Fone Forum

The Times   

Mobile operator 3 has banned its customers from downloading data abroad to save them from enormous bills.  Only customers who specifically ask for it are able to engage in data roaming and even then 3 recommends a £50 limit.  In the next two weeks EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding will decide on whether to impose legislation to force mobile companies to cut the roam charges. 

The Guardian 

On Friday the high court ruled in favour of Vodafone, and said the company does not have to pay extra corporation tax on its Luxembourg based subsidiary.  The mobile company had set £2.2bn aside in the event of losing the six-year battle with HM Revenue & Customs, but Vodafone said they were ‘naturally pleased’ with the judge’s ruling.   

Mobile networks have raised minimum charges on pay-as-you go tariffs as they attempt to gain back lost revenue.  O2 and T-Mobile have doubled their connection charge last week, and Vodafone imposed their raise last month.  At the same time the European commission is planning on cutting prices that mobile phone companies charge to connect calls.   

The Guardian also writes about saving money on Sim-only contracts.  T-Mobile gives customers 500 minutes for £20 a month and 1,400 minutes for £30 a month.  All the major operators apart from 3 offer Sim-only deals. 

Daily Mail Online 

The American Embassy in London has banned visitors bringing mobile phones to the building.  A nearby family-run store has turned the visa applicant’s problems to profit, as they offer to look after mobile phones for £10 a time, bringing the store £1,000 each weekday.

Today's Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/news.aspx?id=38562) gives the following snippets from the weekend press:-

The Telegraph

Investors are expecting the share price of Carphone Warehouse to fall further.  The Best Buy deal unveiled in May has not impressed the investors and question marks over the company's accounting are not helping. 

The Financial Times

Yahoo! has announced that it rejected Microsoft's and Carl Icahn's attempt to to replace its board and buy its search business.  Yahoo! described the joint move as an ’odd and opportunistic alliance.  The company had repeated an offer to sell all of Yahoo! to Microsoft for at least $33 per share and also offered to negotiate a search-only sale but Microsoft rejected both. 

Eager customers around the world queued to greet the new 3G iPhone by Apple and become the first to own the gadget.  The launch in 21 countries simultaneously suffered from sporadic problems; a flood of new customers overloaded the servers causing problems for customers to activate the phone. 

The Times

Wales’ first billionaire, Sir Terry Matthews, is lending £2 million to Newport Networks, the telecoms equipment group he co-founded in 1986 and sold to Alcatel in 2000 for £4.4 billion, making him an estimated £600 million.  The business suffered first-half losses of £4.3million and a damning review of the business which said that more jobs must go.

The Times

Phones 4u’s chief executive, Tim Whiting, and founder John Caudwell split a £101m payout last year bucking the trend on the high street. Providence Equity Partners and the management took the cash out just less than two years after buying the business from the founder for £778m. Phones 4u has opened 64 new stores since. 

Google UK showed that it is not immune to economic slowdown. The company revealed its first decline since it began reporting as a public company in 2004. According to the chief economist, Hal Varian, the crisis in the housing market was the main source of weakness.   

The Daily Telegraph   

Ghana’s opposition party has blocked Vodafone’s attempts to takeover Africa’s most important telecoms market, Ghana Telecom. Ghana's main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, believes that the acquisition goes against national interests and with the parliament going on summer recess Vodafone may have to wait until October to get clearance. 

Financial Times   

Sony Ericsson’s disappointing second-quarter results will lead to a 17% reduction of its workforce. The company reported pre-tax profits of €8m, down from £327m in the same quarter last year. President Dick Komiyama said they had too many similar products and the company needs to ‘sharpen up its portfolio’. 

The Inquirer   

O2’s web application for viewing MMS messages for users with non-MMS capable mobile phones no longer requires authentication. With Google’s help there is no difficulty scanning the site and indexing customer’s MMS messages without knowing the exact URL parameters.

See:-    here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/news.aspx?id=38846).

"Telegraph

Vodafone’s problems will be underlined when it’s biggest rival in Spain, Telefonica will report much stronger performance in the Spanish market this week.  Vodafone blamed the faltering Spanish economy for the problems in the group’s third biggest European market.

Financial Times

Samsung reported a 51% rise in quarterly net profit on Friday.  The results were lower than analysts expected and shares fell even with the brisk sales of flat panel displays and mobile phones offsetting the weak performance of the company’s chip business. 

The Independent

The EU internet proposal, which allows national governments to force internet service providers to hand over private information about their customers to the police raises civil liberty fears.  The new telecoms package is due to go before the European Parliament in September".

Acknowledged thanks to Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_27.aspx).

Somewhat late this week ( after problems on the Mobile Today website   ;)  ):

The Times

Shareholders re-elected all nine of the current directors Yahoo!’s board, demonstrating their backing of the company’s stance on the merger talks with Microsoft.

Even with Yahoo!’s board re-elected, Jerry Yang the chief executive, disappointed Wall Street by offering few new ideas to revive the company’s share price.  Yahoo! is under pressure to assure that it can halt declining profits, compete more effectively and return the share price to $33 - the amount Microsoft offered three months ago.

The Telegraph

The Telegraph has launched a new made for mobile website, which includes news, sports and travel.  The new site is designed to be easy to navigate, the use of pictures kept to a minimum and a simple layout to ensure that it loads correctly with all browsers.

Guardian

The furniture store, Ikea will start offering mobile phone packages to the company’s loyalty cardholders, offering a flat rate on calls and texts.  The Family Mobile pay-as-you-go service is available to all 1.4m Ikea Family members in the UK.  Jason Baker, the customer relationship manager, claims that the deal is at least 25p cheaper than comparable offers.

See:-  here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_3.8.2008.html).

Telegraph

Vodafone with Microsoft and The Royal Bank of Scotland have joined to back the government with backing a business support website, a Facebook for entrenepeurs.  The website is to be launched this autumn.

Financial Times

Doubts hang over Vodafone's investors with Vodafone's shares falling rapidly from last November.  Part of Vodafone's problems appears to be that the company's earnings come from plain phone calls rather than more profitable data services such as internet browsing.

