In some cases, operators have sought to re-word the meaning of unlimited. AT&T has — according to the post — decided to start limiting the unlimited usage of it’s top 5% of problem customers (that is, folk who have the temerity to actually use their phone’s data connection). AT&T has apparently throttled offending connections to the point that once folk have used up their “unlimited” 2.3 gigs of data, their connection becomes virtually unusable. Or really, REALLY slow.

Did you see what they did there? Aye. It’s still an unlimited connection. Just, the speed is rubbish. So you can’t sue! You are still getting unlimited access. It’s your own fault if you can’t be bothered to wait 2 minutes for a page to load. How is this possible?

Well, nobody ever signed up for a specific speed, did they? Most customers were simply sold an “unlimited data” connection because the operator didn’t have a flying fracking clue what is was doing in the first place — despite the fact they’re selling a resource that is, by its very nature, limited.

It’s the equivalent to me selling you unlimited access to my swimming pool. You assume that this buys you access to the whole pool. You might be a little bit annoyed if I rope off a swimming lane and assign that to you. But you’d probably put up with it. If I let you use the whole pool for the first twenty minutes of your swim and then restricted you to 3 square metres of water space, you’d probably go nuts. I’d happily point out that you still have unlimited access to the pool. You can use that 3 square metres ANY time you want.

Yeah. Ridiculous.

What would be even more crazy is if I started encouraging you to use my pool for twenty minutes then get out and go to the gym opposite. You’d be responsible for paying for the joining fee and the monthly maintenance.

Does that illustration sound a little bit off-the-wall? Well, it’s more or less what AT&T is doing…

Here’s one example from the AP piece. A consumer was sent this message:

ATT Free Msg: Your data use this month places you in the top 5% of users. Use Wi-Fi to help avoid reduced speeds. Visit www.att.com/dataplans or call 8663447584.

I’m really surprised to see this kind of ‘warning-marketing’. How rubbish does your infrastructure need to be when you start telling your customers to STOP using your facilities and to start using an alternative?

I really do have to breath deeply when I see this kind of behaviour in the mobile industry.

It looks like the Cupid service has been up and live since yesterday and already the team has produced an impressive 135 personalised videos. I wonder just how many they’ll get through by the 14th of February? 500 videos? 800? Either way, it’s a brilliant marrying of social media and marketing.

Of course this is similar to what we saw with the Old Spice campaign a little while ago — I don’t think that matters at all though. It’s all about the immediacy and the personalisation. Bring it on.

If you’d like to get one of the Cupids to send out a personalised message of lurrrve, it’s really easy. You just need to tweet with the hashtag. All the details are right here.

Here’s a note of explanation from the o2 team:

Alex Pearmain, Head of O2’s social media love messengers, said:

 

“You could say it with chocolates, you could say it with flowers. But we thought that if you’re a social media fan then sending a romantic Valentine’s from the messenger of love himself might be a little more original! We hope the O2 Cupids will bring some couples together come February 14th.”

Heh. Love it!

Here’s the o2 Cupid Youtube channel.

In today’s environment, what you really want is the customer’s money, every month, like clockwork. You can make a lot more cash out of the customer in other ways, for example up-selling smart services or taking a cut of other transactions. Of course, when you’re entire operation is obsessing over how to take an extra twenty pence from me for a particular phone call, they’re not bothering focusing on taking tens of pounds in revenue from other activities.

All operators know this. They know they’re spunking their efforts up against the wall, most of the time. Witness, for example, the numerous industry executives I meet regularly telling me that they’ve no flipping clue what voice revenues they’re going to make this year. Yup. What they do know is that the majority of consumers are doing their level best to stick-one-in-the-eye of the finance bods and be very, very careful about what they do with their phones, so as not to overpay.

Why not stop fighting with the consumer? Why not zero-rate everything for a fixed monthly fee on a 24-month contract? Then at least the finance bods can relax and you can then focus on creating added value services that add significantly to the revenue?

Well that’s what T-Mobile has announced this morning.

It’s called The Fully Monty — and yes, it is absolutely unlimited everything. And before I go into detail, I should point out that this is potentially hugely damaging to Three. We’ll get to that in a moment.

There are four price ‘brackets’ thus:

As you can see there, at £36/month, you’ll get 2,000 minutes to other networks and a fairly good deal on the key smartphone offerings. Beyond £36, it’s now about how much you want to pay up-front for your handset. For an extra £5, you can advance to unlimited everything. And if you jump to £61/month, the 32GB iPhone 4S is free — and it’s just £29 for the 64GB.

Now then. It’s not truly ‘unlimited everything’. No. The finance bods obviously stuck their pins into Ben Fritsch, T-Mobile’s Head of Propositions, preventing him from zero-rating calls to number ranges such as 0800, 0808, 0845 and so on. They’re still a bollock-crushing 40 pence a minute. A FLIPPING MINUTE! And if you’re calling Jersey, that stlll-doesn’t-count.

However let’s stay positive.

Finally, one of the top operators in the UK has decided to dump the “minutes”. For quite a while, unlimited texts has been a popular add-on for most price plans, but usually you’ve had to pick and choose your ‘add-ons’ to try and get, for example, unlimited landline calls, but only 200 cross-network calls. It’s made the whole price plan decision process a bit annoying for everyone for the last decade.

