Tag Archives: ofcom

In-app fleecing threatens m-commerce

Published on Friday, April 12th by Tony Dennis

Rating: Stop fleecing youngsters with in-app purchases says OFT

The practice of raising money from games old ‘free’ through in-app purchasing has come under close scrutiny from the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Whilst consumers pay nothing to download and install the app, the makers generate funds by charging for extras through in-app purchasing. This practice of ‘in-app fleecing’ is particularly deplored when incorporated into games aimed at the young - especially for the Apple iPad tablet. The OFT found that Single purchases of virtual currency typically range from a few pence to £70 or more.As part of its investigation, the OFT is asking for information from key players in the sector, including games developers and games hosting services, as well as consumer and parenting groups. Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Mobile Stats, android, iOS, m-commerce, mobile news | Tagged Cavendish Elithorn, free to install, in-app fleecing, ofcom, OFT, UK | Leave a comment

UK finally sells off its 4G/LTE spectrum

Published on Wednesday, February 20th by Tony Dennis

Rating: Sees BT re-entering mobile space ‘super-Wi-fi hotspot’

The UK comms regulator, Ofcom, has finally announced the results of its 4G spectrum auction. The four existing UK mobile operators have won new spectrum and we have seen a subsidiary of fixed-line incumbent, BT -Niche Spectrum Ventures win spectrum, too. This means that BT has re-entered the cellular market after – in our humble opinion, the disastrous decision to float off its mobile arm – O2. But BT many not be planning to become the UK’s fifth national mobile network operator, according to John Delaney a research director for consumer mobile with IDC. Anyway, EE and Vodafone have acquired spectrum in both 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, while Hutchison (3UK) and Telefonica (O2) only got 800 MHz spectrum. Niche Spectrum Ventures (NSV) only has acquired spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band. Continue reading →

Posted in 3, 4G, Everything Everywhere, LTE, Mobile Operators, Vodafone, o2, telefonica | Tagged BT, IDC, John Delaney, ofcom | Leave a comment

Sun highlights need for real time fraud protection

Published on Tuesday, January 29th by Tony Dennis

Rating: Scare story could hinder sales of data roaming packages

Under the headline ‘Network cashing in on crime’, the British newspaper – the Sun on Sunday wrote an article which could seriously scare ordinary folk away from taking their mobile phone with them on holiday. Which could damage mobile operators’ efforts to sell custom data roaming packages to their subscribers – especially business folk. With MWC 2013 fast approaching, this story could also have implications for attendees too. The crux of the issue is that network operators continue to charge subscribers for calls made after a phone has been stolen and until the theft is reported. Continue reading →

Posted in MWC, Vodafone, mobile security, roaming | Tagged data roaming, Jane Martin, MACH, MWC, ofcom, real-time monitoring, SIM, theft, Vodafone | Leave a comment

Boxing Day sees 38% more mobile traffic than Cyber Monday

Published on Friday, January 4th by Tony Dennis

Rating: Ah, but UK consumers made 50% more transactions on Cyber Monday

Much as GoMobile News had predicted, in the UK it was Boxing Day [December 26th 2012] which experienced the greatest amount of mobile data traffic, according to Usablenet. The 26th saw 38 per cent more mobile traffic than on Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday has traditionally been the biggest day for online shopping. However, the UK and USA had different dates in 2012 for Cyber Monday which is – usually the Monday after Black Friday. The latter is the Friday following Thanksgiving in the USA. So in the United States Cyber Monday fell on November 26th [2012], but it was a week later in the UK on 3rd December [2012] as this coincided with payday for most of the UK population. Continue reading →

Posted in mobile shopping, retail | Tagged Aslef, ASOS, Boxing Day, Carin van Vuuren, carphone warehouse, Cyber Monday, marks & spencer, ofcom, Selfridges, topshop, usablenet | Leave a comment