The Inquirer

Orange will be the first carrier to offer the new Blackberry Bold, beating T-mobile by weeks. T he new phone will be in shops on the 16th of August with tariffs starting at £45 per month with the phone free.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_9.8.2008.html).

The Times

Manchester United signed a £10m phone deal with Saudi Telecom, the biggest phone company in the Middle East.  The five year deal grants Saudi Telecom the rights to use the football club's logo and images in marketing.

Telegraph

Yahoo! Has appointed two new non-executive directors to it's board to appease Carl Ichan.  Former Viacom chief executive Frank Biondi and ex-Nextel Partners chief John Chapple were chosen from of list of nine candidates provided by Carl Ichan.

Guardian

According to a judgement by the competition appeal tribunal (CAT) on Friday Britain's five mobile phone networks owe BT tens of  millions of pounds for overcharging customers to call mobile phones from a fixed-line phone.  The decision could lead to a huge reduction in costs of calling a mobile and open the way to unlimited calling packages.

The Inquirer

The Japanese have started to recycle mobile phone's LCD displays into portable TVs, approximately 60,000 per year.  In Britain most out-of-use mobile phones end up as landfill rather than get recycled".

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_17.8.2008.html).

There was not much news over the bank holiday weekend.  Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_23.8.2008.html) only had one item to report:


The Telegraph

It is believed that Vittorio Colao at Vodafone is considering a possible management shake-up just after taking over as the new chief executive last month. He could appoint two senior executives to run Vodafone's businesses the company's recent expansion efforts in Asia and Africa".

The Independent

Vodafone is accused of dishonesty as the company is blocking customers from legitimately cancelling their contracts.  With charge raises starting from tomorrow, any customer who's bills are likely to increase by 10% is legally allowed to abandon their contract, but Vodafone has been telling customers they are still bound to the agreement.  Earlier this month the mobile phone giant announced that minimum call charges would be going up 25%.

Financial Times

Vodafone was confident on Friday that it would win control of Vodacom, South Africa's largest mobile phone operator.  Earlier in May Vodafone made an offer to buy 12.5% more from its joint venture partner Telkom in addition to the 50% that the company already owns.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_31_8_2008.html).

The Times

Nokia admitted on Friday that market share is shrinking due to aggressive pricing by rivals.  The shares came down nearly 10% and the company gave warning that its third-quarter market share would drop below the 40% achieved in the second period.

A tie-up with BBC and Nokia will allow customers to download all BBC programs transmitted in the past seven days to the new Nokia N96 starting from next month.  The 16 GB storage of the phone enables 40 hours of programmes and BBC shows can be downloaded via 3G or wi-fi.

Google will challenge Microsoft by launching its own web browser.  News of the launch leaked out days before the official release. 


Telegraph

Google announced the launch of the "Dream" phone on its 10th anniversary.  The new phone will be launched in Britain before Christmas, possibly as early as November.  It will operate using T-Mobile's third-generation network and the much hyped Android open-source operating system.

Barclaycard is planning a new expansion to contactless card payments.  The company now plans to make it possible integrate the chip into mobile phones instead of on a card.


The Observer

Cable & Wireless boss John Pluthero will be in line to collect a £20m jackpot if share prices reach 230p from Friday's close of 166p.  Mr Pluthero would receive one of the largest payouts by a UK executive.  In two months the company will announce its demerger which will see the British operation that offers telephony and internet services to split from the international division.


Financial Times

Internet developers and mobile industry executives say that the launch of Google's new Android phone will hit stores "with a fizzle rather than a bang".  Industry experts believe that Apple's iPhone was a text-book case of how to develop and market a consumer product and the Android is totally opposite due to Google's lack of consumer focus.

See:-   this (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_7.9.2008.html).

"News on the mobile phone industry according to the weekend papers.

Telegraph

The board of Cable & Wireless is set to meet at the end of this month to discuss the demerger of its international business.  The demerger plan would mean one share in the company's UK division and one share in its CW International for every share of the shareholders. 

The Times 

Tesco has signed a deal with Cable & Wireless worth £100m for employees to start using mobile phones for all calls instead of landlines.  A private GSM network will be built for Tesco across all stores and distribution centers. 

The owner of O2, Telefonica the Spanish mobile group, has offered to buy the remaining shares of Telefonica Chile that the company doesn't yet own in a deal estimated £550m.

Financial Times

Mobile operators around Europe are putting up a fight against the European Comissions new plans to cut wholesale charges.  Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms comissioner, is suggesting the reduction of charges mobile operators impose on each other when connecting calls to others' networks.  According to Reding, customers are having to pay redundantly high prices due to operators implementing such high charges on each other".

Source:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_14.9.2008.html).

News on the mobile phone industry according to the weekend papers.

The Times

Carphone Warehouse returned to the bidding and has offered £450m, 25% less than the company's earlier expectations, for the British arm of the broadband supplier Tiscali. Tiscali put itself for sale in May this year.

Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, announced last week that a mutant gene was found in his DNA which several studies have linked to Parkinson's disease.

Financial Times

Yahoo's new board is set to meet for the fist time on Tuesday next week.  Carl Icahn's intentions are to pressure for a deal with Microsoft.  “Yahoo is a really great company but I think they have to do something with Microsoft or Google is going to kill them”, he commented on Friday.

The Telegraph

A new study reveals that mobile phones may increase the risk of brain cancer by 5% in children.  The European Parliament voted last week in favour of urging ministers in Europe to bring stricter limits for exposure to radiation of mobile phones and other devices.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_21.9.2008.html).

My apologies for late posting.        :-[


News on the mobile phone industry according to the weekend papers


The Times

BlackBerry maker Reasearch in Motion (RIM) argued last Thursday that the high cost of producing more sophisticated models would pay off in the long term as share prices fell more than 25% and investors fear the company's plans to broaden it's horizon.

Guardian

Four big mobile phone operators, Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-mobile, have said 'no' to phone reglator Ofcom's plans for two-hour mobile phone number transfers.  At the moment transferring takes about two days in the UK.  Vodafone says its not against easy porting, concerns are of a ”costly and ill-conceived plan”. 

Financial Times

TeliaSonera the nordic telecommunications company has expanded its Asian business with acqusition of stakes of operators in Cambodia and Nepal.  Over half of the company's operator income comes from Asian and Eastern European investments. 

