Mobile Phones Blog

Something of a late arrival to the party this; Virgin Media have just announced plans to make a move in on the burgeoning mobile broadband market. The Quad Play provider, which punts cable broadband, digital cable TV, along with fixed line calls and mobile services, already supplies some 4 million UK customers with broadband services, and naturally wants to combine the ‘mobile’ and ‘broadband’ aspects of its business.

Virgin Media will be launching a single 18-month mobile broadband contract, which will allow users to connect to the web on the go for just £15 a month. As far as we know, there is no set-up fee, and the cost of the USB modem is included in the contract; there is a 3GB monthly download limit.

No official word on the top download speed available to customers, but seeing as Virgin Mobile piggybacks off of the T-Mobile network, out guess is that the Virgin Media mobile broadband service will do the same, and therefore the speeds ought to be around 4.5Mbps, the same as they are with T-Mobile’s closest equivalent service (Plus USB Modem Stick 24 Months).

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3 have called on the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to give T-Mobile a telling off over their recent best value for minutes guarantee on a range of £30 monthly tariffs.

T-Mobile quite rightly claim that no other operator bundles more minutes for £30, but 3 can offer more minutes for less money on their £27 Mix & Match tariff, and they want the regulator to intervene. Still, £27 inst £30, so T-Mobile, technically aren’t fibbing.

Apparently, T-Mobile have price-matched against “the other four networks,” which presumably means Vodafone, Virgin Mobile, Orange and O2, conveniently cutting 3 out of the loop.

What is misleading is the implication that no other network offers better minutes-per-pound value, which is 3’s specific beef. When contacted, the ASA stated that they are still looking into the complaint.

Seemingly seconds after it was announced that the iPhone was getting its first proper firmware overhaul, Nokia released details on update15.0.015 for the 8GB version of the N95.

The Nokia code monkeys have been busy tinkering so that the overall performance of the phone will be generally faster. The start-up time of the phone is significantly faster, and the speed of data transfer over USB has also been pimped out.

Among other minor tweaks to the overall performance of the phone, is the addition of Flash 3, which means that videos incorporating Flash can be viewed on YouTube et al.

Broadband, fixed line and digital TV supplier Tiscali intend to turn up the heat on its main market rivals Virgin, BT and the Carphone Warehouse this year. The Italy-based communications company is planning to launch mobile phone network services in the UK in the last quarter of 2008 - Tiscali chief executive Mary Turner said to The Telegraph: “The assessment is not if, it is who and when. The business case has already been approved by the board.”

This will see Tiscali following in the footsteps of Virgin Media, by becoming the UK’s second ‘quad-play’ provider, should they beat Orange - supposedly getting ready to launch their own IPTV platform - to the punch.

When Tiscali purchased the ISP Toucan last summer, they also acquired the developing Toucan mobile phone service, which piggybacks on T-Mobile’s network.

Tom Alexander, one of the people instrumental to the success of Virgin Mobile and the launch of Virgin Media, has jumped ship, and is now at the helm of the Orange UK mobile and broadband armada.

The move was announced last October, when Mr Alexander confirmed he was becoming the chief executive officer of UK business in the France Telecom-owned company. Having become something of a star figure over at Virgin, it is hoped that Mr Alexander will reinvigorate the Orange brand, which faces tougher competition in the converged multimedia communications market.

Olaf Swantee, a man with the rather grandiose title of senior executive vice president of personal communication services, has said that Mr Alexander’s appointment represents “an exciting time for Orange” and hopes that “his experience leading some of the biggest brands in the industry” will help steer Orange back into the good times they enjoyed under the helmsmanship of former boss Hans Snook.

Orange is currently the third most popular provider of mobile phone services and the fifth most popular broadband ISP.

Orange announced the development of their IPTV service back in September, with a view to having it ready for its broadband customers to start using by Christmas - noises from the company indicate that nationwide roll out isn't due to happen for a while yet.

Despite Orange inking lucrative deals with the likes of Disney and ABC, initial trials held in London and Leeds seeming to be going off without a hitch, and the mobile network’s parent company running a successful IPTV operation in France, the telco seems to want to expand its base of broadband customers before going ahead.

Currently, Orange’s broadband footprint is said to cover slightly less than 50% of the UK population; more investment in infrastructure is required before the service can be launched, in order to maximise the earning potential of the venture, say analysts.

Network rivals Virgin Mobile are part of the Virgin Media Quadplay group, and are competing directly with Orange in the converged mobile-broadband markets - Orange’s entry into digital TV would see the network and ISP compete with Virgin on a third front as well. Also embroiled in the multi-market melee is O2, who recently launched their ADSL2+ broadband service to users on the Be Broadband network.

It’s no secret that the iPhone was inevitable after the arrival of the iPod and the proliferation of mobile phone use. With Apple’s emergence into the mobile market, the main players are wary of the new wonder product having a similar ‘Death Star’ affect on the mobile market as the iPod had on the music industry and so a rather predictable scramble for deals between mobile operators manufacturers and music companies ensued.

