Every time I walk by a standard operator shop that isn’t EE, I have to cringe. I can’t avoid it. That’s because, invariably, the shop window is currently advertising the Samsung Galaxy S4.

And unless you’re EE, you need to cover your promotions with the text, “4G ready”.

Seriously embarrassing for any mobile operator.

4G ready?

Oh, you mean you don’t have that… yet you’re selling a 4G-capable device? The device that everyone-and-their-dog is clamouring for?

Oh dear. Not good.

It’s like selling a terrestrial service selling an HD television and being forced to wax lyrical about the amazing quality pictures the TV can display… just, er, not from your services. Yet. For an unspecified time.

Someone asked me the other day about the difference between 4G and all the other 3G services and there’s no contest. Arguably Three UK’s 3.5999G+++++ is pretty good. But I’ve been able to download HD movies in about 10 minutes thanks to EE.

There’s an argument to say that the areas I’m using EE aren’t heavily congested — but given there’s almost a million EE customers on 4G, I’m not sure how much that perspective washes.

I can’t disagree with the EE advertisements that recommend you don’t limit your 4G-capable Samsung S4 by getting it from a standard network. I’ve been finding EE blazing fast in most situations. Indeed, on my iPad (with EE sim) I can even stream House of Cards from Netflix in high quality for about the first 20 minutes of my train journey (whilst I’m in a 4G area).

To the team at EE that managed to outmanoeuvre their competitors and get 4G live (and reliable) in such a short time, nice work. Very nice work.

This is a really, really good advertising statement. I like it a lot — I think it will resonate with quite a few people.

All readers of MIR know that phones change like the wind. You get a window of about 4-6 months where, if you buy the phone when is launched, you get to feel like you’re using the best possible device on the market.

Routinely there will be another one along to rival your chosen device from a rival manufacturer either immediately or at least a few months afterwards. Give it 8 or 9 months and it’s not unusual to find yourself holding last decade’s technology, particularly if there’s been an OS refresh or significant technology update.

O2′s Refresh price plan concept is, I think I’m right in saying, the first time we’ve ever seen a leading operator in the UK segment the price plan cost from the device legally — so that you can choose to upgrade without contract penalties at any point.

I hope it’s resonating nicely with the public. I’ll need to catch up with O2 shortly and find out. Over the weekend though I walked into a few O2 stores and heard lots of conversation about “refresh”. This bodes well. It should also be a no-brainer for the majority of customers.

Good news. I’m seriously giving some thought to trying it out myself.

Check out this amazing magician, Oliver B, who performed some seriously cool magic on me. He’ll be out and about on the streets in London this Thursday, where he’ll be blowing peoples’ minds.

Visit @O2 on twitter and http://www.facebook.com/o2uk to find out where you can get your phone magically refreshed.

Here’s the video:

You can follow Oliver B on Twitter here: @oliverbmagic

And here are some images of me being seriously impressed by Oliver:

Finally, read my earlier perspective about O2 Refresh (“O2 Refresh: Inspired, innovative and available today“).

O2 UK has launched a new way of doing business for its contract (or “post pay”) consumers. It’s called O2 Refresh and it completely decouples the monthly service plan from the handset cost.

With this approach you now choose your calling plan — which must be 24 months in length. You then select what phone you’d like and select a “phone plan” for paying that up.

So, for example, you can pick up unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 1GB of data for a highly reasonable £17 per month. That’s your service plan taken care of. You now need to choose a phone. Let’s say you opt for the super-gorgeous HTC One (with it’s wonderful HTC Zoe functionality). The HTC One requires a £49.99 up front fee followed by £20 per month. (So the phone will transparently cost you £529.99 — zero interest, zero APR, none of that jazz).

Your total per month with this configuration? £37. That’s exactly the same, by the way, as the standard 24-month Pay Monthly contract currently on offer from O2.

Why bother with O2 Refresh then? Well, because you can pay off the phone and upgrade whenever you like.

And here’s the science bit: O2 will not force you to pay off the existing line rental as a terminal fee.

That, I reckon, is the most important feature of the whole offering. This has been a flipping thorn in my side for a LONG long time.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s stick with the £37/month HTC One example.

You’ve paid £49.99 up front. You then have the HTC One for 9 months, right, until the HTC Two comes out and blows the One away making into a luddite overnight. Traditionally you’re absolutely screwed, especially if you’re an O2 customer. O2 have a long history of being first with lots of the top of the range devices.

If you had 15 months outstanding on your standard £37/month contract, you’d be liable for a whopping £555 to exit (or thereabouts).

Ouch.

Some people will do this if they’re that frustrated. But the majority have to sit and adopt a fake smile and watch whilst their friends turn up at the pub with their beautiful HTC Two devices.

As an O2 Refresh customer, it’s a much different situation. If you want to upgrade to a new device, O2 will waive the airtime fee. You’re still liable for the phone cost of course. In this situation you’d need to pay £20 x 15 (£300). This is fair enough. The handset costs a lot of money. It’s paying off the unnecessary airtime that annoys me about the old way of doing things.

You’re liable for this £300 — however, O2 will give you up to £260 for your old handset. Provided you’ve kept the HTC One in reasonable condition, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to get a good amount back for it. Let’s assume you can get £200 for the HTC One because it’s had a few knocks and scrapes. You now only need to pay £100.

Is it worth paying £100 to quit everything and get yourself a new HTC Two from O2 when you’ve only had the HTC One for 9 months? I’d say yes. And I think, increasingly, a lot of other people would agree with me.

I love it.

I really, really like the flexibility.

For O2, it’s a boon. The number one thing O2 want is to keep your eyes facing them whilst Vodafone, EE and Three dance around seductively trying to tempt you. Remember you’re still committed for the 24-month period unless you upgrade, in which case, everything is reset.

For the consumer, the ability to chop-and-change to the latest iPhone, Samsung, BlackBerry or Nokia is likely to be very appealing.

The challenge for O2 will be explaining the benefits of this new approach in as clear a way as possible to the consumers.

I haven’t been an O2 customer for about a year. I have accounts on every other network but I got to the point with O2 that I couldn’t see a valid reason for bothering. O2 Refresh changes things dramatically for me given my requirement to always have the latest devices.

Nice work O2.

If you’re interested, pop into an O2 store. You’ll be able to get O2 Refresh online and via the phone at a later date.

The O2 Refresh site is here.

Here’s the full release with all the details:

O2 launches new tariff allowing customers to get the latest phone whenever they want

• O2 transforms the way consumers can purchase the latest mobile phones with the launch of O2 Refresh
• In an UK first, O2 Refresh offers customers the opportunity to get a new phone when they want, without having to pay out their airtime contract
• O2 Refresh will be available in O2 stores nationwide from April 16

O2 today announces the launch of O2 Refresh, the first 24 month tariff to decouple the cost of the phone from the cost of calls, texts and data. O2 Refresh has been designed for customers to get a new phone at any time, without having to pay out their airtime contract. Instead, customers simply pay the remaining balance for their phone and then start afresh.