It’s a landmark gesture to just make it all (or, most of it) unlimited.

I think this will appeal to quite a lot of contract customers.

Let’s hear from Mr Fritsch of T-Mobile:

The Full Monty has been designed for customers who want the peace of mind that there are absolutely no limits placed on their allowances, whilst also knowing they’re getting market leading value for money. We believe our Pay Monthly portfolio offers plans to suit anyone’s needs, all at accessible prices – and we’re really proud to be the first to offer a plan like The Full Monty in the UK”.

And for those of you reading, wondering whether there’s a fair-use policy on the data? There isn’t. Here are the words direct from T-Mobile’s release:

Customers signing up to The Full Monty 24 month plan will not only have the reassurance that there are no caps on their calls, texts and internet, they will also have access to unlimited WiFi, and can use their mobile internet for whatever they like – including tethering (using a smartphone as an internet connection for a laptop or tablet), streaming and downloading.

And here, for the sake of clarity, are the little footnotes:

Minutes and texts unlimited allowance apply to all UK mobile networks, voicemail and numbers beginning with 01, 02, 03 (excluding Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man). Calls to 08 (including 0870) or 070 numbers are premium rate numbers and excluded from your inclusive allowances. Calls to 0800, 0808, 0845 and other 08 numbers cost 40p/min. See www.t-mobile.co.uk/help&support/priceplans. Picture messages are not included within the allowance.

The Full Monty plan provides access to our preferred WiFi partner’€™s WiFi network; presently this is BT Openzone network excluding any sites providing access to any organisation or location which is part of the Olympic Games in London in 2012. The BT Openzone terms can be found at www.btopenzone.com/terms-and-conditions/index.jsp

So, this is good news. It’s about time we had this kind of action from the big operator groups in the UK. I’m interested to see just how long Vodafone will be able to cling-on to their “minutes” obsession as a result.

But there’s a few issues to consider.

First, T-Mobile and Orange have 28 million customers in the UK. Yes, their networks are shared, but just how well can they support data? Is this likely to turn into a One2One-style free-evening-and-weekend-calls arrangement whereby yes, it’s unlimited, but you can’t actually *access* the network because of congestion? That’s going to be interesting to see.

Second, if you’re paying a metered £1 or £2 per megabyte for data on T-Mobile, you’re hardly likely to react very well to other people paying ‘nothing’ but sitting on the internet watching iPlayer from their handsets all day, “cos it’s free”, especially if your data speeds go from good to super-slow.

I suppose that by limiting the spend to £36+/month, T-Mobile will be hoping to avoid the yoof community who are likely to spend a lot of time doing this.

Third, I worry for Three.

Their whole marketing campaign and message has been about their “The One” plan which has been trampled all over by today’s announcement. There’s still some juice in Three’s offer (their plan starts at £25/month, 2,000 minutes, 5,000 texts with unlimited data). For instance, the company’s “Text 500″ plan comes with 500 minutes, 5,000 texts and 1GB of data. For £2 more on T-Mobile, you can get everything unlimited. This is a bit of an arse for Three.

I trust the rest of the UK operator community will now sit up and start dusting off the “what happens when someone else does unlimited, properly” strategy plans.

Good work T-Mobile.

Meanwhile, if Ben Fritsch and his team could see their way to introducing TMOGOLD (full details here), I’d be even more delighted.

Here’s a bit of Matt’s story:

If you reside in the UK and you are one of the millions of subscribers to mobile operator O2, you may be alarmed to learn that the carrier is sending your mobile number to every website you visit on your mobile phone.

The issue was brought to our attention by Lewis Peckover, who created a simple webpage to check the information that a mobile browser would send to a website when it requested data.

The story is still developing, however it’s clear that o2 has been passing your phone number to every website you visit. It’s passed in the headers — which most sites will ignore. Indeed, if your server isn’t looking for the field, then it’ll simply ignore it.

This is clearly a mistake and certainly not normal practice. If anything, I suspect it’s a misconfiguration or a standard configuration on a particular server, gateway or system at o2.

o2 will be horrified.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how they handle this. People are still hugely attached to their perceived privacy and the knowledge that every website you’ve visited via your phone could have retrieved your phone number will be massively discomforting.

The real problem is if the mainstream media pick it up. It looks like a bit of a slow news day — and it’s a terribly sexy issue, this, especially in the context of phone hacking. The headlines boiled down will make highly frustrating reading. I wouldn’t be surprised to see headlines like, “o2 exposes your phone number to every website” or “o2 gives your phone number to spammers” appearing shortly in the mainstream press.

o2 need to respond very, very quickly. I think they’ve got until midday to deliver a formal response. It’s 11am now. After midday the story could potentially gravitate from a Twitter firestorm into mainstream consciousness.

Can you imagine the implications of an adult website claiming that [insert famous person here] has visited their site 100 times in the last 2 days — and they’ve got the logs to prove it? Ooof!

What should o2 do?

Well I think that depends on how the media treat the issue. If it’s picked up by the Daily Mail anywhere near their front page, then they’ll need a mega response. Definitely.

Normal mobile users on o2 reading the story will go nuts. Folk will want to do something in response to the perceived privacy invasion, even if it didn’t actually affect them. The first instinct will be to cancel the line and churn to another network. The next instinct will be some kind of recompense — a free credit, some extra text messages or something like that. Quite possibly legions of users will demand that their phone numbers be changed.

