QuickLinks - Mobile and wireless

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Issue no. 404 - 21 December 2009

• Mobile Web traffic increasing rapidly for non-smartphones (Ars Technica)
  Data from Opera's mobile Web proxy servers suggest mobile Web browsing is exploding among users of standard cell phones, thanks in part to demand driven by consumers that expect smartphone-like browsing as well the more advanced capabilities of mobile browsers like Opera Mini.

Issue no. 402 - 18 October 2009

• EU frees new spectrum for new and faster mobile services (RAPID)
  Europe took an important step towards a new generation of mobile services when the Council of Ministers followed the European Parliament in approving a proposal from the European Commission. The updated GSM Directive now allows the 900 MHz frequency band to be used to provide faster, pan-European services such as mobile internet while ensuring the continuation of GSM services. The renewed Directive will enter into force this October.

• FR -French mobile mast debate raging (BBC)
  The mobile phone has become indispensable to modern life. But some communities in France believe they are paying too high a price for this convenience.

• Data both blessing and curse for mobile telecoms (Reuters)
  3G cards or sticks that allow people to get online via the mobile network from anywhere have come to symbolise how a goldmine of surging data traffic risks becoming a nightmare for mobile operators. Dongles are often sold with a flat-rate data plan, or with a subscription allowing a certain number of megabits of data to be used. They are fuelling a boom in mobile data traffic that is so heavy it is putting unprecedented stress on networks. Yet even as traffic explodes, revenues from these new services aren't keeping up because of the intense pressure on prices -- so investment in improvements risks squeezing margins.

• EU invests a fresh € 18 million in future ultra high-speed mobile internet (Europa)
  The EU will invest € 18 million into research that will underpin next generation 4G mobile networks. The European Commission just decided to start the process of funding research on Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced technology, that will offer mobile internet speeds up to a hundred times faster than current 3G networks. LTE is becoming the industry's first choice for next generation mobile networks, also thanks to substantial EU research funding since 2004.

• Mobile broadband feels the strain (BBC)
  Researchers predict that more than one billion people around the world will be using mobile broadband by 2012. However some European mobile operators claim that current levels of use are already crippling their networks. In Britain mobile operator Vodafone is doubling its mobile broadband capacity to 14.4Mbps (Megabits per second). The new service rolling out across the UK should give users a realistic peak speed of 10.8Mbps, says the company.

• Reading bar codes with mobile phones - Snap it, click it, use it (Economist)
  A new way to deliver information to mobile phones is spreading around the world.

• US - America loses its landlines: Cutting the cord (Economist)
  Ever greater numbers of Americans are disconnecting their home telephones, with momentous consequences.

Issue no. 400 - 5 July 2009

• EU - Commission clears Slovenian regulator's decision to maintain regulation on the mobile market (RAPID)
  The European Commission has endorsed Slovenia's telecoms regulator's (APEK) plan to require Slovenia's largest mobile operator, Mobitel, to continue to give competitors access to its network at regulated prices. Unlike most other EU countries, Slovenia's market for wholesale access and call origination services on mobile networks is still not effectively competitive. Competitors, for the time being, still rely on Mobitel's network to provide full national coverage and competitive services to their subscribers. Once they have rolled out their own networks, regulation should be withdrawn.

• EU - Roaming Regulation approved (RAPID)
  The ministers of the 27 EU Member States formally adopted the new EU roaming rules proposed by the European Commission and approved by the European Parliament in April. The new EU roaming rules will lead to further reductions of up to 60% on consumers' roaming bills as of 1 July - just in time for this year's summer holidays. The new EU Roaming Regulation in particular makes sure that consumers do not pay more than €0.11 (excl. VAT) for sending a text message while abroad in the EU. Consumers will also be able to surf the web, download movies or send holiday pictures with their mobile without experiencing "bill shocks" back home for having roamed this summer. Under the new rules, mobile operators must also bill their customers for roaming calls by the second after the first 30 seconds - instead of on a per minute basis, which is expected to cut phone bills by as much as 24%. The new EU roaming rules will now become effective as of 1 July in all 27 EU Member States.

