Issue no. 389 - 22 June 2008

• UK - T-Mobile cuts data roaming fees by 80 percent (ZDNet.co.uk)
  T-Mobile has announced a cut of 80 percent in its European data-roaming charges, in time for the 1 July deadline imposed on operators by the European Commission. Information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding told operators in February that they would have to make their data-roaming rates more reasonable by the start of July, otherwise the Commission would consider proposing strict new regulations on such charges. T-Mobile said its data-roaming charges within Europe would, as of 1 July, drop from £7.50 per megabyte to £1.50 per megabyte.

Issue no. 388 - 1 June 2008

• EU - Mobile operators hike non-EU roaming rates (Informa Telecoms & Media)
  European operators have raised the price of roaming calls into the European Union as much as 163% since the introduction of the Eurotariff to compensate for the loss of roaming revenues within Europe. For example, the average price of a call home to Italy made by a subscriber roaming in Russia has risen 25% since the Eurotariff came into play. A German mobile user outside the EU has seen a massive 163.7% price increase since 2006 for a call home from Africa.

• EU - Reding in race to shake up mobiles industry (FT)
  Cheaper overseas text messages, lower surcharges on mobile phone calls, a shake-up of the EU's radio waves - this striking "to-do" list marks the latest quest by Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner. She has repeatedly clashed with the industry over her regulatory efforts and while much of the Brussels machine has slowed in the final year-and-a-half of the European Commission's mandate, Mrs Reding seems determined to make the most of her remaining term.

• CN - Reorganisation of China's telecoms industry (Economist)
  By any measure - revenues, employees, customers - it is the largest industrial reorganisation ever. And, reflecting how business is done in China, it was announced in the most modest way, with a posting on a government website on May 24th. The country's telecoms industry, with nearly 600m mobile subscribers, 360m fixed-line customers and $244 billion in revenue, will be reconfigured. Six companies will be collapsed into three, each spanning mobile, fixed and broadband services.

• How to promote the spread of mobile phones among the world's poorest (Economist)
  In the next few months, the number of mobile phones in use will exceed 3.3 billion, or half the world's population. No technology has ever spread faster around the globe: the mobile phone took less than two decades to reach this degree of penetration. But the ever-restless wireless industry has already set its sights on getting the other half connected. Two recent reports analyse how to add the "next billion" to the subscriber list.

• NL - KPN tempts Dutch customers with mobile TV (Register)
  KPN will become the first operator in Europe to launch a nationwide mobile TV service when it begins broadcasting 10 channels across DVB-H next month. The Dutch operator's service kicks off from June 5 and it will offer TV-hungry customers two handsets, the LG KB620 and the Samsung P960, which can receive the broadcasts.

Issue no. 387 - 12 May 2008

• EG - Egypt asks mobile firms to bar anonymous users (Reuters)
  Egypt has asked mobile phone companies to block service to anonymous subscribers as a public security measure, and at least two firms have begun efforts to comply.

• European Commission launches public consultation on EU Roaming Regulation (RAPID)
  The European Commission invites feedback by industry, consumers and other interested stakeholders to review the functioning and effectiveness of the EU Roaming Regulation, which entered into force on 30 June 2007. According to the provisions of the Regulation, the Commission must report to the European Parliament and the Council in 2008 about the functioning of the new roaming rules and their effects. The public consultation aims to gather responses from mobile operators, businesses, consumer associations and any interested party by 2 July 2008.

• Mobile phone trio agree internet project (FT.com)
  Two of the world's largest mobile phone operators signalled their determination to profit more from the growing popularity of wireless internet. Vodafone, the world's largest operator by revenue, and China Mobile, the largest by number of customers, announced a research project aimed at speeding the roll-out of mobile internet services. Softbank, Japan's third largest mobile operator, is also part of the project, to be known as the joint innovation lab.