Goodness me. It’s a bit of a mess.

There’s not much o2 can do, I don’t think, that would appease me as a normal user. I’d probably react very, very negatively to a £5 credit offer (“Is that what my privacy is worth?”).

The underlying issue here is the break down of trust that many o2 consumers will feel when they read the news. I think o2 should act decisively, positively — and if anything, they should over-react. Do everything. Offer everything. And put the CEO or a C-Level executive on camera right-away to speak to the media.

Of course we’re going to want to know how long this flaw has been live on the o2 systems; how many users have been potentially compromised and so on. That could take days to determine. So an immediate response is required now and then hourly updates should be issued throughout today and, say, tomorrow, until all the information is in o2′s hands.

We shall see.

If anyone can handle this kind of challenge, it’s o2. The team there are seriously capable. If anything, I think they could possibly use this as an opportunity to engage brilliantly with their customers and boost loyalty even more.

Bring it on, o2!

Update: Matt is back with a related post – How O2 could unwittingly help spammers conduct a nasty phishing campaign that’s worth a read.

Update 2: o2 has posted a public announcement on the matter (thanks Adrian)

I don’t mean unlimited texts, or fancy calling plans — I mean absolutely new products and services that really make you sit back and think, “WOW”.

Why are operators so horrendously rubbish at delivering anything new into market?

Well there’s a whole load of reasons. You can blame the top management. I do, regularly. You can blame the jobsworths sitting having lots of meetings with each other and doing nothing. You might look at the obsessive focus on minutes, texts (and more recently, data revenues). There are hundreds of valid explanations for why comparatively nothing has changed in the operator landscape for years.

Today, however, I’d like you to join me in reading this post by Matthew panzarino at The Next Web: “This is how Apple’s top secret product development process works”

If I’ve held your attention this long, please click on the link, read it, and then come back here.

Right then.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

Look at the company’s tenacity and focus. I love each and every single concept. The “new product process” roadmap. The EPM mafia… LOVE that. Someone who’s actually IN control of the project and answerable to the direction team? Genius. I very much like the “Rules of the Road” too, detailing out every single significant milestone with — crucially — a DRI (“Direct Responsible Individual”).

If you’ve ever worked in an operator, or if you’re sitting there employed by one at the moment, I’m willing to bet Matthew’s post will have had you salivating at the possibilities. Can you IMAGINE what it’d be like to work at an operator where the Apple approach was used?

Can you imagine the creativity? The excitement? The flippin’ brilliant innovation that could be delivered?

Of course, you’ll also understand in absolute terms that something like this COULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE.

Unfortunately it seems like most operators are built to make any kind of change or update impossible, usually because of a lack of balls on the part of senior management. Dated billing systems, crippled networks, antiquated budgetary demands, the whole thing is super-depressing.

I routinely sit and listen to many talented folk from the Western mobile operator community describe their complete inability to actually do anything in their roles beyond smile, attend ‘nothing happens’ meetings and send emails to each other.

Over the years we’ve seen glimmers of hope. It’s not all bad. Entire divisions have been established to help boost this kind of thing. However, invariably, the division that’s busy doing all the cool stuff doesn’t ever get the attention of the mothership. Because the mothership’s leaders are either numbskulls, career minute men (obsessed over the sale of minutes) or simply way, way out of their depth.

It does get rather depressing.

It’s not all bad, though. I’ve seen some encouraging signs from one operator group. Another is sort-of getting there.

One of the most interesting moves in recent months came from the freemobile.fr chaps (here’s the FT overview). I’m hopeful that they’ll get the French industry out of it’s current funk and, if we’re lucky, the fever of panic will spread abroad.

One can but hope..

- – - – -

Here are the previous posts in the Operator Innovation series:

- Operator Innovation: Isolate me from the pain of hardware responsibility
- Access any airport lounge with T-Mobile GlobalPlus+
- Let me access my SMS everywhere
- One number for all my voice calls
- Fancy a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad for £100/month?
- Why can’t my operator talk to my bank when my card declines abroad
- Taxis, baby, Taxis!

(You can read the background here.)

The chap I spoke to in “Customer Options” — I think it was called — was rather shocked that the 3UK store told me to take out a new contract to get the iPhone 4S.

“We could have upgraded your existing line!” he cried.

Yup.

So we went through the standard rigmarole and eventually, I got the cancellation figure (£163) which was £196 in total.

Fine. Job done.

That’s me content. I’d have liked to have done things faster though.

[And for the avoidance of doubt, I'm still definitely a Three customer -- with a nice new iPhone 4S instead]

When users will find out for certain is also subject to debate; a March launch has been suggested for the iPhone by a number of blogs, who have also suggested it for the iPad 3. Hexus, however, has claimed that Apple could make a rare announcement at February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

via Apple’s larger iPhone 5 ‘coming in March’ – Telegraph.

Generally speaking — and famously — Apple never bother with conferences unless it’s got “Mac” or “Apple” written on it.

I don’t see them breaking the habit and exhibiting at MWC any time soon.

However, I do think that it would be very, very smart if Apple made an announcement either the week before or during Mobile World Congress — especially if it was iPhone-related.