When a customer signs up to O2 Refresh, they choose a Phone Plan and an Airtime Plan. By signing up to and paying separately for their phone and airtime, customers are given complete transparency, while paying the same overall as they would on a standard 24 month Pay Monthly tariff.

For those customers who want a new handset before the end of their contract term, O2 Refresh enables them to pay off the remainder of their Phone Plan and end their Airtime Plan with no termination fee. To make it even more affordable to get the latest smartphone, customers can trade in their old mobile for cash using O2 Recycle, getting up to £260 to put towards their new phone.

O2 Refresh also offers great long-term value for those customers who don’t want or need a new phone before the end of their contract term. Once the customer has paid the full balance of their Phone Plan, monthly payments dramatically reduce to just the cost of the Airtime Plan.

“Mobile phone technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, yet the way phones are sold has remained largely static,” said Feilim Mackle, Sales and Service Director at Telefónica UK. “Increasingly our customers are telling us that they don’t want to be tied to the same phone for two years and, with 4G coming to O2 this summer, we want to make it easier for our customers to benefit from the latest technology. For the first time in the UK, O2 Refresh will make it possible to get a new phone part way through a pay monthly contract, at any time – quickly, easily and cost-effectively.”

Customers will have a choice of three O2 Refresh Airtime Plans, which have been tailored to meet varying call, text and data requirements. For £12 a month, customers get 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB of data; for £17, customers will have unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data and for £22 they receive unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of data.

O2 Refresh has also been designed to give customers the flexibility to choose whether to make an upfront payment. The overall cost of the phone may be less depending on whether a customer chooses to make an upfront payment toward their mobile and which O2 Refresh Airtime Plan they opt for.

At launch, O2 Refresh will be available on a range of phones including the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, Blackberry Z10, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Apple iPhone 5. Following the launch, O2 Refresh will be extended to include a wider range of phones, with a specific focus on high-end smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S4*. O2 Refresh will be available in O2 stores from Tuesday 16 April and will be available online and over the phone in the coming months.

How O2 Refresh works
A customer buys a HTC One on O2 Refresh and chooses to pay £17 per month for their Airtime Plan and get unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data. They then choose to pay £20 per month for their Phone Plan and pay £49.99 up front, meaning their combined O2 Refresh tariff costs £37 per month, the same as they would pay on a standard 24 month Pay Monthly contract**. The total amount they will pay for the phone is £529.99.

-Ends

Notes to editors
* O2 Refresh is available on Samsung Galaxy S3, S3 Mini, Note 2 and Ativ S, Blackberry Bold 9900 and Z10, HTC 8X and One, Sony Xperia T and Z, iPhone 4, 4S and 5, Nokia 820 and LG Nexus 4. It’ll also be available on the Blackberry Q10 and Samsung Galaxy S4 as well as other new smartphones in the future.

**This is a representative example; wherever you mention pricing for O2 Refresh please include this and the terms below. Representative example for HTC One: Duration of agreement 24 months. Cash Price is £600. Upfront cost is £49.99. Credit amount is £480. Interest rate is 0% fixed. Representative APR is 0%. Monthly phone payment is £20. Total amount payable for the HTC One is £529.99. The monthly airtime payment is £17.

O2 Refresh includes a 24 month Airtime Plan on our Pay Monthly Mobile Agreement and options to pay for your phone upfront or on a 0% APR consumer credit agreement. To get a new phone, simply pay any balance due on your Phone Plan and we waive the remaining months of the Airtime Plan. Subject to status, credit check, and payment by Direct Debit. Applicants 18+. Subject to availability. Airtime Plan prices may go up. Standard UK calls and texts, special numbers chargeable. UK data only. Credit provided by Telefónica UK Limited trading as ‘O2’, 260 Bath Road, Slough, Berks SL1 4DX. Telefónica UK Limited is regulated by the OFT, consumer credit licence number 0518589. Terms and fair use policy apply, visit o2.co.uk

Those who’ve been reading MIR for a while will recall that I recently bought an iPad Mini. I ordered a £15.99 monthly SIM from EE to power the connection. And when I signed up, I ticked the box to find out more about their EE Film offering.

I installed the app a few days later but only today have I actually got round to buying something from their shop (powered by FilmFlex — not sure who they are!).

I decided to buy something fairly random. I settled on the latest edition of Resident Evil. It was £2.79 and it was a rental. You can either choose to stream the movie on your iPad (other devices are available) or you can download it. That’s my preference.

Although I am seriously delighted with the fact that my iPad regularly says “LTE” instead of 3G (and that means the connection is lightning fast), I live in the middle of nowhere and the train journey to there consists of a series of network blackspots. Streaming is not an option.

So I like the ability to download — something, alas, I don’t think Tesco’s Blinkbox allows yet.

Throughout this year, anything downloaded from EE FIlm is zero rated. It doesn’t count toward your monthly data usage limit. I think mine is 6GB. I’m not sure what compression the service is using — I haven’t watched the movie yet — but I’d expect it to require at least a gigabyte, if not two.

I hit download carried on with other tasks. Before I did so, I was surprised to see the download meter hit 2% within a few moments. I looked away, did something, looked back and bam, it was at 68%. I was astonished. I looked away at some more email and boom, the download had completed.

It can’t have been more than 10 minutes. In fact I felt that it was about 5 minutes. I should have actually timed it. I’ll need to try another one and see how quickly it downloads.

Whatever the actual figure, it felt fast — and that is perhaps the ultimate requirement from a 4G network.

I downloaded it in Richmond which has very good EE 4G connectivity (along with 49 other towns and cities across the UK, by the way).

I’d expect EE to also have done some degree of caching or smart network optimisation. The fact I was downloading this particular movie can’t have been a surprise for them. It was on the front carousel of the film store app too. So I’m sure a bit of optimisation will have helped boost the speed.

I’m going to have a go watching the movie shortly. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m pretty sure that BT doesn’t get a lot of online orders at 230am most days. Last night however I thought I would see how the march towards BT Infinity was coming on. The last time I looked the scheduled date for availability in Hook, Hampshire was June.

June!

Anyway. I was up soothing the elder child at crazy o’clock this morning and when I returned to bed, was overcome with the need to check the status of Infinity.

I’ve been seeing a lot of vans around he area doing things with cables you see.

Imagine my delight when I found that Infinity 2 can be installed from next month!

That’s 20mb up and 76mb down.

Suuuuper.

I’ve used it at the old place in Ascot and it was very satisfying.

I found that Infinity helped me use my phones and tablets more. Everything was just so much easier and faster. Netflix? Instantaneous in HD. Attachments appear the moment you open an email. FaceTime is wonderful.

Bring it on. Won’t be long. The speed is due to start on 12th of April.

A video conference? From a British train? Almost impossible for more than 20 seconds, surely?

(I found this advert on the train to Basingstoke)

I’m delighted to say that this year I’ll be ‘connected’ in Barcelona by Truphone. They’ve sent me a Galaxy SIII handset containing a super-hot Truphone sim to use for the week. My instructions are to check it out, try it out, kick the tyres and see how I get on. I readily accepted.