The Observer

The demerger of Cable & Wireless is the topic in tomorrow's board meeting and if approved could be announced within weeks.  The approval of the demerger would split the British and European fixed-line operators from the international side of the business.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_28.9.2008.html).

"Financial Times

Mobile operators '3' and T-Mobile signed a deal with BT wholesale.  The contract worth several hundred million pounds, will provide high speed links between their base stations.

T-Mobile admits to losing 17million customer's confidential information, such as names, addresses and phone numbers including politicians, celebrities and business leaders.


The Guardian

Nokia's new service allowing customers to download unlimited numbers of tracks is making artists nervous about their royalties.  Artists are concerned that they will not receive enough of the proceeds.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_5.10.2008.html).

The Times

Cable & Wireless has postponed the demerger plans until next year because of the situtation with the financial markets.  The company was due to split it's UK arm from international operations when unveiling half-year results in November. 

The government plans to extend the powers of state surveillance by requiring a passport from every customer wishing to buy a mobile phone.  A national register of 72m mobile phones would be part of a bigger database to fight terrorism and crime.  The move is targeted especially for prepaid phones, which are popular with criminals.

 
Telegraph

A new use of GPS-enabled mobile phones has opened a wave of business for the gaming industry.  A gaming platform has been developed that allows young people to use thier mobile phonest to play virtual games outdoors.


The Financial Times

Sony Ericsson recorded it's first quarterly loss in five years when announcing the results of Q3 2008.  The net loss was due to decrease in sales of mobile phones.  Dick Komiyama, the president, announced of plans to raise profitability by cutting the handset range by 20%.


See:-  Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_19.10.2008.html)

Financial Times

The huge demand for netbooks, the miniature low-priced laptops, has surprised techonology companies.  Even with the downturn in the global economy the demand has turned the netbooks in to the hottest procut in years and according to a consumer technology firm analyst shortages are expected before Christmas.


International Herald Tribune 

Sony Ericsson's new phone, theW595, will be the first in the world equipped with the YouTube upload function allowing customers to upload videos to YouTube with just a few clicks.  The new phone will only be sold in Italy by 3 Italia.
 

Yahoo! News 

The European Comission urged greater competition in the telecoms sector.  Viviane Reding, the comissioner responsible for the information society and media said that ”I firmly believe that regulation taking care of competition always has a positive effect on the economy ”.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_26.10.2008.html).

Guardian

After profit warnings hit City, BT shares fell to the lowest point since 1984.  Ian Livingston, chief executive, admitted that the performance of BT Global Services had been "particularly disappointing" and that the second quarter is also likely to miss expectations.


The Times

BT is planning a radical shake-up of its £35 pension fund as it seeks to cut costs after the disappointing profit warning.  The company wants to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65, up staff contributions and base the payouts on a career average rather than of final salary.

BSkyB has eneterd talks to acquire Tiscali with a bid of £450m for the company's UK operations after Carphone Warehouse walked away from the auction.  Going ahead with the acquisition would make Sky Britain's 3rd largest broadband supplier.


Telegraph

Charles Dunstone, Carphone Warehouse founder, with PR guru Matther Freud have joined a group of high-profile investors backing a new household energy monitoring device called the Owl.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_2.11.2008.html).

The Sunday Times

The new Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao announced the companys plans to cut costs by £1bn because of the drop in consumer products.  20% of Vodafone's western Europe workforce could be at risk.

The Times

BT is also reducing production and cutting up to 500 jobs of its payroll due to the economic downturn, of which 90 are likely to be in the UK.

A new mobile phone system, Wikitude, will allow the use of your mobile phone as a tour guide everywhere in the world.  By using GPS triangulation, it will know exaclty which sight or building the phone is facing and collects its information from Wikipedia.  It is built for Google's new Android operating system for mobile phones.  The first phone using the system is T-Mobile's new G1.

Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang admitted he is still open to a deal with Microsoft.  The company rejected two bids from Microsoft this year.  According to Mr Yang "I would say that the best thing for Microsoft to do would be to buy Yahoo!  We remain open to everything but it has to make sense."

The Independent

Orange, the mobile phone operator, is going to bring back call centers to the UK to improve services for customers.  The UK chief executive Tom Alexander said it wont be long for all the companys call centers to be running in Britain.

Financial Times

The expand of UK operations of an Indian telecoms firm, Tech Mahindra, will create up to 500 new jobs in the telecoms sector over the next three years.  The company is working in partnership with BT and will be advertising for call center and IT staff.

Lenovo, the world's 4th largest computer vendor, announced a sharp profit fall on Friday.  The company said conditions would remain challenging due to low consumer spending and slowing demand.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_9.11.2008.html).

The Sunday Times

Carphone Warehouse chief executive, Charles Dunstone, is expected to confirm talks of a demerger this week.  The break up would hive off TalkTalk and assist in Dunstone's plans to release value for the £1.3bn company.


The Times

Nokia issued a second profit warning on Friday blaming the sharp fall in consumer spending in the last few weeks.  The company also forecast a fall in handset sales in 2009, which analyst believe could be as much as 27%.


The Independent on Sunday

T-Mobile's UK chief executive Jim Hyde warns that there will be a rise in SIM-only deals as customers are holding off upgrades.  The impact of the credit crunch has increased the number of SIM-only deals, which according to Hyde is not a bad thing for the company.
 

Mirror

O2 boosted profits with acquiring over 400,000 in the three months up until the end of September.  The number of text messages sent between July and September increased by 45 per cent compared to last year.  Matthew Key of O2 commented: “We have accelerated away from our competitors”.


Telegraph

The management of BSkyB is still reviewing its options on the ruling of the Competition Appeal Tribunal last September, which ordered the company to reduce its stake.  According to sources the thinking inside the company is that an appeal is likely.


Financial Times

Sun Microsystems announced on Friday that it would cut up to 6,000 jobs, 18 per cent of it's workforce as companies and consumers are slowing down spending.

Source:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_16.11.2008.html).