Apple already did this to an extent with CES — however, the iPhone and the mobile industry are a seriously different kettle of fish.

If Apple really wanted to upset the existing world order (and the millions upon millions of Euros being invested during Mobile World Congress), they should call a “Let’s talk about iPhone” press conference for the first Monday of MWC-week.

Goodness me.

Can you imagine?

Just speculating brings me out in goosebumps.

The world’s consumer media (mainstream and bloggers) will be flying into Barcelona on Sunday evening to record their “here’s a new Android” segment for 30 minutes on Monday morning, before flying out same-day. [Of course, the trade media will be there for the duration].

Can you imagine the shock if Apple made the media choose? Either you cover our keynote about the new iPhone in San Francisco. Or you go to that also-ran in Barcelona.

To be clear, I’m certainly not labelling MWC thus! That was me putting fighting words in Apple’s mouth.

Sparks would fly though.

And there’d be no choice. The media would flock to San Francisco. The anchors, the editors, the pundits — they’d all be in California and MWC would either be ignored or

The ramifications for the industry would be profound. Of course the mobile industry now exists in Apple’s shadow. But not officially. Not, really. And certainly not at MWC. In Barcelona, the operators can freely strut their stuff and the other platforms can have a bit of time in the media sun. Apple is always in the back of everyone’s mind at MWC, but it’s possible to suspend reality for at least a few minutes.

And it’s in this limited reality that the rest of the industry gets to pretend that it’s still relevant, that things are still the same as they were pre-iPhone. That nothing has really changed.

Look at the keynotes at MWC over the last few years since the iPhone’s announcement. iPhone and Apple has been largely irrelevant — the industry’s still under the impression it’s in control.

A serious tub-thumping press conference from Apple timed to remove all attention from MWC would illustrate the new world order nicely.

I’m a fan of this kind of hard ball because it’s one of the only measures that might prompt the rest of the mobile marketplace — the operators in particular — to actually get off their arses and start innovating properly.

Anyway.

Perhaps Apple will be too polite and give-way.

Alas I hear from various sources in the industry that Everything Everywhere is not yet able to support this functionality fully (e.g. It’s completely unavailable on T-Mobile at the moment).

I think that’s a killer, at the moment: You can hardly consider “cross network” to mean everything except T-Mobile. MIG, it seems, jumped the gun!

When cross network voice shortcodes are finally here, though, it’s going to be brilliant. Brands will be able to offer their consumers the ability to call them on a free shortcode that won’t end up costing them £0.70 per minute.

But standby — hopefully we should see full cross network support sometime in this quarter!

Dearest Twitter, the time has come for me to say goodbye to this account. After many years in the Orange PR team, I now have a new role within the company that focuses purely on social media and how best we can use it as a business….so no more tweeting PR/news from me I’m afraid :

This profile was set up to communicate news about Orange UK and that’s what it’ll continue to do… so from next week this account will become @OrangeUKnews.

For those who wish to stay in touch I’ll be tweeting from my new personal account @ConorMaples. Onwards and upwards folks, it’s been a blast. x

via TwitLonger — When you talk too much for Twitter.

I strongly recommend keeping tabs on what Conor’s up to via @conormaples.

Congratulations on the new role Conor and every success!

Here we go:

Smartphones and Facebook helped to drive a massive 500% surge in New Year’s Eve handset data in just 12-months, according to mobile firm Three.

The amount of data Three’s smartphone customers used on New Year’s Eve leapt from 14 terabytes (TBs) in 2010 to a massive 80TBs in 2011.

To put it in perspective, it’s the equivalent of almost 21m MP3 tracks, or roughly 118,000 DVD movies, downloaded onto smartphones in the UK in just 24-hours.

The trend continued through New Year’s Day, with 74TBs used compared to 14TBs the year before.

Facebook was one of the most popular services as people rung in the New Year, with a 20% jump in traffic between midnight and 1am.

Three expects smartphone adoption among customers to reach almost 100% this year, as more and more people realise their capabilities.

Traditional mobile traffic grew too, but this growth was hugely outstripped by data. SMS levels grew from 36m on New Year’s Eve 2010, to 46m this year, while calls went from 19m last year to 21m.

Three’s Marketing Director Thomas Malleschitz, said: “It’s a phenomenal amount of growth and shows just how much smartphones are changing the way our customers communicate. This kind of demand vindicates Three’s focus on building a network designed for the internet.

“It also shows just how important data bundles are becoming – and of course the value of plans which offer genuinely All-you-can-eat handset data allowances.”

The one thing you simply cannot argue with when it comes to 3UK is data. The company made a bet on 3G data early on — and as a result, it’s very well placed to handle all your burgeoning data demands.

I have to say that I’m thoroughly enjoying their service on my iPhone. I’ve had an iPhone 4 with them since 2010 — and I’ve just recently swapped to an iPhone 4S. Their all-you-can-eat truly unlimited data plans are simply genius. No other UK network competes with it. What’s rather interesting is that I’m using my primary BlackBerry on Vodafone less and less because I’m finding 3′s connectivity so fast.

I also have a MiFi unit from them too. It works really nicely on the train provided I’m in a decent signal area — which is about 80% of my daily commute — so very, very useful. And even at train speeds, the connectivity typically feels the same as a fast fixed line.