Ofcom poised to outlaw mid-term price hikes on mobile contracts

Published on Friday, January 4th by Dave Evans

Customers will also get right to cancel without penalty charge

Mid-contract price hikes for millions of UK mobile users will become a thing of the past under plans by the country’s regulator Ofcom to outlaw the practice. At present customers on contracts involving monthly billing can only cancel if price rises cause “material detriment”, a legally untested term, otherwise they are invariably obliged to continue paying until the deal ends or face an exit penalty. Continue reading →

Posted in 3, Vodafone, mobile billing, mobile news, o2, orange, t-mobile | Tagged customer billing, EE, o2, ofcom, three, Vodafone | Leave a comment

Ofcom closes door on 4G bidders as auction starts in earnest

Published on Wednesday, December 12th by Dave Evans

Operators forced to pay £100k each as initial ‘entry fee’

The first round of the 4G bidding process by UK regulator Ofcom came to a close last night [11th December 2012], marking the start of a race that will begin in earnest next month. Ofcom will now begin sifting through the list of applicants, who each have had to pay a £100,000 entry fee, in an auction that will see up for grabs a total of 250 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 MHz frequency bands, compared to 333 MHz in use today. Continue reading →

Posted in 4G, Everything Everywhere, LTE, Mobile Operators, Vodafone, o2, orange, t-mobile | Tagged 4G, auction, EE, ofcom, Vodafone | 1 Comment

Britain’s Ofcom ushers in prospects for ‘white space’ mobile broadband

Published on Friday, November 23rd by Dave Evans

New consultation aims to increase capacity without wrecking digital TV signals

UK regulator, Ofcom, has signalled that new City-wide Wi-Fi networks using ‘white spaces’ (the gaps in between bands of spectrum used to broadcast TV) could be up and running by Q1 2014. The announcement comes as Ofcom tries to avert a nationwide ‘capacity crunch’ and follows its own recent research revealing how Britain will need 80 times more airwave space in around 18 years (2030) than is currently needed. Continue reading →

Posted in 4G, Everything Everywhere, LTE, Mobile Operators, Vodafone, mobile news | Tagged BT, capacity crunch, ofcom, white space | Leave a comment

Vodafone in the dock over ‘misleading’ 4G adverts

Published on Tuesday, November 20th by Dave Evans

EE says main rival shouldn’t promise a service it has yet to be awarded

Britain’s Vodafone is being reported to the Advertising Standard Authority by arch rival EE amid accusations it is duping customers with ‘misleading’ 4G claims. EE, the country’s biggest mobile operator which owns Orange and T-mobile, stole a seven month march on rivals recently when it was allowed to introduce 4G services using existing spectrum. Others like Vodafone, O2 and Three, will have to wait until around summer 2013 before they too can offer superfast services. Continue reading →

Posted in 4G, Everything Everywhere, Vodafone, orange, t-mobile | Tagged 4G, EE, o2, ofcom, orange, t-mobile, three, Vodafone | Leave a comment

Ofcom warns of possible mobile data capacity crunch

Published on Friday, November 16th by Tony Dennis

Rating: Realises that data off-load onto Wi-Fi might help

Having already plunged the UK into chaos with its decisions on the spectrum range to be used for 4G networks, the UK comms regulator – Ofcom, has decided to issue dire warnings over future wireless data capacity. It commissioned some research from Real Wireless which has concluded that the UK will need 80 times more capacity in about 18 years (2030) than is currently required. Far more worryingly, however, new data which the body has collected on the UK’s communications infrastructure that more than twice the amount of data (20 million GB) is being consumed over the UK’s mobile networks compared to last year (9 million GB). So it has made noises about data off-load onto Wi-fi. Continue reading →

Posted in 4G, Mobile Operators, Wifi | Tagged BBC News, data offload, Ed Richards, Infrastructure Report, ofcom, Passpoint, Wi-Fi | Leave a comment