I’m particular enamoured with the possibility of actually swapping all my telecoms to Truphone and doing away with a traditional terrestrial operator service agreements. I haven’t yet done this but I am not far away. I really like the idea of being able to use the best provider in a particular area (thanks to Truphone roaming between networks as necessary) rather than having to use a specific operator.

I’ll be writing more about Truphone next week.

If you’d like to check them out in Barcelona and haven’t yet got a SIM, I’ve got a quick tip for you. Check the airline in-air shop. You can usually buy a Truphone SIM on most British Airways flights! Otherwise, order online and you’ll get a SIM sent next day.

Only last night I was writing about @O2′s smart marketing campaign for HTC’s Windows Phone 8 devices featuring voicemails recorded personally by acting legend, Brian Blessed.

Today I got a tweet from the O2 team pointing me to the above SoundCloud archive of my own personal Brian Blessed voicemail recording. I am truly honoured! Seriously cool.

As JP from O2 commented, “We even got Brian to say ‘paradigm’ for you.”

Heh. Thank you O2! Thank you Brian.

Standby. I’ll get this on my voicemail shortly!

You can find out more about the o2 Voicemail Competition here: http://news.o2.co.uk/2013/01/23/get-a-brian-blessed-voicemail/

The team at O2 really know what they’re doing with this kind of marketing. It’s brilliant!

National treasure and noted sonorous actor, Brian Blessed has been engaged by O2 this week to front their HTC Windows Phone 8X marketing campaign. The full details are on the O2 news blog but here’s the gist:

• The first 100 people to buy an HTC Windows Phone 8X or Windows Phone 8S from O2 either in store, over the phone or online will qualify. 
• You have to Tweet the O2 team with the #brianmail hashtag ideally with a photo to let them know. They’ll check proof of purchase and if you’re successful, they’ll be in touch to ask what you want Brian to say.
• Brian will record your customised voicemail — and, here’s the science bit — it will be transferred to your voicemail account in super-dooper high quality. Plus you’ll get the recording by email too.

I love it!

If you’ve been thinking about splashing out on a new HTC 8X or S, now might be the time. You’ve got until February 4th to qualify. But be quick.

I’ve been testing the 8X for the last few days and I am finding it (and Windows Phone 8) very pleasant indeed.

(O2, by the way, are the only network that offers a decent visual voicemail system for the iPhone.)

The data capacity crunch changed things somewhat, with shocked operators scrambling to react and running head first into the open arms of WiFi providers. The talk then was about “offloading”.

And whilst there’s still a lot of that discussion going on; most advanced consumers now recognise that downloading a 6GB HD video on your “unlimited” wireless data connection isn’t necessary the best use of network resources. Fixed line connected to WiFi is better; and usually faster.

The sad reality is that it’s stupidly difficult, still, to seamlessly roam from a cellular network to a third-party WiFi network like BT Openzone or The Cloud. The difficulty stems from authentication. Or, actually, the lack of it. I’d like to see it all managed for me — with my operator acting as the concierge partner or manager.

Telling me that I’ve got gigabytes of WiFi usage included in my service plan is hardly useful when it’s too annoying to even bother connecting to that WiFi. Or even finding your access credentials. I still don’t know what’s happened to my Vodafone BT Openzone WiFi details. Nor do I know where to get them. I thought they were on the user portal but I couldn’t find them.

The good news is that this issue of operator supported (or enabled) WiFi is under review by the industry. In a recent survey by the team at Amdocs, over 30+ global providers indicated they were ‘gearing up’ to address this integration point.

What can we expect? Well, I asked Amdocs’ Ann Hatchell (Director of Data Experience Marketing) to briefly discuss the survey results and give us an idea of what we might soon see hit the marketplace.

Have a listen to our call below:

Thanks for taking the time Ann!

Facebook jumped into an already crowded VoIP market with the update of its Messenger app last week. Robert Gaal, of Karma, says the company’s scale ultimately will allow it to kill off the phone.

via The perfect murder: How Facebook will kill the phone as we know it — Tech News and Analysis.

Although scale is important I think there’s a risk of overestimating the power of Facebook. That’s certainly the case if you take the view that Facebook is this current generation’s MySpace — that is, there’ll be another one along in 5 years. The biggest challenge with the likes of Twitter and Facebook is that they’ve hyper-connected us all. So when the next cool tool arrives, it should theoretically be able to garner adoption — standing on the shoulders of likes and retweets — within days and months, rather than years.

The opportunities for the mobile operator to offer meaningful differentiation are dwindling by the day. With each new successful launch and iteration, I can almost feel the stone towers that built the operators crumbling.

What’s your view of Facebook?

I hear from EE that the reality is less than 5% of their subscribers are even hitting the 8GB ceiling and less than 0.5% exceed 12GB in a month. You really need to be hammering the connection to do that.

At £46 per month, you could be forgiven for thinking that’s a rather expensive data plan. But don’t forget this comes with unlimited calls and text messages too. So if you are a really high roller from a data standpoint and you’ve got a 4G compatible phone, this could well be a rather useful plan for you.

The key message for me is that EE have listened. They’ve responded to frustration some in the marketplace voiced regarding their smaller tier data plan limits. They’ve also set the agenda for the rest of the industry here in the UK who are still debating how best to bring their offerings to market.

EE’s 4G is still an expensive option — but if you’re living in a metropolitan area that’s currently served by the company’s 4G service, I do recommend taking a look. (Even if you’re not served by EE 4G right now, you soon probably will be).

If you recall I’m doing a long term test of EE’s E587 MiFi unit from Huawei. It’s changed my life to the point that I just keep the thing on now, permanently during the day. I just let it run in the background so that whenever I need data — bang — it’s there.

At one point yesterday I had three iPads and three iPhones running through the 4G service in Richmond. All seamlessly connected — I really like the fact I rarely bother worrying about being on a “mobile” connection, the speed is so good.

If you’re in the market for a 4G price plan, have a read about the promotional offers in EE’s release below.

EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company, today announced a range of new 4GEE promotional price plans. The new packages are designed to provide consumers with an even greater choice of 4G options to suit their needs.

As a special promotion from 31 January until 31 March, a range of entry-level 4GEE plans is being introduced. For only £31 per month on a 24 month plan, customers receive unlimited UK calls and texts, and 500MB of mobile data, as well as the option to choose from a range of 4G smartphones for a one off fee such as the HTC One SV LTE or Nokia Lumia 820 which are available from just £29.99 (a saving of £90 on existing EE deals). Customers on 24 month plans can also take their unlimited calls and texts abroad with them to select destinations for just £5 more per month1 while those looking for flexibility can get a 12 month plan for only £41 per month.