Good work 3!

Kudos to o2 Enterprise. The team specialises in helping enterprise organisations embrace flexible working. Instead of simply knocking out a few whitepapers, the company has taken a different path. It’s embraced the flexible working ethos itself! Here’s a quote from their story [PDF]:

We’ve been on a journey. We’ve saved millions. We use hundreds fewer desks. We’ve changed our culture and the way our people collaborate. And it’s all through flexible working. Or as we call it, Joined Up People.

In the highly personal case study, the company outlines just how effective the Joined Up People programme has been. Here are their three key highlights:

• We’ve saved over £3 million by cutting 550 desks (it costs £7,000 a year to run a desk)
• 100% of our flexible workers reported a better work/life balance
• The annual savings for a team of eight through virtual monthly meetings is £30,400

It’s rather refreshing to see a big tech company actually do this kind of thing rather than just talk about it. It most certainly makes the conversation with other enterprises highly authentic, given that o2′s done it all itself.

It doesn’t just stop there though.

They’ve actually put each of their heads of department ON VIDEO talking about the benefits of the Joined Up People approach. Take for instance the company’s Human Resources head honcho, Nicky Brimmer: She’s positively glowing on camera, discussing how the programme has seriously benefitted o2 employees.

This kind of direct, personal approach is really refreshing to see.

I do throughly recommend having a browse through the Joined Up People website — but most importantly, definitely have a browse of this PDF case study. It’s nicely written, not too heavy and it should get thinking good things about o2.

I think the Telefonica Digital team are winning when it comes to office locations. You’ve got most of Vodafone and Everything Everywhere camped out at Paddington whilst — as far as I know — 3 still dominates the Maidenhead skyline.

Yeah: Telefonica guys, you’ve won out. Being based at the bottom of Regent Street right next to Piccadilly Circus, Soho, Oxford Street and — of course, Mayfair’s finest restaurants — that will be rather useful. Plus the shopping is pretty good nearby.

400 Telefonica Digital employees are due to move into the 4th and 5th floors of The Crown Estate’s AirW1 scheme. You can find out more at the swanky AirW1 website.

I dare say that quite a few folk thinking about joining Telefonica Digital will be persuaded to do so thanks to this new office location — I would!

At Vodafone’s Paddington place, there’s — what — a Pret, a Soup place and a few bars?

What’s your view? Will you now shortly be joining Telefonica Digital?

Today’s UK launch is rightly generating a lot of excitement — and given there’s a 1-month free trial (you do need to give your credit card) there’s little excuse for having a wee look.

For far too long I’ve been limited by Apple’s pretty rubbishy iTunes TV/Movie range so it was brilliant to see a whole load of fantastic content available when I signed in to Netflix. Bring it on!

I then thought I’d check it out on my iPhone — I swiftly downloaded the app, signed-in and then looked for something to test out. I quickly tapped on Armageddon. 10 seconds later the movie was playing.

Now — this is wonderful from my personal perspective.

It’s pretty shitty from a network perspective, though.

I was streaming on my new iPhone 4S from 3. Their coverage in Richmond is sublime. I couldn’t help but think that whilst I was having a nice time watching the movie, what effect was I having on the local 3 cell capacity?

I’d expect 3 to be able to handle this kind of traffic. Their data network is most definitely robust enough to take the strain. That is, until every single one of 3′s iPhone customers starts doing the exact same.

It’ll be even worse on the big standard networks. How’s o2 or Vodafone going to cope?

I broke out in a sweat after 10 seconds of watching the opening Armageddon credits because I knew I was using up a significant amount of bandwidth unnecessarily on Monday morning for anyone else using 3 in the area. I stopped the streaming.

Unfortunately, it looks like Netflix is most definitely about streaming. I don’t think you can temporarily store movie content on your phone in offline mode like you can with the likes of Spotify. (With Spotify, I occasionally download music ‘real time’ over the data network but mostly I use offline mode when I’m out and about.)

Streaming — and especially video streaming — is going to be the bane of the UK networks for a long time to come.

I hope that 3G demand for Netflix doesn’t force the UK networks to decide to lower their inclusive contract data allowances to 50mb a month….

That, seriously, has been their response to burgeoning data demand in the past.

I wonder if we need to have that ‘app’ conversation again — that is, you buy super-fast access to a raft of apps on top of your standard monthly fee. For instance, I might opt to pay £6/month extra to get ‘gold level’ access to Netflix, Spotify and iPlayer via my 3G connection. However I’d want to be sure that the operators had put some proper equipment in place to make sure that I actually got decent service most of the time.

It’s such an arse, though, this whole problem. Netflix is hardly likely to want to see operators charging more money to consumers to access it’s service. If anything, Netflix is likely to want a cut. But then, if Netflix 3G usage skyrockets over the next few months, it won’t be long before we see operator CEOs bleating about wanting Netflix to pay access fees to them.

It’s going to be an interesting year.

However — and it’s a big however — it’s distorted the market completely and made the business of competition a little bit more challenging. When most operators have at least 50% of their customers locked away on multi-year contracts, the incentive to do anything resembling innovation is limited. Yes, when there’s a bit of pain at the end of the contract when you have to give a few hundred extra minutes to a bleeting customer to avoid them churning, but that’s nothing when compared to actually having to get off your arse and run a successful change programme.