• IPhone shakes up the video game industry (Siliconvalley.com)
  Apple's iPhone has already shaken up the mobile phone world. Next, it may shake up the video game industry. In less than a year, the device has become a significant game platform. But its bigger impact could be to help change the way the game industry does business. The iPhone is one of the first widely successful gaming platforms in which games are completely digitally distributed; the only way to get games on the device is to download them. That, along with some other important factors, has already created a new market. On the iPhone, consumers can find more games updated more regularly and at a cheaper cost per game than what they'd find on a typical dedicated game console.

• EU - Mobile manufacturers agree to universal charger (Guardian)
  The days of drawers full of chargers for mobile phones you no longer use could soon be over after manufacturers agreed to use a universal model. Ten companies including Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson have signed up to offer the charger, which will be based on a Micro-USB connector. Currently, when consumers buy a mobile phone they are provided with a new charger even if the old one still works.

• Small but disruptive (Economist)
  Laptops are evolving - and forcing the rest of the computer industry to change. see also Pre conceived Stiffer competition for the smart-phone throne and Tempting fruit A growing hunger to profit from the global market for smart phones.

Issue no. 399 - 7 June 2009

• EU - Cost of roaming texts, calls and data services to plummet from 1 July (RAPID)
  A text message sent from abroad in the EU will cost no more than €0.11 as of 1 July, instead of €0.28 today. The times where consumers had to expect "bill shocks" for downloading a picture or a movie with a mobile phone while roaming in the EU are over. The European Parliament, in its plenary session in Strasbourg, today voted by a large majority in favour of new EU rules on SMS and data roaming. The Parliament also voted for further cuts in the price of mobile phone calls while roaming in another EU country. The present cap for a mobile phone call made abroad will progressively drop from €0.46 to €0.35 per minute by July 2011, and from €0.22 today to €0.11 for mobile calls received while roaming abroad. Mobile operators will also be required to bill roaming calls by the second from the 31st second at the latest, which will end the current practice under which consumers are overcharged by up to 24%. As the Council of EU Telecoms Ministers has already signalled its agreement with the new roaming rules, the vote paves the way for an entry into force of the new rules just in time for the summer holidays. European consumers are expected to save up to 60% on their bill for using a mobile phone abroad in the EU.

Issue no. 398 - 13 April 2009

• EU mobile roaming deal ahead of summer period (EurActiv)
  Prices of mobile phone calls made between EU countries will be further lowered as of July this year, according to an agreement on the EU's 'roaming regulation'. As part of the deal, however, telecoms companies will still be able to subject users to an initial charging period of 30 seconds, which should enable operators to maintain some revenue. According to the text of the final agreement, mobile phone calls passed from one EU country to another will be capped at 43 cents per minute from July 2009, down from the current limit of 46 cents. This cap should be further decreased to 39 cents from July 2010, and to 35 cents from July 2011. More good news for consumers came with an agreement on a new system to prevent so-called 'bill shocks' for data roaming, which frequently hit mobile Internet users when abroad. The new regulation sets a €50 limit for data roaming per month (excluding VAT). Once a customer reaches 80%; of this amount, the mobile operator will send a warning message, giving details of a procedure to continue data roaming. Should the user fail to respond, the operator must automatically cut the service once the cap is reached.

• EU - First European airlines offering in-flight use of mobile phones (RAPID)
  More and more European air passengers are being offered the choice to use their normal mobile phone to send text messages, browse the web or even make calls on board airplanes. One year after the European Commission put in place common rules for safe use of mobile phones on aircrafts and for simple and non-bureaucratic authorisations of this essentially cross border service, 27 European aircraft have been equipped to allow the secure use of standard GSM handsets onboard aircraft while flying in European airspace. The number of aircrafts enabled for in-flight use of mobile phones is expected to double by the end of the year.