Additionally, after listening to customers, EE will be launching a new plan offering 20GB of mobile data. The plan addresses a small number of ‘super-users’ (currently fewer than 1% of 4G customers), who have shown a desire to use more than the 8G of mobile data that is currently available on EE’s largest 4GEE plan. The 20GB plan, which is rolling out across retail channels from today, will be available on a 12 month SIM-only plan at a special rate of £46 per month for the full length of the plan if they sign-up between now and the 28 February2. The bundle comes with unlimited UK calls and texts and is also available with the very latest 4G handsets for £61 per month on a 24 month plan to customers who sign-up by 28 February3 . EE is also introducing a new SIM-Only 12 month 8GB plan for £41 per month.

Pippa Dunn, Chief Marketing Officer at EE, said: “It’s our aim to offer consumers the most comprehensive range of 4GEE price plans. With these new options we’re looking to not only make 4G smartphones even more accessible, but offer even greater value for the small number of super-users out there – ensuring EE really does offer a package that’s tailored for all customers 4G needs.”

EE’s superfast 4G offers a revolutionary mobile internet experience, delivering speeds typically five times faster than 3G4. The power of 4G enables tablet users to push the limits of their devices even further, allowing them to download, stream and browse the content they want, even quicker than before. In addition to superfast speeds, EE customers will also benefit from:

· EE Film – the UK film service that combines 2 for 1 cinema ticketing, listings, trailers, film downloads and streaming in one place
· EE Wi-Fi – access to millions of wireless hotspots across the UK, at no extra cost
· Discounted superfast EE fibre broadband – so they can enjoy blistering speeds at home and on the move

EE’s 4G service will be available in 35 towns and cities by the end of March 2013, bringing superfast speeds to even more consumers and businesses across the UK.

Full details on the new promotional plans, including terms and conditions, will be available shortly in EE shops as well as on www.ee.co.uk

Have a quick read of this post from Emily over at Textually. I quote the key explanatory bit here:

UK mobile users will be able to send and receive money by sharing only their phone number by Spring 2014, the Payments Council has said, reports the BBC.

via textually.org: Payments by text message service to launch in UK in Spring 2014.

Yeah. Shocking.

ABSOLUTELY flipping shocking.

It feels like EVERYONE else on the planet has had this functionality for what feels like DECADES and we’re now getting it here in the UK. WHERE SMS was FLIPPING invented.

NO, WAIT! THERE’S ANOTHER FLIPPING FRACKING YEAR TO GO before it’s actually launched.

FARMERS IN FLIPPING FIELDS IN FLIPPING AFRICA can do this. And yet our creaking, aching, rubbishy slow mobile and banking industries couldn’t work it out — CAN’T work it out — until twenty-bloddy-fourteen?

Yours,
Significantly unimpressed of Hampshire

Despite owning large shares of independent markets across Europe, the continent’s major operators have reportedly entered talks with the view to creating an EU-wide mobile network capable of uniting national markets, the FT reports.

According to the newspaper, telecoms executives from Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Italia and Telefonica met with the EU’s competition chief to discuss the idea, which would better allow the companies involved to compete in a fragmented European market.

via Europe’s four biggest operators reportedly in talks to create EU-wide mobile network – The Next Web.

It’s a brilliant idea. It might finally remove the stupidly federated manner by which the current mobile operators do business.

Descriptive phrases like “France Telecom” or “Vodafone” actually mean nothing. Yes there’s a legal entity — but most of the decisions that actually matter are taken (or, actually, not taken — for fear of failure) by individual country directors.

Vodafone Global, for example, consists of a lot of very well meaning people who have little influence over the day-to-day reality of the folk managing Vodafone Czech or Vodafone United Kingdom.

Tying everything up into one central European operator group — whereby we had two or three key “huge” players — that would probably, actually, get us a better service.

Yes there’d be monopoly or duopoly concerns, but frankly, it’s screwed at the moment.

I had to smile to myself at Matt’s comment that such a move would ‘open the door to lower roaming charges’. Very quickly I would hope that the notion of geography would disappear.

Once you’ve got a European-wide player, or series of players, then things can get a lot more interesting.

I could imagine Apple, Google, anyone, sitting down to the negotiating table to discuss bundling deals or any number of cool, exciting activities.

Right now though, it’s a flipping nightmare.

Just try negotiating a European deal for your 25,000 employees with Vodafone, Telefonica or whoever. With few exceptions, it’s a flipping nightmare.

There’s other possibilities too. It could be interesting to separate out the actual network infrastructure from the services layer. That might offer a lot more flexibility and opportunity for innovation.

This kind of discussion is broadly a good idea. Anything that involves changing the (often broken) status quo is a good idea.

What do you think?

It’s not London. BUT it’s got 4G. Richmond is one of those lucky areas to have received EE’s 4G right-away.

This proving rather useful because I am doing a lot of work in the town and can thus continue to give EE’s 4G network (and their Huawei supplied E589 mobile hotspot) a good work out.

As well as doing the general internet stuff I’m also using LogMeIn to connect back to my computer at home. My current session has been live for 42 minutes and I’ve knocked back a fairly reasonable 72mb of data.

The user experience is brilliant, both the network speed and the device. The Huawei’s battery is simply brilliant — so much so that I’ve been keeping it in activated in my pocket as I travel and as I walk around Richmond. It’s rather useful given my primary handset cellular connectivity is provided by Vodafone — who can only deliver me an E (“Edge”) service at the best of times that seems to offer something like 0.2kbps throughput on a good day.

Speed is always in the eye of the beholder. Yes it’s 26mb down and 10mb up according to Speedtest.net but really it’s all about how it feels, right?

It feels great. I am not aware that I’m using a mobile connection — praise indeed, eh?

According to that little image above there, my connection is “Grade A” and faster than 87% of the United Kingdom’s internet users. Hah!

I am noticing the difference between this 4G connection from EE and my usual alternative from Three. It’s a lot faster on the throughput basically. Megabytes fly down. I had the opportunity to verify the difference in my mind when I forgot the EE unit one day last week. Three’s service was still perfectly workable — but I was still slightly aware I was connected via mobile.

I should point out that I’m using this MiFi unit and data connection by the grace of EE themselves who’ve provided it for me on long term test.

If you’re hunting for a mobile solution, do take a look at EE, especially if you’re in (or planning to regularly be in) a 4G area. You can check out EE’s business data plans here.

I’ve long been an admirer of the Vodafone Foundation. I was introduced to it a good few years ago by a smart lady by the name of Aileen at Vodafone HQ. Since then I’ve had an eye on it’s developments.

I’ve been looking at the foundation from a global perspective though– not specifically the good work of the Vodafone Americas Foundation.

Last year they funded some superb projects including:

• The first oral scanning tool that integrates camera phones and software for standardized imaging at a low cost is called Oscan. The device is currently being tested to detect early signs of cancer in patients in India, and is under further advancement at Stanford University’s Department of Bioengineering. Genius.
• A microfinance platform, called InVenture, deploys SMS-based accounting tools to help improve money management. These entrepreneurs are currently working with communities in India and Mexico, and have big plans to change the lives of people on every continent with their mobile innovation. A really smart concept.