So should the UK do ‘a Chile’? They’ve mandated that every handset sold must now be unlocked so it can be used on any carrier.

This removes one of the primary retention strategies for contract customers. That could only be good for the market, surely?

What do you think?

The Republic of Chile has announced that all cellphones sold within the country starting last Monday, January 2nd, must be unlocked for use on any carrier.

via All cellphones in Chile must be sold unlocked from January 2nd | The Verge.

It’s the first new year’s eve since the launch of iMessage. Will Apple’s servers hold up? Can they teach the MNOs a thing or two about scaling? History suggests not but I guess we’ll find out!

Jay responded:

That would be a no! It’s midnight here in Hong Kong, and trying to send *any text* with iMessage enabled results in “Message send failure” – turning off iMessage, and the mobile operator handles it just fine.

So I guess even just the lookup of “is this an iMessage person” was failing… ouch!

My son was due out of bed at about 530am (teething at the moment) so I didn’t bother doing the whole New Year thing. I was in bed by 10pm I think. Life as a father with a toddler, eh? So I didn’t get to see if iMessage performed nicely during the midnight rush. How did you find things? It raises interesting questions about Apple’s ability to truly scale to significant volume. One imagines that Hong Kong wasn’t doing THAT many iMessages, surely?

I have to say I’m sorely tempted to try out XCom Global’s latest offering. They can now offer you unlimited data via MiFi (or USB stick) for a thoroughly reasonable $14.95 per day across a phenomenal 195 countries (up from 67 previously).

There’s no charge for the equipment and delivery is (generally free if you order 10 days prior to departure).

MiFis are $14.95/day and USB sticks are $12.95/day.

It’s a really, really smart idea.

As an illustration (and assuming you’re British), if you went to the US from the 20th to 27th of January (that’s a rental period of 8 days), XCom Global would charge you $14.95 per day bringing the total costs to $119.60.

Now.

Let’s have a wee think.

$119 is £76. You’d already be spending £5 per day on the likes of Vodafone to get 25mb usage. That’s £40 for the trip so far. So for an extra £36, you could use XCom’s service and actually use ‘unlimited’ data rather than having to be very careful about your activities.

Or, if you’re going to Mobile World Congress and you’d like unlimited data on a MiFi unit there for the duration of the show, you’d pay XCom Global just $59.80 for the privilege — a thoroughly reasonable £38. Ben and I spent more than this arsing around in the Vodafone Spain shop in Barcelona last year.

I don’t think there’s a better alternative. You could obviously get a local SIM — but that’s wholly inconvenient on quite a few counts. NONE of the SIMs I bought from the Vodafone Spain shop worked for more than 5 minutes because the guy in the shop didn’t quite understand what we said when we POINTED at the UNLIMITED DATA PREPAY offer. I burnt through my €20 credit in about 5 minutes. If you don’t want that hassle then I can’t see why you wouldn’t check out the likes of XCOM Global.

Another viewpoint: Your operator will probably offer you a fairly decent European roaming deal — £5 or £2 per day for 20-25mb of usage. This might be fine if you’re on holiday but if you’re at Mobile World Congress, the chances are you’ll have some high roaming requirements.

Yeah. More and more I’m thinking this might be a highly sensible choice for many readers.

What I would like to see is some kind of permanent offer, e.g. buy the MiFi from us for $200 and then when you need to use the service, just pay $15 per day. Something like that? I’d like one device that I could keep in my pocket and use wherever I was — a little bit like ABroadband (but without the per-megabyte fees).

Other things to consider with XCOM Global —  you’ll probably want to think about insurance. If you lose the device, you’ll need to cough up a rather shocking $800. That is very painful. If you’re paying their $3.95 insurance the loss charge is $160. Don’t lose it, bottom line.

XCom Global won’t be suitable for every use case but I think it’s got serious merits. There’s a lot more information on their site.

Update: Here’s a contribution from reader Ilicco who’s currently (at time of writing) on vacation in Byron Bay, Australia — and roaming (as per his comment below) at phenomenally good rates.

I’ve had my iPhone 4 from 3 for 16 months and it’s on a 24-month contract. The new iPhone 4S is out. I want it.

What do I do?

Well, I walk into the 3 store yesterday and I ask for an iPhone 4S. I was quite prepared to pay some kind of early upgrade charge or .. whatever, really. I didn’t care. I just wanted the iPhone 4S and — like the good Apple consumer I am — I was prepared to pay. My expectation was that the whole experience will cost a bit of cash.

The chap in the store recommended that I take out a new line instead of upgrading the existing line and paying the upgrade charges. I’m sure that this makes his figures look better. It also saved me money.

“Just don’t phone up and cancel your current one immediately!” he said.

Here, then, is what I did with Three.

1. I took out a new contract for an iPhone 4S. I paid £279 up front as I wanted the 64GB version. It’s a 24 month contract. [Interestingly the chap in the shop never ONCE mentioned the contract length. <s>He didn't ask if I wanted 18 months</s>.]

2. I’ve got 8 months left on my iPhone 4 contract.

3. I called up to find out how much it would cost for me to kill this contract today. Answer = £240 charge.

4. I went on to envirofone’s website to see how much they’d pay me for the iPhone 4. Answer = £215.

That’s almost cost neutral.