Britain’s 4G auction roll-out details finally unveiled

Published on Monday, November 12th by Dave Evans

Government whip cracking pays off

UK regulator Ofcom has finally unveiled details of how the nation’s 4G spectrum will be auctioned, though money raised will only be a fraction of that garnered for 3G. Applications for the 800 MHz and 2.6G Hz bands will be accepted on December 11th 2012, less than a month away, with the qualification stage to determine which companies can actually bid decided soon after. The reserve price for the spectrum sell-off will be a mere £1.3 billion, much less than the £22 billion raised for 3G licences, though whoever wins will be under an obligation to reach 98 per cent of the UK. Continue reading →

Posted in 3, 4G, Everything Everywhere, LTE, Vodafone, o2 | Tagged 4G auction, EE, o2, ofcom, three, Vodafone | Leave a comment

Cycell teams up with UK charity Age UK for MVNO

Published on Tuesday, November 6th by Hans Cett

Rating: Get handsets sold through High Street charity shops

Here’s an extremely novel way to set up and deploy an MVNO in the UK – get the phones sold through 200 charity shops across England. That’s what CyCell, a specialist mobile network operator, has managed to do in conjunction with Age UK. What’s more the network is sold on just one device – the Age UK My Phone. CyCell is promising a “high level of service support” which isn’t too difficult really given that there is only one phone and only three tariffs. Better still, the network is aimed at one of the few demographics who aren’t already mobile phone users – the elderly. Continue reading →

Posted in 3, Mobile Operators, orange | Tagged Age UK, CyCell, elderly, Gordon Webber, Helena King, my phone, ofcom | 2 Comments

UK mobile operators in plan to share networks during outages

Published on Monday, October 29th by Dave Evans

Stop the fighting and start cooperating, suggests EE’s Olaf Swantee

Talks are in the pipeline between Britain’s four mobile operators which could see them share each others’ networks during blackouts, EE’s boss Olaf Swantee has revealed. EE, which owns Orange and T-Mobile and whose new 4G network launches tomorrow [30th October 2012], is Britain’s biggest network provider with 27 million customers and has most to lose in the event of an outage. Earlier this month rival operator O2 faced a storm of criticism when its network went down for the second time in six months, hitting 2.2 million customers. Other network providers such as Vodafone have suffered similar problems in the past, with matters not helped by the growth of smartphones and the corresponding rise of network-hungry apps. Continue reading →

Posted in 4G, Everything Everywhere, Vodafone, mobile news, o2, orange | Tagged 4G, blackouts, EE, network sharing, o2, ofcom, olaf swantee, orange, outages, t-mobile, three, Vodafone | 1 Comment

EE chief’s uphill task to persuade phone makers over Britain’s 4G

Published on Tuesday, October 23rd by Dave Evans

Network goes live next week – but only just

Smartphone users benefiting from EE‘s new 4G network in Britain will have the personal intervention of the firm’s CEO to thank, it’s been revealed. With just a week to go before EE’s super-fast network is officially launched, City AM reports how Olaf Swantee – boss of EE and its subsidiary brands Orange and T-Mobile – spent months persuading phone manufacturers to design devices that would run on the operator’s 1800 MHz frequency. The network will also be the only 4G network to work with Apple’s best-selling iPhone 5. Continue reading →

Posted in 4G, Apple, Everything Everywhere, Samsung, Vodafone, mobile news, o2, orange, t-mobile | Tagged Apple, EE, ofcom, olaf swantee, orange, Samsung, t-mobile, Vodafone | Leave a comment

Vodafone sneaks in another UK price rise ahead of regulation

Published on Friday, October 19th by Dave Evans

Millions of Vodafone UK customers are to be hit with another “sneak” price hike in their bills at the start of next month, despite moves by regulator Ofcom to outlaw such contracts.
The operator, which earlier this year reported annual profits of £9.5 billion, is increasing monthly bills by up to 2.4 per cent on 1st November 2012, adding 59p per month to the average customer bill. It is estimated it will raise tens of millions of pounds for the company and follows similar rises imposed by Orange, T-Mobile and Three. Continue reading →

Posted in Vodafone, orange, t-mobile | Tagged mobile contracts, ofcom, orange, t-mobile, three, Vodafone | Leave a comment