Edgar Bronfman, the chairman and chief executive of Warner Music, has said that the mobile platform represents “the biggest opportunity for entertainment generally and music specifically”. Kim Bayley, director-general of the UK Entertainment Retailers Association, recently voiced the opinion of many that DRM is “stifling growth and [is] working against the consumer interest.”

We’ve taken a brief look at the main players in the mobile music market and how they shape up against the mighty iTunes.

iPhone/iTunes - The iPod, iTunes Store and the iMac - the Holy Trinity - reversed the fortunes of Apple at the turn of the century after several water-treading years in the mid-nineties, and fundamentally altered the landscape of the recording industry. Apple has recently taken the bold step to un-DRM a wide selection of their library. iTunes is available for download on Macs and Windows PCs and, of course, the iPhone. Average track price: 79p

Vodafone MusicStation - Launched this September, Vodafone’s MusicStation offers Vodafone mobile customers access to a vast catalogue of 1.2million tracks for just £1.99 a week. There is a social networking/Last.fm/Facebook element to MusicStation as well - users create profiles on sign up and can add friends and share playlists. The service, run in conjunction with music company Omniphone, is set to be rolled out to BlackBerry users and other handsets soon. Average track price: £1.99 a week for unlimited track downloads (FUP applies).

Orange Music Store - Running using the Musiwave platform, which is rumoured to be bought out by long-standing Apple rival Microsoft, Orange’s own Music Store offers a wide range of tracks drawing on an extensive library - still has some way to go in terms of matching iTunes for variety though, and it is not compatible with Macs or Firefox. Average track price: 99p

Nokia Music Store/Comes With Music - The N95 and it’s 8GB brother have both been hailed as iPhone killers. Nokia operate two mobile music platforms; their own Music Store and Comes With Music, with the former offering customers individual tracks from as little as 80p and whole albums for £8, and the latter (due to launch ‘mid-2008′) offering access to a ‘free’ library of DRM’d files. Average track price: 80p

Mobile Music Morgue

Virgin Mobile’s Virgin Digital platform was canned earlier this year after the Windows Media-based iTunes alternative failed to take off. Because of DRM restrictions, customers presumably resorted to backing up files of the music that they’d already paid for to blank CD-Rs. O2 Music has been quietly dropped from their website, presumably a clause of the deal done with Apple.

O2 have signed deals with social networking giants MySpace and Facebook which will allow users to tweak their picture captions and profiles on their phones without eating into their monthly data allowances. The effects of this deal are tentatively said to be realised sometime in November, with rumours millers on the interweb hinting that the launch of free Facespacing will be timed to coincide with the UK iPhone launch on the 9th next month.

This alone should make the appeal of the iPhone, with its intuitive web navigation and direct computer sync features even greater - this well weapon speech tool will allow trendy urbanites and disgruntled emo kids to take a picture and instantly upload it to their profiles for complete auto ego buttressing on the move.

Vodafone unveiled a similar MySpace for Mobiles application earlier this year, providing free profile tinkerage on the move, Orange did a deal with Bebo - the ‘third’ social networking site - and Virgin Mobile has already inked deals with LiveJournal, AsianAve, and Xanga.

Today also sees the launch of O2 Broadband, an ADSL2+ service which uses the Be Broadband network, currently only available to just over 50% of the population, and at a knocked-down price for O2 customers.

O2 have finally announced the launch details of its home broadband service, which will simply be called O2 Broadband, scotching rumours that it was going to be called ‘Fourplay’ and provide a range of features to rival those on offer by Virgin and Orange, i.e. landline voice calls, broadband, mobile phone contracts, digital telly and Fabergé eggs.

O2 Broadband is an ISP first and foremost, and will provide customers with top download speeds of up to 20Mbps - theoretically, the service which makes use of advanced ADSL2+, is capable of hitting top speeds of 24Mbps, but given the consumer backlash against providers not being able to deliver on their advertised prices, O2 are wary about “over-promising” to customers, instead choosing to advertise a more realistic top speed.

The O2 Broadband packages are as follows:

8Mbps for £17.50 per month
16Mbps for £20.00 per month
20Mbps for £25.00 per month

O2 customers on Pay Monthly contracts will be able to qualify for a £10 discount off of the cost of each package, bringing the cost of the premium 20Mbps package down to just £15 a month - O2 customers also benefit from getting an additional 100 free text messages each month, so essentially it’s a ‘bi-play’ provider.

Totally free 24-hour tech support comes with the service, although the cost for line rental is not reflected in the prices above.

The service will initially only be available to roughly 50% of the UK population - O2 have indicated that further nationwide rollout would take place if there is a demand for it.

The 15th of October is the date set for the service to go live - customers can register to be among the first to sign up at the O2 site now.