Right now the call for entries for the foundation’s 2013 Wireless Innovation Project has just moved into it’s final call stage. The deadline is next Monday — the 13th of January 2013. They’re on the hunt for the best innovations using wireless technologies to address critical social issues, worldwide.

If you’ve got a wireless project — or if you know of a friend of colleague working on a wireless-related project — that is moving to the point where an advanced prototype can be created, or where market testing can take place, then you should take a very serious look at what the Vodafone Americas Foundation is offering.

The first prize is a $300,000 award, second gets $200,000 and third gets $100,000. That could really help push a project to the next step, along with the inevitable marketing exposure that comes with the award.

It is (perhaps obviously) aimed at Americans — that is you need to be either affiliated with a US University or have formed a non-profit corporation in the States as a condition of qualification. You can find out more on the application page.

Good luck!

Over to Jonah:

- – - – -

It’s hard to miss the increasing number of dating sites, speed dating events and lonely hearts ads in the papers, highlighting the common desire to find ‘the one’. It seems like everyone is trying to find that perfect relationship – a partner to join forces and share future plans with.

And it’s not only romantics who are searching for that special someone. Communications service providers are also on the prowl for the perfect partner, believing they need to pair up with device manufacturers and/or over-the-top (OTT) players to remain competitive. However, many providers are unsure how to do this effectively.

The past year has definitely highlighted some challenges service providers face with regard to revenue management with the arrival and adoption of social messaging services like WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and Facebook Messenger. In October 2012, Ovum estimated 14 billion dollars has been lost to OTT players in 2011 alone, which immediately brought OTT players into the limelight as a key consideration in 2012.

Our recent global survey, in collaboration with leading analyst firm Coleman Parkes, looks at the relationships between telecom service providers and OTT players like Google, Netflix and BBC iPlayer. It’s clear this relationship can be strained at times and as the communication market hits saturation, competition for customers’ attention and revenue is intensifying, which we expect to continue into next year. The survey specifically explored how service providers, device manufacturers and OTT players feel about the concept of partnering.

So like the hunt for the perfect soulmate, service providers find themselves searching for the perfect partnership. 58 percent of service providers believe the communications market will consolidate in the future and that only players that partner will succeed. Service providers, OTT players and device manufacturers will all seek to own the vital customer relationship within the next couple of years and the majority in all three groups understand they’ll need to form smart partnerships to achieve that aim.

So now it’s time to pop the big question: how can service providers ensure they get into successful, long lasting partnerships?

Now creating a successful relationship is no mean feat, and service providers, OTT players and device manufactures must ensure they create win-win partnerships that work for both involved parties. Like any solid, stable relationship, compromise and sharing are key. For instance, our survey found the desire for increased revenues and cost savings to be a common sentiment.

Before picking out a ‘mate,’ service providers must consider their goals carefully, making sure they choose a partner who will help reach a successful outcome. Our survey cited that a seamless customer experience is hugely important for both device manufacturers and OTT players. This highlights that service providers with efficient CRM strategies in place may have their pick of partners.

Sharing is caring

It’s a common fact that young love often finds itself challenged when one person hides away assets, namely money, property or mum’s homemade cake.

Like those young couples learning how to survive as a twosome, service providers will have to learn how to share if they want their partnerships to thrive. The survey found that the three groups are willing to offer and expose their core assets to achieve partnering goals. While 74 percent of OTT players and 73 percent of device makers were willing to expose and share their core assets, perhaps most surprising (and interesting), 56 percent of service providers are willing to do so. This kind of sharing will be vital to creating those win-win relationships.

Having analysed the results of the survey, we predict that in 2013, service providers will fully embrace the partnership play, joining forces with OTTs, developers and even other service providers to bring innovation and brand differentiation to the market as quickly as possible. This will require efficient partner management, novel business models and flexibility. 68 percent of service providers say that OTT players bring innovation to the industry. And yet, 42 percent of service providers said they could offer any service an OTT player can deliver – but better.

What will you bring to the relationship?

We’re always told to play to our strengths, and service providers need to do just that in order to create a successful partnership.

OTT players seemed to agree with what service providers believed to be the most important assets to a partnership: brand strength, network quality and customer data. When working in partnership, attempting to control the value of consensus assets will likely lead to success, but the value proposition of other service provider assets needs to be developed. Advanced IT systems allow service providers to leverage key assets, including network quality of service (QoS) and customer data, in order to turn them into revenue. The ability to combine charging and policy will also enable QoS-based charging on behalf of partners.

A surprising result from the survey shows that 70 percent of service providers view OTT players as potential partners, rather than a threat. Such partnerships are already happening in the market and will only continue. For example, the Telia/Spotify partnership, creating an exclusive music service on Telia’s TV set-top box which can also be enjoyed via mobile devices. Reliance also teamed up with WhatsApp to offer unlimited prepaid use of WhatsApp together with Facebook. See, it’s possible!

It can be just like the fairy tales…

The key to a healthy, happy relationship is communication, right? Wrong. Successful partnerships require systems and processes in place to make partnering lucrative and effective. Open partner management systems allow partners to get on board quickly and to share revenue. The right solutions are paramount but alone they’re just not enough. Best of breed solutions should be married to a good strategy to enable service providers to attract and find the right partners, to settle down and to live happily ever after.

- – - – -

Thank you very much for taking the time to write Jonah!

I’m a flipping idiot. I left my 32GB WiFi+3G iPad 3 in the back seat pocket of a BA flight to Barcelona last month. Idiot. Ultra idiot.

Of course it was nowhere to be found. I realised I’d left it on the day of the flight but by then it had long gone. Good luck to the arse who’s using it now.

I disabled it’s Vodafone SIM same-day.

I could have claimed on insurance.

In fact the more I think about it, the more I think I was silly for not immediately doing so.

I think it was pure embarrassment. Insurance, I feel, is for when unforeseen accidents occur. Not for when I’m point-blank-flipping-stupid. If I genuinely lose my phone or someone steals it, yeah. But leaving it in the back seat pocket of the plane? Ridiculous.

So I’m eating it. I’m eating the stupidity.

I now need to buy another tablet. iPad obviously. I have to demonstrate iOS apps so it does need to be an iPad.

I’m struggling with the method of purchase though.

My recent history with Vodafone is this: Perhaps two years ago their enterprising sales team phoned up out of the blue and asked if I’d like an iPad 2 for £20-something per month. I thought about it for 10 seconds then said yes and it arrived next day with a 24-month data plan.

The iPad 3 arrived and I was annoyed at having to do the equipment refresh myself — Vodafone wouldn’t just swap it and extend my contract. So I *sold* the iPad 2 via Envirofone and then went to the Apple store and spunked £600 on the 3rd gen device, using the existing Vodafone sim.

The ease of purchase of the original 2nd generation iPad was astonishing. I just said “yes” and it arrived next day. No up front cost. Easy to justify as the device cost was integrated into the monthly data plan.

So what’s my strategy now?

I need a new iPad, probably a Mini. Probably also a biggie as well.