Additional post:
 
The big news is the new BlackBerry Storm, which was released last Friday and is exclusive to Vodafone. The papers are pushing the £35 per month tariff on Vodafone.  What is not advertised is that this price is only available on a 24-month contract.  A phone number is supplied to encourage buyers to opt for telephone sales.

O2 is prevalent among the pages with two major promotions.  The first is the 3GB dongle available at £15 per month with ’50 days of happiness’.  The deal gives buyers the opportunity to return the dongle after 50 days if they are not satisfied with it.  Secondly, O2 is heavily promoting ‘priority’, which gives O2 customers the chance to can buy tickets before anyone else at the O2 arena.

Sim-only deals is also in the spotlight this week.  T-Mobile has cranked up the text allowance on its Solo tariff at £15 per month – boosted from 150 to 650 per month.  Virgin’s Liberty Sim is £10 per month, while Vodafone is pushing the Friends and Family Sim.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/dealwatch.aspx).

Telegraph

BBC plans to launch all of its channels live on the internet with licence fees still applying to any equipment, whether using a mobile phone or a television.  It is still unclear how to control if viewers have paid the license fee or not, if using a computer or a mobile phone.

Financial Times

Telefónica of Spain and Vivendi of France are in talks of a possible joint bid to buy the satellite pay-TV business Digital Plus.  BskyB the UK broadcaster has withdrawn from the bidding contest.

China's path to the third generation services started last May but according to analysts the resolutions to key issues in the area are at least one or two years away.  Some analysts believe that the TD network will end up as a solution for mobile broadband access, rather than a 3G market standard.

Reuters

Nokia plans to start a mobile phone service in Japan next spring.  Under an arrangement called mobile virtual network operator the company is expected to use Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo Inc.  Nokia will first offer the service with high-end models.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_23.11.2008.html).

The Times

The communications minister has hinted on starting up an auction for 'fourth generation' mobile technology. By using a block of spectrum previously intended for the digital television, the 4G technology would give download speeds up to five times faster than the standard fixed-broadband connection.

The Guardian

BT is dropping the connection fee it charges ISPs.  Consumers are using more bandwidth-consuming content over the internet, such as the BBC iPlayer.  As the BBC adds more high definition content to the iPlayer, the problem will only get worse.  BT's Openreach provides backhaul services for ISPs to connect customers to their own networks.

Theo Paphitis, the Dragon's Den entrepreneur has emerged as a potential buyer for the struggling high street retailer, Woolworths.  Administrator Delotte has been inundated with expressions of interest in the chain's 815 stores.  There are beileved to be 10 serious candidates.  Tesco, Asda and Iceland are interested in shops that can sell food, while Poundland and Wilkinsons also have their eyes on Woolworths' shops.

The Telegraph

BT is investgated by CPS for accusations that it broke privacy laws by using an advertising system, which could track and record all internet pages used by customers.  BT ran two trials of the software without customers' permission.  City of London Police earlier investigated the trials but found no illegal activity.  Now Alex Hanff, a campaigner, has filed a private persecution against BT. EU Commission, Viviane Reding is also investigating whether the trails were in breach of European Convention on Human Rights.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_30.11.2008.html?fragment=&SearchType=&terms).

The Times

BT plans to increase its network rent prices by up to 11%.  The rise could give BT a profit boost of £21m, but could add about £10m to resellers costs, such as Carphone Warehouse and BskyB, according to analysts.

Guardian

Ofcom's answer to BT's network price increase was lower than expected by BT. Ofcom's proposal has raised doubts about BT's willingness to build Britain's next generation broadband network if the company cannot make a reasonable return.

BBC News

A new freeware application for the iPod Touch can turn the player into a virtual mobile phone by allowing users to make calls to other iPod Touches through Google Talks's messaging service using Wi-Fi technology.  The developers plan to extend the software to allow users to call landlines, Skype users and instant messaging very soon.

The Independent

BT, Cable & Wireless and Global Crossing are lining up for the government's communications contract, the Ocean Program.  The contract would last up to seven years and estimated to be worth £2.5bn.  The contracts are expected to be in place next autumn.

Woolworths had the best day of trade in history as the clearance sale of the retail chain began and the company made hundreds of support staff redundant.  Mr Kahn of Deloitte, the administrator of Woolworths, believed that stores would remain open beyond Christmas.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_7.12.2008.html?fragment=&SearchType=&terms=).

The Sunday Times

Telecoms giants Vodafone, O2 and BT have begun discussions with technology companies on teaming up to start talks to form bidding consortiums to run 'smart meters' in the UK.  The contract for these digital gas and electricity meters to all homes in Britain is expected to be worth several billion pounds.

David Ross, Carphone Warehouse co-founder, spoke out for the first time after stepping down from a third public company last week.  He insisted that he wanted to resolve the issues and move on as his business career is not over.

Telegraph

The other co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, Charles Dunstone, publicly announced his engagement Saturday night at a party in London.

Former Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin has been approached about becoming a partner at the equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.  Sarin has been tipped for desirable roles after stepping down from Vodafone, including at Yahoo.

Source:-  here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_14.12.2008.html?fragment=&SearchType=&terms=).

"The Observer

Vodafone and Orange are set to sign a deal that will share the companies' costs of technology, engineering and maintenance at their UK network base stations.  Vodafone is expected to see a saving of £1bn per year".

Source:- the Mobile Today newsletter.

The Observer

Steve Jobs not showing up at the annual product announcements of Apple, focused the attention on the company’s future rather than the products.  Identified as the Apple’s driving force, Jobs not showing up has raised questions about his health and speculations of his possible successor.


The Sunday Times

Former Woolworth supplier TMTI received a cheque from the company for almost £100,000 as the emporium went into administration.  Instead of cashing it, TMTI decided to frame it and sell it on eBay for charity for the National Autistic Society.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_11.1.2009.html).

The Sunday Times

Mixed information from Apple is raising concerns in investors.  Steve Jobs' future in the company is still open due to health problems.

The Indpendent

The European Commission accuses Microsoft of dominating the web browser market, with control of roughly three-quarters, and preventing rivals from competing.  The EU is giving Microsoft eight weeks to reply to the objections.
     
The Telegraph

Tesco has become one of the first retailers in the UK to start using a social messaging service with customers.  The text-based messaging service will inform customers of offers and store openings.

See:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_18.1.2009.html).

The Sunday Times

Mobile companies such as Vodafone and Orange are given the permission to keep their 3G-phone licences if they agree to the communications ministers' plans to provide a broadband connection to every british home.

A company called Airwave, once part of the mobile phone group O2, is building a phone system for the police, fire and ambulance communications for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. 

The Observer

BT is considering to launch a mobile phone operation with T-Mobile and 3. Discussions are at an early stage and investors are critical of BT's attempts, but a deal would mean a great mark for BT as broadband and internet services are migrating to mobile devices.

Last week's profit warning has put the telecoms industry to seek for bail-out and the governments £3.5bn plans for broadband for all british home is in jeopardy.

Financial Times

Vodafone's $2bn battle with India's highest court has suffered a setback. The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the company and ordered the case to be sent back to the tax department.

Source:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_25.1.2009.html).

The Times
 
British Airways is planning to allow the use of mobile phones and wireless networks on flights from London City to New York, starting this autumn.  Big airlines in America are already launching Wi-Fi network access, and BA is following behind.
 
The Sunday Telegraph

The communications minister, Lord Carter, is looking to space technology as a method of providing broadband connections to all homes in Britain by 2012.  A company called Avanti is already providing 300,000 homes with broadband and, having launched it's first satellite, was suprised that such technology hasn't been recognised.
 
Financial Times

Following Government proposals to provide broadband for all British homes, there is concern about rising costs for homeowners.  Ministers are looking at withdrawing BT's current obligation to provide the service, as a way of cutting costs for end users.

The Independent

Nokia is launching a new "Nokia Tube Dance" routine for a touch-activated dance floor, which lights up and reflects sound on the new 5800 XpressMusic device.  The product will sell at £249 in the UK.

Source:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_1.2.2009.html).

Financial Times

Sales of PC's have fallen for the first time in eight years, according to analysts.  IDC technology research group said the previous 4% growth forecast is unlikely to hold.  Microsoft reported that the first half of 2009 could see even worse conditions than Q4 of 2008.  But the expected sales of the new, small low-priced laptops could boost the figures of 2009. 

Telegraph

The O2 arena has been put up for sale for £35m, with initial offers due this week.  The sale of the world's most popular entertainment arena has been named 'the bargain of the century'.

Mail Online

Google now offers 1.5 million books to be downloaded free onto mobile phones.  The company believes that the new generation of mobiles with large screens now make it possible to provide the service.  Experts believe the move will start an online battle for the market.

Source:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_08.01.2009.html).

The Financial Times

The Turkish telecom subsidiary, Avea, is set to overtake Vodafone in an increasingly cut-throat Turkish telecoms market.  Vodafone’s Turkish arm was among the network’s worst performing businesses in quarter four 2008.  Avea have gained 300,000 customers since November 2008, when number portability between networks became possible.

The Times

The mobile phone industry has agreed to design universal chargers to work for any handset.  Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG have all agreed to provide universal chargers, which use 50% less energy than current models.

The Telegraph

Luxembourg-based corporate telecoms group Colt Telecom is calling on shareholders for funds of £178 million (€201 million).  The group has debts of €262m, due at the end of 2009.

Source:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_do_the_weekend_papers_say_this_week_230209.html).

The Times

O2 has a strong quarter due to iPhone exclusivity.  The UK division became the group's star performer, enjoying a 10.6 per cent rise in annual sales, as O2's parent company, Telefónica Europe, reported a 5.9 per cent rise in full-year sales to €4.3 billion (£3.8 billion).

Carphone Warehouse may shed 10 per cent of its head office and support service staff in the UK.  About 450 jobs are at risk.  Cuts may be made from the extra call centre staff recruited two years ago to deal with barrage of customer complaints after free broadband was offered through Talk Talk.  Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, admitted last month that the demand for broadband was now ‘subdued’.

The Guardian

Mobile phone operator O2 has sold over a million iPhones in the UK and its exclusive deal to sell the Apple device has helped it buck the gloomy economic trend and report a 10% rise in revenues.

Financial Times

Motorola predict it will see upturn in beleaguered Mobile phone business by Q2.  Greg Brown, joint chief executive of the US handset said the upturn would be due to a reduced operating cost.

Source:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_say_020309.html).

What the weekend papers say 09/03/2009.  Dataselect owner Peter Jones caught up in VAT crack down.

Daily Mail

Data Select owner Peter Jones has been caught up in a VAT clampdown by tax authorities after delays recouping VAT payments to Phones International.  The company owes the money after being caught up in HM Revenue & Customs’ crackdown on the mobile phone industry.  The delays relate from 2006 but there is no suggestion that the Dragons’ Den star was involved in any fraud.

Times

Carphone Warehouse launched attack on telecoms regulator Ofcom’s proposals to allow BT to raise the amount it charges broadband providers to rent capacity on its local network of copper wires.  If Ofcom allow the proposals to go ahead Carphone would have to put prices up by 11% next month and up 22% over the next three years.

Financial Times

Huawei says it will target $30bn deals this year.  It is confident it will expand in fixed and mobile to detriment of rival manufacturers Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent.

Canadian telecoms equipment maker Nortel hopes to complete its reorganisation plans and emerge from bankruptcy protection before mid-year. The UK arm of Nortel was forced into administration in January.

Source:-   Mobile Today (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Dataselect_owner_Peter_Jones_caught_up_in_VAT_crack_down.html).

Guardian

BT has frozen pay of all its employees blaming the ‘tough economic climate’.

The pay freeze includes chief executive Ian Livingstone.  The company could be facing a potential multi-billion pound shortfall in its £33bn pension fund due to the recession.

Daily Mail

A Vodafone mobile broadband customer has run up a £22,000 bill for using the service abroad.

Vodafone has said that it will waive the full amount on the bill.

The communications regulator, Ofcom, confirmed that there are currently no rules forcing companies to alert their customers to the size of bills they are incurring.

Financial Times

Vodafone will sell 40 percent of shares in its joint venture with the Qatar foundation.  It will attempt to raise £665m for the shares which would then means the business would be worth £1.66bn

Vodafone Qatar will launch services in the Gulf state by June, therfoe it will break the monopoly of state-owned Qatar Telecommunications.

