These mobile phones can also be the latest model with many other free gifts. You need to decide out of all networks which mobile phone plan would be suitable for you. But you need to be careful while choosing any offer or you could be deceived.