• Mobile operators discover the dangers of being reduced to a dumb pipe (Economist)
  Even industry veterans have been surprised by the rapid take-up of mobile broadband - using built-in receivers or plug-in "dongles" to provide internet access to laptops via high-speed mobile networks. The advantage of this is that it works anywhere - unlike short-range Wi-Fi technology, it is not limited to a few hotspots. In Western Europe alone, the number of mobile-broadband users will grow by 50% to 27m this year. Worldwide, there are thought to be around 100m. The growth, however, comes with a couple of big drawbacks for the operators. One is loss of control. Subscribers can do what they want: the operator is merely a "dumb pipe" to the internet. Next, rates have been falling quickly. see also Boom in the bust.

Issue no. 397 - 8 March 2009

• EU - Brussels firm on change to mobile fees rules (FT)
  European policymakers are to push through rules to cut mobile phone bills despite opposition from member states. Interconnection fees are the latest front in a protracted battle between mobile phone operators and Brussels. Twelve countries, including Germany, the UK and Spain, voted against plans by Viviane Reding, the European telecoms commissioner, to force operators to cut the amounts they charge each other for carrying calls across their networks. Fierce lobbying by mobile operators meant only five countries supported the Commission's proposal to force them to reduce those charges by over two-thirds, to between 1.5 and 3 cents a minute, by early 2012. Ten countries abstained. But a spokesman for Ms Reding said the plans had "wide support" in the EU and would be adopted by the Commission in early April.

• Mobile operators discover the dangers of being reduced to a dumb pipe (Economist)
  Even industry veterans have been surprised by the rapid take-up of mobile broadband - using built-in receivers or plug-in "dongles" to provide internet access to laptops via high-speed mobile networks. The advantage of this is that it works anywhere - unlike short-range Wi-Fi technology, it is not limited to a few hotspots. In Western Europe alone, the number of mobile-broadband users will grow by 50% to 27m this year. Worldwide, there are thought to be around 100m. The growth, however, comes with a couple of big drawbacks for the operators. One is loss of control. Subscribers can do what they want: the operator is merely a "dumb pipe" to the internet. Next, rates have been falling quickly. see also Boom in the bust.

Issue no. 395 - 27 December 2008

• EU - Commission issues guidelines to get Mobile TV on Europeans' mobile phones (RAPID)
  The European Commission has published a set of guidelines for the authorisation of Mobile TV to accelerate roll-out of the service across Europe. Mobile TV revenues worldwide are expected to reach more than €7.8 billion in 2013. The commercial services launched before summer 2008 in some European countries show that there is an increasing consumer demand: in the Netherlands alone, 10 000 users had already subscribed to the service at the beginning of autumn. Authorisations from Member States for Mobile TV services are needed before any commercial launches by operators.

Issue no. 394 - 7 December 2008

• EU - Mobile data price caps approved by EU Telecoms Council (OUT-LAW News)
  EU citizens travelling in other EU countries must be charged no more than €0.11 plus VAT per text message compared to the current EU average of €0.29 if the European Parliament backs a proposal that was approved by telecoms ministers. Data downloads will also be capped at €1 per megabyte for wholesale fees under proposals designed to protect travellers against "bill shocks". The plan also extends the duration of a current cap on voice roaming charges from 2010 to 2013.

• The battle for the smart-phone's soul (Economist)
  Not all is doom and gloom in the mobile-phone industry. On the contrary, it is going through two important shifts that promise to generate much growth and profit in the years to come. Sales of "smart" phones - those that allow you to surf the internet, download music and use other data services, as well as make calls and send text messages - are booming. Second, and more important, as handsets get smarter the nature of the industry will change. It will be less about hardware and more about software, services and content. More will be spent this year on such intangibles than on the handsets themselves and a fierce battle between operating systems for handsets has broken out.