Source:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/What_the_weekend_papers_16032009.html).

Bl00dy hell - thats some bill !

Maybe some shrewd cookie will produce a comparison site for overseas data services...

Getting a local sim and data service can put the UK companies to shame with their pittance of bandwidth/throughput with their excessive prices.  Even with three's latest current customer only deal of £5 for 1GB and a free dongoler stick (what's the point - just get a 6 month contract and the right phone - or a deck chair, a car battery and sit near McDonalds, and then it is even cheaper !)

Why is their no cheap gprs packages in the UK ?  For people who only want a little bandwidth, mobile companies could offer this significantly cheaper - but yes there would not be so much profit on this...

Or if it is still possible I can use my unlimited three minutes to do UMTS Circuit Switched Data (CSD) to my home server and then through the bridge and out to the 20 year + interweb (now) - (actually arpanet is a lot older - older than me in fact ! aahh the delights of gopher and unprotected telnet)

Tags : Irrelevance, Anger, Incoherence, Jollity

Vodafone freezes staff wages to cut costs further


Independent on Sunday

Vodafone has frozen the pay of 10,000 UK staff in an effort to cut costs.  The move comes barely one month after Vodafone announced it was cutting around 500 jobs in the UK, as part of plans to save £1 billion worldwide by March 2011.

According to the Independent on Sunday, Vodafone will also scrap bonuses and is ordering sales representatives to keep their company cars for longer.


Financial Times

Sony Ericsson has forecast heavy losses in the first quarter of 2009.  The manufacturer is expecting to record a pre-tax loss of €340m-€390m (£320m – £365m), excluding restructuring charges, for the first three months of the year.

Consumers are buying fewer mobiles in the downturn, and Sony Ericsson said it was expecting unit sales by all mobile makers to fall by at least 10% in 2009.


The Sunday Times

Best Buy will postpone entry into the UK and joint venture with Carphone Warehouse until next spring.

The US consumer electronics company has said market conditions are not right to enter UK and it will postpone until next spring.

The US electronics company made a deal to open 200 stores with Carphone.

Carphone has said it is committed to the joint venture, which will still go ahead albeit later than originally planned.

See:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Vodafone_has_frozen_staff_to_cut_costs_further.html)

Rumours resurface of Carphone Warehouse bid for Tiscali


The Telegraph

Carphone Warehouse is considering a last minute bid for Tiscali's UK broadband business after withdrawing from talks last year.

The retailer’s home broadband division Talk Talk is hoping to snap up Tiscali for a bargain price.  The Italian broadband provider is on the verge of administration and has a £558m debt.

Talks between BskyB and Tiscali collapsed recently.  BskyB has not ruled out re-entering negotiations.


Times

Vodafone Africa ambitions have been emphasised with the appointment of Sam Jonah, one of the biggest names in African business, as a non-executive director.

Sir John Bond, Vodafone’s chairman, said Mr Jonah would bring extensive experience of business in Africa, particularly South Africa and Ghana, where the group has recently made big investments.

See:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Rumours_resurface_of_Carphone_bid_for_Tiscali.html)

Uproar as operators restrict use of new Skype application on 3G networks

Financial Times

Operators’ refusal to allow the use of Skype over 3G networks has sparked uproar across the globe.

The voice over internet service was added a week ago to the iPhone in the form of an application, allowing users to make free calls to other Skype users.

In the UK, O2 has restricted the use of the Skype application to calls made through the Wi-Fi connections.

AT&T in the United States has banned the use of the application on 3G networks.  Meanwhile T-Mobile Germany has completely banned the application.

According to the Financial Times, the Free Press, a net neutrality advocacy organisation, on Friday asked the US Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether AT&T was violating US guidelines by preventing the application from running on its 3G network.

The Voice on the Net coalition (Von), which includes Google, Microsoft and Intel, called on European regulators to ensure that consumers could access and run smartphone applications of their choosing on any public network.

The Sunday Times

A new pan-European radio spectrum band could be used to create new Europe-wide mobile phone services.

The 'S band' spectrum could mean partnerships between satellite companies and mobile operators to offer services like mobile TV, mobile radio, and mobile data.

European Commission has chosen to pool the S-band licences from all its member states, and award them in one block with 27 countries included.  Previously bands of spectrum were awarded on a country to country basis.

Mobile phone operators, have therefore had to spend years gathering licences for pan-European mobile phone coverage.

The S-band spectrum could also be used by a new entrant into the mobile phone market, for example, if Google wanted to build mobile broadband services across Europe.  Google has invested in a company building satellite broadband coverage in Africa and has been active in building Wimax mobile broadband networks in the US.

See:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Uproar_as_Operators_restrict_use_of_new_Skype_application_on_3G_networks.html).

Some operators may be reluctant to give up part of their capacity for Digital Britain

Guardian

Lord Stephen Carter’s plans to bring broadband to every British household could be in jeopardy amid competing and complex agendas.

Universal broadband was part of the Digital Britain report released in January, but progress is being threatened by disparate positions on access to radio spectrum.

According to the Guardian some operators are fighting to keep hold of their capacity, which could be used for mobile broadband.

Internet advisor to Lord Carter, Kip Meek is heading up the negotiations with operators to ring fence some of their capacity so that it can be opened up, transporting broadband to rural areas.

Sunday Times

BT to axe 10,000 jobs

BT is preparing to axe another 10,000 jobs. The huge redundancy programme will be announced next month alongside a horrendous set of year-end figures say the Sunday Times.

See:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Digital_Britain_talks_with_operators_in_jeopardy.html).

Moat poised to join T-Mobile as MD

Guardian

The Guardian has said that former Orange chief Richard Moat is poised to join T-Mobile as its new MD.

Mobile reported earlier this month that Moat was tipped to be in line for the job.  Moat, a Briton, would join from Orange Romania, where he has been CEO since September 2004, but has also had CEO roles for Orange in Thailand and Denmark.

Moat will replace Jim Hyde as MD of T-Mobile, who announced he would leave the company in January to go back to his home country of the United States.

T-Mobile would not confirm the news.

