Is it time to subscribe to a printer service from HP?

Ever since my dad brought home an...

What’s the best way of buying a phone today?

How did you buy your latest phone?...

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that...

Why are 3 UK blocking Wapedia? (updated)

I sometimes think I’m like ‘Jonny 5’, the robot out of the cult 80’s movie ‘Short Circuit‘. Need input.. information, information and more information. That’s why I like Wikipedia – once you’ve done with browsing the usual mobile-tailored news portals you can pass many a dull journey on public transport by typing in something random into Wikipedia and seeing what comes up.

I started using Wapedia the other day. Whilst it’s been around since 2004, I’ve never really stumbled across it. Run by Taptu.com it gives you a nice fast way to access Wikipedia on the go – and, in my humblest opinion, looks nicer than Wikipedia’s native mobile interface.

Anyway, when I clicked on my Wapedia bookmark on my E71 a day or so ago I got the following message:

Screenshot0001

Blocked? Eh? Maybe I’d bookmarked it wrong, so I typed in wapedia.mobi into the browser. Again, the same message. So I left it a day or so, and tried again. Still blocked.

I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of a reason 3 would block Wapedia. Is it an adult site? Not that I know of – besides, from what I’ve seen there’s a different message for that (if you’ve got a 3 phone try firing up something like www.thepiratebay.org on your browser). Is it dangerous? Well, if you believe everything you read on Wikipedia, maybe. But seriously though, it worked for a few days then BANG! – blocked for no apparent reason.

I’ll fire an email to 3’s PR team and Taptu (the people behind Wapedia) shortly – hopefully it’s a simple mistake and not something more sinister.

UPDATE: Less than 24 hours after I wrote the above, Wapedia mysteriously got unblocked. Chris over at Taptu says they’ve asked 3 to look into it – but doubts they’ll get to the bottom of this little mystery. Still – all’s well that ends well.

4 COMMENTS

  1. This may be out of date as I no longer work for them… but I believe if you are using any of the Add Internet Max or similar addons they are filtered using bluecoat technology which is controlled by an external party.

    If you are on the older X-Series addons, they don't have any filtering on them. 3 have still not a feature available to bypass this filtering if you are on Add Internet Max.

    Thankfully I'm now with vodafone who are a little better in this regards (albeit more stingy with their internet allowance for handsets).

  2. This may be out of date as I no longer work for them… but I believe if you are using any of the Add Internet Max or similar addons they are filtered using bluecoat technology which is controlled by an external party.

    If you are on the older X-Series addons, they don't have any filtering on them. 3 have still not got a feature available to bypass this filtering if you are on Add Internet Max.

    Thankfully I'm now with vodafone who are a little better in this regards (albeit more stingy with their internet allowance for handsets).

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recently Published

Is it time to subscribe to a printer service from HP?

Ever since my dad brought home an HP LaserJet printer (version 3, if memory serves), I have been printing with an HP. Over the...

What’s the best way of buying a phone today?

How did you buy your latest phone? I'm asking because I'm thinking about what I should be doing. When I was living in Oman, I...

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that next to nothing from Mobile World Congress would break through into the mainstream media. I was right,...

How Wireless Will Pave the Path to Neobank Profitability

I'm delighted to bring you an opinion piece from Rafa Plantier at Gigs.com. I think it's particularly relevant given the recent eSIM news from...

An end of an era: Vodafone UK turns off 3G services

I thought it was worthwhile highlighting this one from the Vodafone UK team. For so long - for what feels like years, seeing the...

Mobile World Congress: Did the mainstream media notice?

I resolved this year to make sure I wrote something - anything - about Mobile World Congress, the huge mobile industry trade show taking...