Issue no. 392 - 5 October 2008

• EU - Roaming: Commission acts to cut cost of texting and mobile data services abroad (RAPID)
  Mobile phone users can expect the cost of sending text messages from abroad in the EU to be much cheaper next summer. The European Commission has proposed to reduce the price of roaming text messages by 60% as of 1 July 2009. EU citizens travelling in other EU countries should pay no more than €0.11 per SMS compared to the current EU average of ?0.29. The Commission also wants to improve transparency for surfing the web and downloading data on a mobile phone while abroad: consumers used to cheaper data services at home should be better protected against roaming "bill shocks" that can run to thousands of euro. The proposals will now be submitted to the European Parliament and Council, who must agree before they become law. The EU already reduced charges for making and receiving calls abroad (voice roaming) by 60% in summer 2007.

• EU - Vodafone warning on fees shake-up (BBC)
  Vodafone has warned that 40 million mobile phone users in Europe might switch off their handsets because of proposed EU reforms to call charges. Cuts in termination rates - the amount one network charges another to connect a call - sought by Brussels could be damaging to the industry, it said. If mobile firms had to raise fees to make up the loss, users could leave in droves, its research showed.

• The meek shall inherit the web (Economist)
  In future, most new internet users will be in developing countries and will use mobile phones. Expect a wave of innovation.

Issue no. 390 - 20 July 2008

• EU - Commission consults on bringing down mobile phone tariffs in Europe (RAPID)
  The Commission has launched a public consultation on the future regulation of "voice call termination rates" in the EU. Voice call termination rates are the wholesale tariffs charged by the operator of a customer receiving a phone call to the operator of the caller's network. These tariffs are determined by the intervention of national telecoms regulators. At the moment the decisions of the national telecoms regulators result in very divergent rates across the EU. This distorts competition between operators from different countries and between fixed line and mobile phone operators. The public consultation on this proposal will be open until 3 September 2008.

• EU - Commission plans ending roaming rip-offs for text messages abroad (RAPID)
  The 2.5 billion text messages sent every year by roaming customers in the EU cost over 10 times more than domestic short messages (SMS), show figures released by the European Commission. The average cost of a roaming text message in the EU between October 2007 and March 2008 was € 0.29 according to the European Regulators' Group (ERG), but can be as high as €0.80 for travellers from Belgium. Calls on the industry for self-regulation and voluntary reductions of roaming prices for text messages have not been answered. The Commission will therefore start working on measures to ensure that consumers benefit from a truly single market for mobile text services. The Commission will also seek to put an end to "bill shocks" that can hit roaming customers using a mobile connection to surf the Internet.

• EU - High prices and lack of transparency source of anxiety for data roaming customers (RAPID)
  Use of mobile data services within individual Member States is growing much faster than cross border data roaming services, says a Connect2Roam study carried out for the European Commission. This is because mobile operators are introducing aggressive retail rates to compete with existing broadband offers. However, use of data roaming services remains limited as consumers are discouraged by extremely high charges when compared to national prices, as well as a lack of transparency related to the pricing by volume of data (Megabytes) used. High-volume users are susceptible to bill shocks if, for example, they surf the internet for long periods when using their datacard connection on a laptop computer.

• Orange to open up mobile social net service (Guardian)
  Orange is to launch a major push for mobile social networking in the UK, introducing a service which aggregates users' accounts across the major social networks. Launched as a trial in France last month under the name MySocialPlace, Orange has now partnered with the biggest social networks - Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - to introduce the service in the UK in the autumn under the Orange World branded website. UK users will also be able to access the chat service Flirtomatic and the photo-sharing site Pikeo, while Orange customers in France can use the Skyrock community, DailyMotion video site and dating service Meetic.

• UK - Mobile networks raise minimum charge on pay-as-you-go tariffs (Guardian)
  Millions of pay-as-you-go mobile phone customers have been hit with a sharp rise in the minimum price for making a call as networks attempt to claw back lost revenue. O2 and T-Mobile this week doubled the minimum connection charge for many of their prepay customers, while Vodafone imposed a more modest rise last month. In many cases these charges have jumped from 10p to 20p or 25p.

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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