Financial Times

Vodafone could face trouble in its plans to advance into Africa by buying the continent’s biggest mobile company after a trade union sought a court order to block the purchase.

Vodafone plans to buy am additional 15% stake in Vodacom, a company it currently splits 50-50 with South Africa’s state control Telkom.

The Communication Workers Union said it would try to stop Telkom selling its shares to the UK group, claiming that it had not been properly consulted.

Source:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Moat_poised_to_join_T-Mobile_as_MD.html).

Carphone in talks with Tiscali again after price drop

Financial Times

Speculation has mounted that Carphone Warehouse has renewed talks with Tiscali to buy its beleagured UK arm after a significant price drop.

According to sources close to the process, Carphone and the Italian telecoms group, Tiscali are currently in negotiations.  It is understood the price of the broadband company has dropped significantly from £600m to £250m

The retailer pulled out of talks last year after it refused to meet the proposed price and its £550m offer was refused.  Tiscali’s talks with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) also caved earlier this year.

Guardian

O2 and Vodafone may keep 900MHz spectrum

The Government is considering allowing O2 and Vodafone to keep the 900MHz spectrum that they were granted in the 1980s, but could ban them from taking any of the spectrum that will become available when analogue TV is switched off in 2012.

Times

3’s CEO Kevin Russell positive amidst recession.

3 remains positive amist recession as strategy on data services is introduced.

Losses at the group, which hit £1.4 billion five years ago, were reduced this year to only £152 million.  The network now has 4.9 million customers — 8 per cent of the UK market

3’s strategy is to lure in customer with value for money deals such as Skype then encourage spend on other services.

Kevin Russell told the Guardian recently: ‘Mobile is a great product in a recession.  People might relinquish their gym membership or golf club pass,” he insisted, “but they will always cling on to their phone.’

See:-   MobileToday (http://newsletter.thought.co.uk/lt/t_go.php?i=1099&e=MjY1MjI5&l=-http--www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Carphone_in_talks_with_Tiscali_again_after_price_drop.html).

Weekend papers: 4.5.2009

Financial Times

A T-Mobile tie-up with Orange is likely, say analysts as Deutsch Telekom consider selling the UK arm of T-Mobile.

It is thought unlikely that the UK competition authorities would veto a move by Orange’s parent company, France Telecom, to buy T-Mobile UK.

Management of T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, is under pressure from shareholders to decide whether to sell its under-performing UK arm.

Times

Orange's plans to sell phones in HMV has raised concerns that customers will struggle to understand why both brands are in one place.

Instead of seeing the links between the two brands, some say that customers are more likely to wonder why an Orange salesman is trying to sell them phones in a music store.

Previous similar deals, have foundered. HMV and 3 announced an alliance two years ago, a partnership which was dispanded after failing to take off.

Meanwhile, Ben Wood, of CCS Insight, a telecoms research group, argued that the tie-up is a good tactical move by the pair and that Tom Alexander, the head of Orange, has experience of such partnerships having sold mobile phones through Virgin Megastores when he was running Virgin Mobile.

Times, Financial Times

Ericsson, the mobile phone network equipment supplier, saw its net profits fall by 35 per cent last week.

The Stockholm based company posted a net profit of SwKr1.8 billion (£150.7 million) down from SwKr2.6 billion - Its operating profit fell by an even greater margin of 49%.

Ericsson’s chief executive, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said that it remained difficult to ‘precisely predict how operators will act in the current environment’. But he remained upbeat, adding: ‘The effects of the global economic recession on the global mobile network market are so far limited.’

Ericsson is slashing 5,000 jobs this year because it expects further spending cuts.

See:-   MobileToday (http://newsletter.thought.co.uk/lt/t_go.php?i=1116&e=MjY1MjI5&l=-http--www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Speculation_over_TMobile_and_Orange_tieup.html).

Sony Ericsson confident that smartphone strategy will propel it into top three

Financial Times

Sony Ericsson’s president was confident last week that the company would be in the top three manufactures by 2011, thanks to its smartphone strategy.

Sony Ericsson’s president, Hideki (Dick) Komiyama, said the company will compete by increasing its annual share of the total revenue - rather than volume of handsets sold - with new smartphones.

The strategy marks a change of heart for Komiyama who said in January 2008 that Sony Ericsson would raise share based on volume.

Komiyama said the failure of the company to develop a smartphone resulted in a repetitive string of mid-tier mobile phones with similar specs.

The manufacturer will release at least two smartphones by the end of this year, and a third early in 2010.

Komiyama added: ‘If we do not adapt to this new technology or new market environment, we’re going to lose.’


Times

RIM sponsors Bono

BlackBerry is sponsoring U2 in the latest bid to drive the brand into the consumer market.

The sponsorship will begin as the band kick starts its world tour later in 2009.  Figures from Gartner show that RIM increased BlackBerry’s share from 10.9% to 19.5% last year.

Meanwhile, boosting advertising and sales has knocked RIM’s margins below their traditional 50%.

RIM’s joint CEO, Jim Balsillie, said: ‘Our focus is to drive mass adoption of the BlackBerry - if it comes with some incremental margin compromise, this is a small price to pay.’


Times

France Telecom’s new CEO friend of Sarkozy

Orange’s parent company, France Telecom, will get a new chief executive – multi-millionaire and friend of President Sarkozy, Stéphane Richard.

It is understood that he will replace current CEO Didier Lombard, who it is thought will retire in 2011. Richard has been chief of staff to Christine Lagarde, the Economy Minister, since 2007.

Manuel Valls, a leading member of the opposition Socialist Party, denounced the appointment as a ‘confusion of roles between political power, civil servants and big public and private industry’.

See:-   here (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Sony_Ericsson_confident_over_smartphone_strategy.html).

Vodafone is expected to announce an acceleration of £1bn cost-cutting measures alongside results tomorrow

Financial Times

Vodafone is expected to use its full-year results tomorrow to announce an acceleration in its £1bn cost cutting programme.

Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s chief executive since July, used his first strategy presentation in November 2008 to announce the cuts.

He outlined a plan to cut the company’s operating expenses by £1bn by March 2011, mostly at its European businesses. About £500m of savings were due by March 2010, and another £500m by March 2011.

