No wonder the mobile industry isn’t really going anywhere. Unless you’re an Apple iPhone app developer in the top 10.
Have a read of this one posted to the MoMo London newsgroup:
Hi there,
Does anyone have a contact at TMobile to talk about getting a site white listed – We have a site which up until yesterday (or at least was fine on Friday) which hosts some images. The images are just some business assest (logos etc) and are all non-18 rated, yet yesterday we found out that the site is now (when you go to that subdomain on a browser) restricted access.
Does anyone know what we can do to get our site back on “unrestricted” or white listed or whatever we need to do (or someone at TMobile who can help us with that)?
Best Regards
James Taylor
How frustrating? Just-like-that, your site is now blacklisted. And the only phone number you’ve got is the Customer Service line filled with very professional folk who don’t know anybody at head office.
This is why T-Mobile needs a James Whatley. A front-guy on the internet to monitor, filter and manage any reasonable request. Whether it’s a handset screwing up (pass them to someone who can deal with customer queries properly), a business development enquiry for head office — or a white/blacklist enquiry from a company trying to push the mobile industry forward.
Isn’t it ridiculous that you have to arse hunting for a business critical contact at one of the country’s largest mobile operators?
Won’t somebody please buy T-Mobile UK a James Whatley?
I don't think that's 100% true.
The company shouldn't need a James Whatley. The company needs good people at the end of a phone who know what they're doing, and can fix this from that level, and an easy way for those who aren't asking how to send a text message to get to them. It should be possible to call T-mobile and get this fixed easily, without having to resort to contacting one man who circumvents the normal system to get things fixed. The normal system should just get things fixed.
Putting a James Whatley in there is a solution to the the symptoms of the problem, and even a stopgap measure, or maybe even an aid to diagnosing the problem. But it doesn't resolve the problem itself.
Oh Lord won't you you buy me a James Whatley?
My friends don't use social media, I must make amends …
Oh Lord won't you you buy me a James Whatley?
My friends don't use social media, I must make amends …
For those interested but not on the Momo list, our Nick at MX's response
————————–
G'day James,
Please find the below info which I hope will be useful to you and others
on the list. A tiny caveat is that there is a small chance my info is a
little out of date; after 7 years looking after sales at MX in the UK,
I've recently relocated to Sydney.
The networks have adopted a variety of different methods to look after
access to mobile internet sites.
As far as I am aware T-Mobile still uses a web-filter company called
SurfControl to control mobile web site classification and access.
URLs can be tested for compatibility at
http://mtas.surfcontrol.com/mtas/MTAS.asp
You should also be able to request re-classification.
In terms of the other networks, Vodafone adopts a similar system (in
fact they were the first to get involved);
http://sitereview.cwfservice.net/sitereview.jsp
Orange has an internal system called SafeGuard which blocks any URLs
with adult content. Unmoderated UGC sites are also blocked. URLs
generally cannot be whitelisted.
O2 don't implement any form of URL blocking as far as I'm aware.
Three generally requires mobile internet sites to go through an approval
process at which stage your URLs would be made accessible anyway.
Hope you get your site sorted soon!
Best Regards,
Nick
CEO
MX Telecom Australia
For those interested and not on the Momo list, our Nick’s response to James:
———————————–
G’day James,
Please find the below info which I hope will be useful to you and others
on the list. A tiny caveat is that there is a small chance my info is a
little out of date; after 7 years looking after sales at MX in the UK,
I’ve recently relocated to Sydney.
The networks have adopted a variety of different methods to look after
access to mobile internet sites.
As far as I am aware T-Mobile still uses a web-filter company called
SurfControl to control mobile web site classification and access.
URLs can be tested for compatibility at
http://mtas.surfcontrol.com/mtas/MTAS.asp
You should also be able to request re-classification.
In terms of the other networks, Vodafone adopts a similar system (in
fact they were the first to get involved);
http://sitereview.cwfservice.net/sitereview.jsp
Orange has an internal system called SafeGuard which blocks any URLs
with adult content. Unmoderated UGC sites are also blocked. URLs
generally cannot be whitelisted.
O2 don’t implement any form of URL blocking as far as I’m aware.
Three generally requires mobile internet sites to go through an approval
process at which stage your URLs would be made accessible anyway.
For any further info or advice on the above, please don’t hesitate to
get in touch with either myself or Thomas Green our new UK head of sales
(thomas.green@mxtelecom.com).
Hope you get your site sorted soon!
Best Regards,
Nick
For those interested but not on the Momo list, our Nick at MX's response
————————–
G'day James,
Please find the below info which I hope will be useful to you and others
on the list. A tiny caveat is that there is a small chance my info is a
little out of date; after 7 years looking after sales at MX in the UK,
I've recently relocated to Sydney.
The networks have adopted a variety of different methods to look after
access to mobile internet sites.
As far as I am aware T-Mobile still uses a web-filter company called
SurfControl to control mobile web site classification and access.
URLs can be tested for compatibility at
http://mtas.surfcontrol.com/mtas/MTAS.asp
You should also be able to request re-classification.
In terms of the other networks, Vodafone adopts a similar system (in
fact they were the first to get involved);
http://sitereview.cwfservice.net/sitereview.jsp
Orange has an internal system called SafeGuard which blocks any URLs
with adult content. Unmoderated UGC sites are also blocked. URLs
generally cannot be whitelisted.
O2 don't implement any form of URL blocking as far as I'm aware.
Three generally requires mobile internet sites to go through an approval
process at which stage your URLs would be made accessible anyway.
Hope you get your site sorted soon!
Best Regards,
Nick
CEO
MX Telecom Australia
This indeed a horible problem. One of my sites, yeswap.com, a simple mobile portal has been blocked by Verizon's family filter for the last six months.
The site has never contained anything the least bit questionable nor has it ever linked to any adult, dating, chat or gambling sites. I don't accept advertising for these types of content either. There is nothing unsuitable for minors on the site at all.
I haven't been able to find anyone at Verizon who admits to knowing anything about the family filter or whitelisting. The carrier doesn't seem to have any contact person for unafiliated content providers at all. If you aren't customer or “partner” you don't exist. as far as Verizon's concerned.
This indeed a horible problem. One of my sites, yeswap.com, a simple mobile portal has been blocked by Verizon's family filter for the last six months.
The site has never contained anything the least bit questionable nor has it ever linked to any adult, dating, chat or gambling sites. I don't accept advertising for these types of content either. There is nothing unsuitable for minors on the site at all.
I haven't been able to find anyone at Verizon who admits to knowing anything about the family filter or whitelisting. The carrier doesn't seem to have any contact person for unafiliated content providers at all. If you aren't customer or “partner” you don't exist. as far as Verizon's concerned.
This indeed a horible problem. One of my sites, yeswap.com, a simple mobile portal has been blocked by Verizon's family filter for the last six months.
The site has never contained anything the least bit questionable nor has it ever linked to any adult, dating, chat or gambling sites. I don't accept advertising for these types of content either. There is nothing unsuitable for minors on the site at all.
I haven't been able to find anyone at Verizon who admits to knowing anything about the family filter or whitelisting. The carrier doesn't seem to have any contact person for unafiliated content providers at all. If you aren't customer or “partner” you don't exist. as far as Verizon's concerned.