Do I go into the likes of Vodafone or Three or EE and get one with a price plan and a TWO FLIPPING YEAR contract? Or do I swallow the up front cost and retain flexibility?

I was hoping for a mid-way. I was hoping for something like Vodafone Red Hot (i.e. equipment rental) for tablets. Alas it seems they only do handsets at the moment.

I really DO NOT like the idea of buying a tablet with a 2-year price plan contract because the tablet is invariably out of date within 9 months.

But the operators prefer to amortise the cost of the device across 24 months rather than 12.

Then I sit and think to myself about data plans. I think if I’m going to be paying for a data plan for X years anyway, I might as well get the operator to fund the equipment cost rather than using my own cash up front.

Then I feel “locked” in.

I would like a more appealing way of doing things.

Take Three, for example. You can have a 16GB iPad Mini from them for £59 up front, followed by £29/month for two years. Total commitment cost? £755.

Or you can pay more up front (£99) and then £25/month. Total commitment: £699.

Alternatively, you can basically pay for the device up front (£396) and then £15/month for the data plan. Total commitment (assuming you do this for 2 years): £729.

(Each plan discussed above comes with a whopping 15GB of data usage by the way)

So if I’m planning on retaining an additional Three data connection, I would probably be better doing the £25/month option. Well, I’d say £30. Heh. But do I need or want greater flexibility?

Do I want to be stuck with YET ANOTHER FLIPPING DATA CONNECTION?

I’ve got data connections coming out of my ears.

Decisions, decisions.

What do you think?

With just two bars of service and well inside my office in Richmond I was able to download 1.62gb in just 21 minutes.

Very smart indeed.

I wondered how EE’s MiFi device would handle two iPhones each trying to download TV/movies from iTunes and set them to the task earlier this afternoon.

I have to say it is rather impressive watching the MiFi chomp through the megabytes.

(You will want to make sure you have a good allowance of data in your monthly bundle before doing the same on a regular basis!)

In an effort to give the device and network a bit of a push, I charged the device fully then switched it on. Two of my iPhones automatically jumped onto it’s WiFi and then I added my Mac Pro desktop machine.

And I left it.

I used my computer now-and-again then sat down and did about 2 hours work. I had a bit of video uploading to do as well (2x 100mb files).

The MiFi unit has been connected for almost 5 hours 30 minutes and the battery has only just hit the 40% mark. Stunning. Absolutely stunning.

Here’s a screenshot:

Alas I haven’t been able to give the 4G capabilities an extensive test — the last 5 hours have been on 3G because sadly I’m currently out in the sticks. (I don’t think my area of Hampshire is due a 4G upgrade for a little while!)

I’m pretty impressed with the service though. Consider the fact that the MiFi unit is hopping between either ’1 bar’ or ’2 bars’ out of 5 of signal quality. I’ve been able to upload at about 180k/second sustained for 100 megabytes. That is good service, very good.

The definition of decent mobile broadband is when you forget you’re using it and that’s what I’ve been experiencing across this evening.

The E589 is most definitely my favourite MiFi device ever. Because it’s slightly bigger than the usual MiFi dimensions, the battery is clearly much improved. As I’ve commented before though, it feels like the unit is able to give a more reliable connection than some of the smaller ones I’ve used.

This said, I haven’t tried 5 hours on 4G. I wonder if that’s even possible? as the standard viewpoint is that 4G demands a heck of a lot of battery resource compared to 3G. I shall endeavour to try some real world tests in future.

If you’re looking for a MiFi unit and you’re keen to experience the 4G power, do take a look at EE. Wherever there’s 4G, I’ve not been disappointed — and when there’s only 3G, I’ve been seriously impressed.

Although it’s reasonably positive reading, I can only manage to consume a sentence every 10 minutes or so because each statement tends to wind me up something chronic.

The root of the problem for me is the total unwillingness of mobile operators to do anything beyond copy what “the marketplace” is doing. The received wisdom is that even in these challenging and dynamic times, keeping your head below the parapet and hoping for the best is the most reliable way of staying in a job for the next 6 months.

This, dear reader, is why — generally speaking — your mobile operator services haven’t changed for decades.

The basic premise hasn’t shifted. It’s got a bit faster but there are only a handful of operators doing anything that constitutes innovation.

Sadly, we’ve got a dearth of seriously smart, confident, capable individuals in the upper echelons of our operator organisations. Many of them deserve to be managing the interns rather than a multi-billion dollar/pound/euro behemoth. The majority couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

Which is why we’re all still being spoon fed cookie cutter data price plans that restrict and worry the customer.

Let me give you one example of what I’m talking about in terms of innovation. I might contract with Everything Everywhere, for example, to buy a Galaxy SIII LTE on £46/month with 3GB of inclusive 4G data. I then find that on a particular day, I need to urgently upload 10x 350mb videos via the phone for work purposes right? If for a minute you assume I can get 4mb/sec upload speeds (certainly reasonable, based on my trials of EE) that’s at least 875 seconds. Let’s be generous and call it 30 minutes in total.

So in 30 minutes I need to upload 3.5GB. I’m willing to pay for that too. It’s a business thing. I need it done.

Further, EE’s network can handle this. And they’d like the money. Remember they’ve taken something like 10-15 quid off me for the month on the basis of 3GB usage, so anything more is good news for them, that’s a healthy ARPU increase.

So wouldn’t it be nice if I could visit a webpage or app and buy a “special”? Just for that hour? Or that afternoon? And wouldn’t it be good if I could buy prioritised access or “business” access for that afternoon? Charge me £20. Charge me £40. When it comes to business requirements we usually have a completely different value definition.

Why doesn’t this happen readily around the world? Well it’s simple: The operators simply don’t have the capability. They don’t have the technology to allow this kind of personalised profile management. And despite the marketing teams and the pressure to deliver differentiation it is, I think, judged a lot easier to simply avoid any independent thought. It’s less risky from a personal career standpoint. I’d like to write that I can understand and respect that personal perspective. But actually, no, if you can’t take the heat, move. Get a job looking after some ice cream parlour or something less stressful.

This industry seriously needs some leaders with the confidence to act.

It’s not just the leaders though; this kind of wooly ‘don’t rock the Apple cart’ thinking is prevalent throughout these operators. Try this one out if you’ve got a friend working in the operator space: Ask them if their customers would be willing to pay more for services.

The standard operator viewpoint is that customers won’t pay more for data (for example). This is true when you speak to a teenager with a restricted budget or someone on a low income who’s picked a BlackBerry primarily because of their fabulous inclusive data bundles. It’s the total opposite when you speak to other types of customer. The types of customers that operators routinely and wholly ignore beyond dribbling out semi interesting priority moments or semi relevant VIP experiences. Customers will pay more for data and for a wide array of other services. The use cases, benefits and capabilities need to be defined and communicated correctly.

Sadly, without the right investment in the right kit, none of this will happen.

And so we move on.