Vodafone is also expected to say it will no longer give revenue guidance, after cutting sales forecasts twice during 2008-09, partly because the economic downturn hurt some of its core European mobile businesses.

Vodafone suffers set back on South Africa plans

Vodafone suffered a set back in its plans to gain a controlling stake in one of Africa’s biggest operators when a local regulator pulled its support of the deal.

South Africa’s telecoms watchdog reversed an earlier decision to wave through the UK mobile giant’s $2.5bn purchase of an additional 15% stake in Vodacom, its 50-50 joint venture with state-controlled Telkom, following a court action to block the deal by the country’s trade union federation.

Guardian

Carphone Warehouse kills commission

Carphone Warehouse will replace its ‘car salesman’ image by slashing individual commission payments for its staff with a new bonus payment system, as of July.

Mobile reported last week that the retailer would end a long heritage of individually rewarding its best sellers by cutting commission payments in favour of a store performance based bonus system.

Carphone’s UK chief executive, Andrew Harrison, said: ‘Customers think this industry has been more akin to estate agency or car salesmen. That is not what our business is built on.’

After a trial of the new system in London stores since October, Carphone has decided to extend the new system to its stores nationwide.

Carphone said fears that the non-commission trial in London would see an exodus of experienced staff to rival firms, were not realised.
The retailer said turnover of staff had gone down and basic wages were raised from £11,000 to £17,000 per annum.

See:-   this (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Vodafone_to_speed_up_cost_cutting.html).

Weekend papers 1.6.2009


The Observer

Orange’s offer for T-mobile re-buffed.

Orange is understood to have made an offer for T-mobile’s UK business which was rejected by the operator’s parent company, Deutsch Telecom.

The Observer also alleged that Vodafone has suggested swapping its Turkish business for T-mobile UK – strengthening Deutsche Telecom’s eastern Mediterranean position, where it already runs Greek operator OTE.

Speculation that Deutsche Telecom planned to offload its ailing UK business began as the company valued its business at just £3.3bn.

The news comes as T-mobile gains new boss Richard Moat, who is expected to radically restructure the company in order to turn around the ailing business.


The Independent

Vodafone rewards beleaguered staff following salary freeze.

Vodafone is set to make a one-off bonus payment to staff after morale plummeted following the announcement that bonuses would be scrapped and salaries frozen.

Staff were sent an email last Thursday (28 May) that said they would be paid a bonus equating to 2% of their annual salary.

Vodafone’s chief executive, Guy Laurence, riled staff in March when he announced that salaries would be frozen and bonuses scrapped irrespective of performance.

Staff will receive payment of the bonus in June.


Guardian

Networks to debate spectrum with Lord Carter this week.

UK networks will meet Lord Carter tomorrow (2 June) to hammer out a plan on Digital Britain.

The meeting follows Kip Meek’s recommendation on 13 May that Vodafone and O2 need not give up their 900MHz spectrum but they would be banned from buying any of the 800MHz band, which will be available in 2010 when analogue TV is switched off, unless they relinquish some of their current spectrum.

Orange, T-Mobile and 3 have indicated unhappiness with the proposal that Vodafone and O2 needn’t give up any of the 900MHz spectrum.

See:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Weekend_papers_1_June_2009.html)

Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse partnership imminent

Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse are set to broker an agreement after a three year split, putting the network back into the retailer’s stores.

The Times has learned that Carphone Warehouse’s chief, Charles Dunstone, and Vodafone are in the final stages of talks that will see the network returned to the retailer’s stores.

Vodafone split from the retailer three years ago, switching to an exclusive partnership with Phones 4u, which committed to signing up 30,000 customers per month.

Financial Times, Times, Telegraph

Carphone Warehouse demerger set for 2010

Carphone Warehouse has set the date for the demerging of its telecoms and retail business for March 2010.

The retailer revealed the news as it filed its full year figures.  The split would mean Carphone’s TalkTalk broadband business would be separated from the retail business.

The Tiscali deal, agreed last month, will make Carphone Warehouse Britain’s biggest provider of residential broadband, giving it an additional 1.8 million subscribers and taking its market share to 26%.  This is ahead of both BT and Virgin Media, which have 24% each.

Source:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Vodafone_and_Carphone_partnership_imminent.html)

Sunday Times

T-Mobile uses VAT loophole to avoid price caps

T-Mobile will use a VAT loophole to evade price caps imposed by the European Union, according to reports by the Sunday Times.

Mobile  reported earlier this month that the operator will raise the cost of calls made abroad by 6p, to 44p per minute from next month.

The hike in prices comes at a time when EU legislation has been introduced to control the price of text messages and voice calls.

Voice calls have been limited to 38p per minute excluding VAT and T-Mobile has taken advantage of the loophole.

Analysts have speculated that T-Mobile, the only operator to make the move, is trying to recoup lost revenue from the lowering of text message costs. 

The Mirror

LG announces app store

LG has become the latest phone manufacturer to announce it is opening an app store, according to reports in the Mirror.

The announcement of the service was made by Ahn Seung-kwon,  president and CEO of LG’s mobile division in South Korea.

The store will open in July, however; Seung-kwon did not mention any plans for when the store might be available in the UK.

The store is thought to be an attempt to rival iPhone’s app store and comes after the recent announcement of Sony Ericsson opening a similar service. 

Guardian

Former Phones 4u owner makes bid for van firm

The Observer has reported that former Phones 4u owner John Cauldwell is looking into saving the floundering van making firm, LDV.

Cauldwell spoke to the Guardian and played down suggestions that he was interested in investing in the company, although he had requested some financial information from administrators PriceWaterHouse Coopers.

Source:-   MobileToday (http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Weekend_papers_15_June_2009.html).

If the exchange rate changes enough, T-mobile will probably have to cut their prices again.  :D

3 increased their roaming costs recently, then abolished Like Home, but are still promoting the line that they want roaming to become more competitive

These seem fairly daft actions when O2 and Vodafone have cheaper roaming options

It makes you wonder what planet T-Mobile is on. A company truely run by accountants it would seem. None of them have obviously seen the roaming deal offered by Vodafone.