(When, errrr, you ignore the £279 up front I paid for the 64GB — the 16GB would have been free, I think).

My point is this: Why didn’t 3 just take my old iPhone 4 from me, terminate the existing contract and establish a new one?

Instead we went through the rigmarole of establishing an entirely new line. Great, their figures will be enhanced. That’s another contract customer! Until, that is, I give their retentions team heartburn by phoning up and killing the old contract, adding a churn to the figures.

Still, I’m happy. I’ve got the 4S now and it’s nice and fast.

I sat down with Ronnie at the o2 store in Richmond-Upon-Thames on Tuesday afternoon.

When I arrived into the store a few moments beforehand and said I wanted to lease an iPhone 4S, his colleague recommended him.

“Ronnie knows all about leasing, you should be speaking to him,” said the sales assistant.

Ronnie arrived, shook my hand, introduced himself and we sat down and he logged into his sales terminal. Both of us were definitely ready to do business.

We went through the various identification points. Mother’s maiden name. Postcode. Digits from the PIN and so on.

“Yes, you’re definitely due an upgrade,” said Ronnie, glancing at his screen.

“Do you have iPhones in stock?” I asked.

He nodded, “Just the 64GB today.”

Brilliant.

“I’d like to lease that one,” I replied.

And then we hit a roadblock.

Ronnie explained that the leasing deal was only applicable to the 16GB and 32GB iPhones.

Uh oh.

“Well, I’d really like the 64GB version,” I explained, “I travel often so it’s useful to have that extra space for music, video and apps.”

Ronnie indicated I could get the 64GB version on contract (i.e. normally) no problem at all. I could walk out the shop with it 5 minutes later.

I went through the rigmarole of explaining Mobile Industry Review and that the reason I wanted to ‘lease’ was, a) because the concept fundamentally appeals and b) because I want to tell people I’m doing it — I want to experience it. This is what I do a lot at Mobile Industry Review. I stick my head in the fryer and see what happens so that I can write about it.

(Plus, I don’t want to look like an analyst — you know, one of those seriously knowledgeable chaps you see on panels at events who knows everything in theory but has only ever actually used a BlackBerry.)

Alas we reached an impasse, Ronnie and I.

I can only assume that the o2 marketing chaps couldn’t make the lease figures work for a 64GB.

I thanked Ronnie for his time and exited the shop.

Now I need to consider what to do with the £35 I’m paying o2 every month on-going. I’m way out of commitment on that line so I either need to close it or get another phone. I think, unfortunately, I’m angling for just closing it. I’m not sure if I actually need that line any more.

Anyway, thank you for your patience Ronnie!

I’ve procrastinated enough. Now I need to actually do something about it. It’s time I owned an iPhone 4S instead of playing with test devices.

I have accounts on all the UK networks: Everything Everywhere, Three, Vodafone and o2. All of them are either eligible for upgrade or I can add a second line. I’ve got the budget to blow on a new device. I am ready to contract.

So I thought I’d use this opportunity to do a test of the UK mobile operator social selling apparatus.

I tweeted the following message and prepared for the deluge of responses:

Operators, I’m about to buy an iPhone 4S today. The custom could be yours. Just tweet me!

I was expecting to get a qualifying tweet within 5 minutes from one of the operators — you know, something to check that I’m not joking and to determine that I do wish to be engaged with a view to fulfilling a transaction.

I was then expecting for the conversation to a direct message and for the operator to explain that “Sarah” (i.e. some named individual) would like to give me a call to discuss.

Do remember that if I had initiated a phone call with any of the above operator sales lines, I’d have been able to do the deal within about 5 minutes or less. Remember I’m also an existing customer of each network so there’s no crazy extensive credit check — indeed, most of the operators (Vodafone for example) would be able to put any upfront costs on to next month’s bill, making the transaction very simple. I also knew precisely what I wanted to buy.

I’m also aware that as a mobile choppy, known to most operator PR teams, the chances are I’d get a skewed result. I wondered if some eagle-eyed observers would have spotted by tweet and have called their social teams to make sure my tweet got actioned.

I followed up my first Tweet with this one:

Meanwhile I’m writing a post about my intent to buy an iPhone today with o2 — at their store, as I’m assuming no operators will reach out

(You can find that post here)

So here are the results in no particular order:

T-Mobile: I heard absolutely nothing from them
Orange: Absolutely nothing
Vodafone: Nothing! [Come on Vodafone! What happened?? I have *FOUR* lines eligible for upgrade with you!]
Three: There was some interaction with their social team
o2: They did reach out!

Deary me.

I really did expect an overwhelming deluge.

I thought operators were really hot on social CRM! I really did. Of course, I expect if I’d actually engaged an account like @vodafoneukdeals (their Twitter profile for their online shop) I might have got somewhere.

I assumed that all the operators would have some kind of special monitoring in place, ready to pluck out messages like mine and stick them through the sales funnel.

Theoretically all I needed was for one of the social media teams to get someone from the sales team to phone me. The @ThreeUK social media team did volunteer to arrange a call. That’s probably the best response I had. They used the phrase “can we arrange a call?” which I interpreted as, “Can we have a chap from India call you.”