(By the way, I need to point out that I am not specifically having a go at EE who, I think, are doing pretty well in the innovation stakes at the moment with their 4G stuff. I’d just like to see more from them — including a ‘boost’ button for when I need to buy more volume/priority/faster service.))

Which brings me to Amdocs and their global research report. Here’s the release, have a scan:

Amdocs, the leading provider of customer experience systems and services, today released a global research report that finds service providers are looking to offer personalised data plans and real-time visibility and control over data spending in order to improve the customer experience and better monetise 4G investments. The research also reveals that service providers currently lack the integrated charging and policy management capabilities required to enable this.

Key research findings reveal that:

As 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) becomes the standard network technology, service providers’ marketing departments want to launch more advanced services and price plans

- 80 percent of respondents said their companies have either launched or are trialing LTE services
- 92 percent of respondents said their IT organisations are being asked by Marketing to enable innovative data price plans
- 63 percent of respondents plan to launch VoLTE (voice over LTE) by 2013-14

IT organisations need new capabilities in order to fulfill Marketing’s wish lists

- 70 percent of respondents said their companies cannot enable innovative data price plans because of IT limitations
- 60 percent of respondents said their companies are looking to establish IT capabilities to enable personalisation of data plans and promotions
- 50 percent of respondents said their companies are looking to establish IT capabilities to enable real-time user visibility and control over data plans and spending
- Almost 60 percent of respondents said it takes their companies three to six months to launch a new service; an additional 20 percent said it takes even longer

There is overwhelming consensus among service providers that charging and policy management integration is key to enabling more advanced services and price plans

- The vast majority of respondents from Europe, North America and Asia Pacific (100, 90, and 80 percent respectively) said their companies see a need to integrate charging and policy management capabilities. Forty percent of service providers in Latin America also agreed. Integration between charging and policy management allows providers to introduce personalised services that relate to the device type, service type, network status, customer location and other customer information, across all lines of business, and with real-time user visibility and control over data plans and spending.
- 75 percent of respondents said their companies are looking to manage rules for policy and charging from one location, i.e. implement a centralised product catalog
- 40 percent of respondents said their companies have either tried or are currently trying to integrate charging and policy management systems with unsatisfactory results, compared to 10 percent last year

“Our research shows that service providers’ data services strategies are evolving in tandem with recognition that they need to fully integrate their charging and policy management capabilities in order to enable these strategies,” said Ari Banerjee, senior analyst, Heavy Reading. “Those who recognised the importance of charging and policy integration last year, have since launched tiered and family plans and are now looking to enable even more advanced services with real-time user visibility and control capabilities. Those who weren’t convinced last year about the need for policy and charging integration are much more convinced today, and therefore they are now looking to enable tiered and family plans.”

“Service providers are looking to 4G to deliver service innovation beyond higher capacity and faster speeds, but need to integrate charging and policy to enable this,” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. “The research shows they are seeking solutions which pre-integrate charging and policy systems, also including a single product catalog across both systems, to solve broken product management processes which cause time to market delays.”

The research is based on 70 qualitative interviews conducted between October and November, 2012, with decision makers from both IT and marketing departments of 35 service providers. Service providers interviewed included tier-one and tier-two companies based in Europe (10), North America (10), Asia Pacific (10) and Latin America (5). This is the second research report conducted for Amdocs by leading analyst firm Heavy Reading to identify service providers’ data monetisation trends and challenges year-over-year. Findings of the first survey were announced in September 2011.

Amdocs offers a pre-integrated, convergent charging and policy management solution, scalable to meet the needs of the largest service providers. The Amdocs Convergent Charging software incorporates Amdocs’ innovative, real-time charging technology – Amdocs Turbo Charging – and holds the industry record for real-time charging performance, demonstrating the ability to process 435 million busy hour call attempts (BHCA) measured for a customer base of 220 million, comprised of 184 million prepaid customers and 36 million postpaid customers.

One of the research bulletpoints that really made me choke on my cornflakes was this:

Almost 60 percent of respondents said it takes their companies three to six months to launch a new service; an additional 20 percent said it takes even longer

Yeah. Horrific. Absolutely horrific.

If you were called by Amdocs to participate in this survey and you were one of the people who had to answer “yeah it takes us EVEN LONGER than 6 months to DO ANYTHING NEW” then shame on you.

SHAME!

Fix it!

There’s absolutely no excuse. You need to be talking to the likes of Amdocs.

Will I be writing the exact same rants this time next year? Yes.

2014? Yes.

2020? Hopefully not.

(And to those executives and organisations who’re actually the exception to the rule, keep it going!)

In perhaps a first for the mobile world, I’m pleased it’s bigger.

I’m pleased because it feels beefier. It feels like it can cope with proper speed. It feels like it’s got a decent battery inside.

Feeling is one thing. Real world usage is another — and I’m delighted to report that I’m pretty impressed with it.

The battery has yet to shed a single bar and I’ve done about an hour’s worth of continual usage. Yes please.

And 4G?

Let me tell you about the speed.

I’d used 100mb in about 5 minutes. On the train. On the FLIPPING train! Absolutely excellent.

I took a rather shakey video of my first 4G experience on the train on the way into Waterloo — I’m going to post that shortly. Let me know what you think. In terms of real world tests, it’s thoroughly exciting.

There was a little bit of an outcry when EE came to market with a 500mb 4G plan. I can see why, given I blew that very quickly. However for the sake of balance, I was *trying* to blow it. I was willing the device to show me what the network could do. I specifically downloaded a 50mb teaser video from iTunes and watched the megabytes chomp away like a pacman game. The download counter went from 5mb, 8mb, 10mb as quickly as you’re reading this text. I estimate perhaps 2-3mb a second in ‘real world’ usage. On the train.

It’s even quicker when you’re in one spot.

Browsing on the mobile is an absolute pleasure.

So if you’re a high user of data, you might want to check out EE’s recently updated data plans. For instance, if you’re after a new MiFi unit, EE will give you the model I’ve been testing for free, on the basis of an 18-month contract, at £20.99 for 5GM of monthly data, or £25.99 for a whopping 8GB. (More details on this page).

I recognise that this isn’t the cheapest option out there. I’m not that interested in cheap, though. I’m more focused on the value proposition.

If you are constantly demonstrating mobile applications or services to customers, you might seriously evaluate getting one of these Huawei MiFi units and the 8GB deal. Yes 4G is only available in selected cities at the moment but if you’re regularly in and around London (for example), I think it might pay off handsomely.

The speed is simply ridiculously cool.

The blazing fast uploads are certain to be impacted somewhat as more and more people are migrated over to EE’s 4G service — right now I wonder if I’m one of the only people using the network and giving it a decent work out.

I found the experience with the Huawei and EE’s 4G network rather liberating. I was so enchanted that I actually stuck all of my iPhones (2 Voda, one 3) on to the unit. In London’s central Soho area today the speed was rocking, even deep inside buildings.

Out in the sticks, well, 3G is to be expected. However I do feel that the Huawei’s connection seems a lot more reliable than individual mobile phones. It feels like the EE 3G experience is enhanced by this particular device.