• The mobile future is calling (BBC)
  Developers are being asked to devise applications for mobile devices so users can "access it, mix it up, save it, and store it". The plea to harness the creativity of the internet and apply it on mobile phones was made by Mitchell Baker the chair of Firefox developer Mozilla.

Issue no. 386 - 20 April 2008

• Nomads at last (Economist)
  Wireless communication is changing the way people work, live, love and relate to places and each other;

Issue no. 385 - 21 March 2008

• Concern in Europe on Cellphone Ads for Children (New York Times)
  Bright new "kiddie" telephones have begun appearing on the market that can speed-dial grandma and grandpa with a click of a button. The MO1 - developed by Imaginarium, a toy company, and Telefónica in Spain - prompted some parent groups in Europe to demand a government ban on marketing to children. In France, the health minister recently issued a warning against excessive mobile phone use by young children.

• EU - It's better in Belarus, Brussels warned (FT)
  Belarus is better for business than Brussels, Boris Nemsic, head of Telekom Austria, said, in an out­spoken attack on the European Commission's efforts to cut mobile phone charges.

• Google sees surge in Web use on hot mobile phones (Reuters)
  Google has seen an acceleration of Internet activity among mobile phone users in recent months since the company introduced faster Web services on selected phone models, fueling confidence the mobile Internet era is at hand. Early evidence showing sharp increases in Internet usage on phones, not just computers, has emerged from services Google has begun offering in recent months on Blackberry e-mail phones, Nokia devices for multimedia picture and video creators and business professionals and the Apple iPhone, the world's top Web search company said. L

• Microsoft targets the mobile web (BBC)
  Microsoft has launched a bid to capture a segment of the growing market for rich web content on mobile phones. The software firm has signed a deal with handset manufacturer Nokia to bring its Silverlight platform to millions of mobile phones. Silverlight is seen as a competitor to Adobe's Flash, which is already used by popular websites such as YouTube.

• Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old (JK) (New York Times)
  Children increasingly rely on personal technological devices like cellphones to define themselves and create social circles apart from their families, changing the way they communicate with their parents.

• UK - The mobile internet kids (BBC)
  Children are at the cutting edge of the mobile internet revolution and both teachers and the phone industry can learn from them. We were using a group of 12 and 13 year olds to investigate how children used - and abused - mobile phones and they were knowledgeable, articulate and very demanding of the technology.

Issue no. 384 - 24 February 2008

• EU - Mobile goes Internet : Key Challenges for Mobile Ubiquity in Europe's Single Market (RAPID)
  Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 11 February 2008. Data roaming: I want to see the end of these artificial borders between networks and nations which are both preventing private consumers and business customers to benefit fully from the single borderless market we have created between 27 EU countries so far. The objective is clear: Sending text messages or downloading data via a mobile phone while in another EU country should not be substantially more expensive for a consumer than sending text messages or downloading data at home. If the mobile industry responds to the need for attractive packages of data services offered to their customers, with a credible Eurotariff for data roaming in all EU Member States, I will applaud your action. However, if I see no such single market offers for data roaming evolve by 1 July of this year, I will have no other choice than to propose regulatory intervention again.

• EU - Ofcom seeks lower charges for texting in Europe (Guardian)
  The cost of sending a text message and accessing the mobile internet looks as if it will fall dramatically for business travellers and holidaymakers who use their phones and mobile devices abroad. At a meeting of European telecom regulators, Ofcom boss Ed Richards will call for urgent action to reduce roaming charges for texting and data services such as the mobile internet. He will also raise concerns about hidden charges faced by mobile phone users when they make a call from other European countries.

• Vodafone pre-empts regulator to cut internet roaming charges (Guardian)
  Vodafone has became the latest mobile phone operator to try to head off a clash with regulators over the cost of using the mobile internet abroad by cutting its data roaming prices. EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding is expected to use her appearance at next week's mobile world congress (MWC), the industry's annual get-together in Barcelona, to accuse the operators of overcharging customers to send texts and access the mobile internet while overseas.

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