I’ll be writing more and I’ll do some more demonstration videos shortly.

(A brief note on the EE advocate programme: They’ve sent me the MiFi device with a SIM card at no cost to test out — on the basis that I’ll occasionally write about the experience. I’m free to write whatever I wish.)

They’ve been hatching an inspiring offer that will, I suspect, create significant havoc for the competition.

Have a read of this press release that just hit my inbox:

Vodafone is launching its 4G phone promise, giving customers the confidence that they will be among the first to benefit from ultra-fast 4G when it launches next year. Customers can simply bring an eligible phone into any Vodafone store and if they are still in contract, we’ll knock 70% off their remaining contract charges, giving them a 4G device and getting them up and running on ultra-fast 4G.

Vodafone is offering customers who have bought certain handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S III* or Galaxy Note II [or the iPhone 5 -- Ewan], a simple way to get ultra-fast 4G when Vodafone launches it in Spring 2013.

Provided a Pay monthly customer has been with us for at least three months, they can come into a store and ask to switch to ultra-fast 4G. We’ll take back their old phone, knock 70% off their remaining contract charges and give them a new 4G phone and a new 4G contract. The 4G promise is available until 31 December 2013 for Pay monthly and small business customers.

To find out more about the Vodafone 4G phone promise visit www.vodafone.co.uk/network or visit one of Vodafone’s stores.

Improving our network today and getting ready for tomorrow

Vodafone spends more than £1.8m every day on our network to make sure our customers continue to get the speed and service they rely upon. As part of our preparations for ultra-fast 4G, we’ve been upgrading our network as we target 98% of the UK population with indoor coverage by 2015. We’re also continuing to invest in our 3G network coverage, delivering faster speeds in more places through HSPA+ and HSPA-DC.

We’re upgrading the connections between our masts and our core network, helped by the acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide earlier this year. That deal brought us 20,500km of fibre across the country, more than any other mobile network owns. It’s easy to forget that a mobile network relies on fibre to move data across its network so having our own gives us greater control over the quality of our service.

No network can operate without a ‘core’ or brains’ of the network that routes every call, text and internet session made by our customers and keeps all of the services that people use on their mobiles up and running. Vodafone has a state of the art core, having already consolidated our 2G and 3G core networks.

- ends -

Notes to editors

Handsets eligible for the Vodafone 4G phone promise can be found at www.vodafone.co.uk/network

*This offer applies to Samsung Galaxy SIII handsets purchased on or after 26 Oct 2012

** You must trade in your 3G handset in good condition, or we’ll have to add on something for the damage.

Customers need to pay the remaining 30% contract charges when they take out this offer.

Vodafone 4G phone promise isn’t available to customers on a price plan where the allowance is shared between users.

The Vodafone 4G phone promise is subject to a credit check and the customer taking out a minimum-term 4G contract with a 4G handset on an equivalent or more valuable price plan.

This is super offer for anyone who’s been umming and ahhing over Everything Everywhere’s rather exciting 4G razzle dazzle. It’s highly tempting — especially for any geeks out there.

Vodafone is basically saying words to the effect of “Don’t worry. Sign up with us and when 4G’s available, we’ll sort you out.”

I think this will be tremendously reassuring to a lot of people who were previously looking at the greener grass over at EE. I can imagine a lot of people will be incredibly relieved to be presented with an alternative, especially if you were thinking of going through the rigmarole of swapping numbers.

There are a number of things to consider, not least what Vodafone’s 4G pricing offer will actually look like. It’s also not entirely pain free. Here is an example of how I think things will work, based on this release.

Assume you take out a £51/month 12-month contract for a Galaxy SIII this month.

Assume that by March, Vodafone are in a position to launch.

Assume that 4 months will therefore have passed by the time you walk into the Vodafone shop get kitted out for 4G.

You have 8 months left on £51/month. That’s £408. Vodafone will dump 70% of those charges — £285.60, leaving a balance of £122.40.

You have to give Vodafone back your Galaxy SIII in good condition.

You need to pay £122.40. That could be quite a sticking point. But then one would hope the lure of 4G might be enough to erase that pain. Or, if Vodafone are smart, they’ll do some jiggerypokery in the background to make sure that the £122 you have to pay means your 4G phone is free provided you take a 24-month contract. Something like that.

(In this example, if you were to wait until May before actually doing the upgrade, you’d have 6-months (£306) outstanding. Vodafone would swallow the 70% (£214) leaving you with £91.80 to pay.)

There is a significant risk, of course, that customers thinking about EE will do the sums and wonder why they’re having to bother paying off the 30% to Vodafone in the first place. But don’t forget this is probably to ensure Vodafone doesn’t make a total loss on the hardware portion of the contract.

Fundamentally, Vodafone is making sure that anyone thinking about moving now has pause for thought.

I’m excited to see movement from Vodafone. I can’t remember seeing this kind of informal and very direct language (“we’ll knock off 70%”) from the company before. It’s rather refreshing and I think customers will react to it positively. I’d really like to see more of this kind of approach from the operators.

What do you think?

Telenor Group has now entered into an agreement with U2opia Mobile, an innovator in social Internet and mobile convergence, to bring Facebook to its millions of non-Internet connected customers via USSD. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a low bandwidth data service that allows you to send information on a 2G network with no Internet connectivity.

As Telenor’s new partner, U2opia Mobile is sharing its “Facebook by Fonetwish” platform with Telenor customers – starting in India, followed by Malaysia and Bangladesh before the year end. Facebook by Fonetwish is easy to use, fast and affordable for both customers and operators, as it is text-based and uses very little bandwidth. There are no handset requirements to use this type of service. This means that a 10+ year old phone with no Internet and/or GPRS connectivity can still use USSD to send and receive information.

via Telenor opens the door to world of social media for millions of customers – Telenor Group.

Very, very smart and potentially very useful for millions and millions of customers who don’t currently have a ‘smart’ feature phone. But it’s not just about devices, it’s about affordability. Untold millions can’t realistically afford to splash the (sometimes large amounts of) cash on a standard data connection.

It’s not just about social networks either. Customers will reportedly be able to query Wikipedia at absolutely no charge (although I imagine you’ll need to have a Telenor account in good standing).

I’m interested to understand precisely how this will work. The announcement gives an indication:

To get Facebook via USSD, Telenor subscribers simply dial *325# or *fbk# to start. A username and password is required. Once logged on, the user is presented with a menu of Facebook options: browse newsfeed, update status, post on walls, view friend requests, send friend request, send messages and view notifications. Telenor’s Indian operator, Uninor, rolled out a beta version of Facebook by Fonetwish in September this year, charging Rs20 per month ($0.39/mo) for unlimited access.

I suspect it will function much like those sim ‘apps’ that you often find embedded on to handsets supplied by operators.

Smart.

$0.39 a month is, I reckon, good enough to encourage a lot of people to begin at least experimenting with mobile data services. In time they can be pushed to full data services.

Good work Telenor!