I replied back saying it was ok — and that I’d call 333 myself. I probably will. I just am not in the mood for the highly functional Indian call centres at the moment. I didn’t really want to give my life story to them either. If, however, ThreeUK had said “Sarah” or “Paul” or “Jeff” was going to call me, then I’d have probably reacted differently. Just, you see, I’ll probably be doing an upgrade with my Three account — and it’ll be an early upgrade, so there’s usually a bit of cash involved. I don’t mind that. However the last time I tried to do this, the Indian chap I spoke with was horrified at the £200 I’d need to pay. “Yeah, that’s fine,” I said. He tried to convince me to wait 6 months so he wouldn’t have to charge me that. He was well meaning. Very well meaning. But all I wanted was the handset and I was happy to pay. So I didn’t want another re-run of this.

But at least there was some interaction from Three.

o2 were pretty good too. I had a good dialogue with them across the afternoon. They didn’t offer to sell me a device (i.e. just get it done by phone/tweet/email or whatever). Instead they supported the process with me — because I had already indicated I intended buying a lease iPhone. I think that’s totally acceptable.

You’d think though, wouldn’t you, that operators would by now have some kind of system in place that tracks what *I* say in the context of spending money on telecommunications stuff. It’s all very well being able to interact with consumers by social media, but how about actually selling them stuff?

On the basis of around £250/month spend, I’m worth £3,000 a year to Vodafone. If you assume Vodafone UK company does about £5 billion-ish a year, I contribute 0.00006% of their revenues.

Not that much, I suppose. But a few of those start to add up.

Is there no “quick, Ewan wants to buy something” register that pops up and alerts the sales people sitting on their hands at the call centre? Or is the market on the social media channels that small that it’s really not worth bothering about? That could certainly be the case.

I’m sure I saw a rather nifty system from Amdocs at this year’s InTouch event that helped track and manage this kind of social customer interaction. I must ask them about it.

Meanwhile, what’s your reaction?

Was I expecting just a little bit too much? I’m sure the operator sales teams reading this would have rather they’d made the sale than ignored it. Did I do it the wrong way? Or perhaps I should have been more blatant? Maybe I should have addressed each operator directly with my sales intent, rather than have them come back to me?

Anyway, do let me know what you think. My next post will discuss my o2 in shop experience.

I still don’t have an iPhone 4S.

- – - – -

Current approaches to mobile network and content optimisation will fail to address the real requirements of managing the growth of mobile data in current and next generation networks. The proliferation of mobile devices means that not only are we ‘always-connected’, but that we are also increasingly accessing richer content such as YouTube videos and media-rich social networking services. On top of this, the advent of 4G/LTE network enhancements will bring increased user expectations for faster and smoother access to more and richer content, which will only add to data consumption.

Whilst optimisation techniques have improved over time, they haven’t gone far enough to support the massive volume of mobile data expected in the coming years. The “optimise all” model, currently used to reduce overall data volume, will no longer keep pace with exploding traffic demands. From a total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective, optimisation will not be sustainable in the future. The predicted cost of managing the delivery of all this data means that for mobile network operators (MNOs) to maintain profitability in the long run, it’s time for a new era of optimisation.

The need for a new approach to mobile data optimisation is reflected in today’s key performance indicators (KPIs) which focus on volume reduction. But overall volume in the network is not the critical issue: increasing volume is inevitable. What’s more, in today’s business models, where customers pay for data by the megabit or gigabit, a reduction in overall volume equals a reduction in revenue for the operator.

The new era of mobile data optimisation has to fulfil two main requirements for operators: firstly, to provide a satisfying user experience at all times, and secondly, to keep the cost of the network and capacity expansion investment manageable.

Subscribers expect constant and consistently good user experience: after all, that’s what they pay for. They don’t understand that their experience might be affected by being in a busy cell at a busy time. An operator has to deliver on these expectations whilst taking into account the ongoing capital and operating expenses of the network. Yet congestion problems that cause disruptions in user experience are not consistent across the network, but transient and localised.

Optimisation must evolve: the optimise-all approach is a sledgehammer when, in fact, it’s only a scalpel that is often required. Mobile data optimisation shouldn’t be aimed at reducing overall volume: instead it should keep a real-time lookout for signs of congestion in order to predict congestion just before it occurs, ensuring that optimisation is applied only when absolutely necessary.

We believe that MNOs should adopt an evolved approach to optimisation which addresses these issues by redefining optimisation as a congestion management and quality of experience (QoE) approach, rather than a volume reduction technique. Only then can the direct link between traffic growth and data optimization investment may be broken.

Beyond identifying congestion just before it occurs, MNOs should be able to implement cloud-based caching and optimisation to more efficiently manage resources in a distributed model. This means that optimisation resources are utilised only when needed and where they provide benefit to the user, with faster page load times and fewer video stalls; and to the mobile operator by targeting only areas that, at a given point in time, have insufficient capacity.

This evolved approach to optimisation enables operators to decouple investment in optimisation infrastructure from soaring data volume growth. Without it, MNOs will find it more and more challenging to maintain sustainable levels of infrastructure investment as the need for optimisation grows: thus, evolved optimisation is necessary to ensure sustainable profitability as volume increases exponentially.

How MNOs cope with the explosion of data across their networks is crucial to their long-term profitability. By focusing on real needs – user experience and resource management – an evolved approach to optimisation can scale with the problem and not with the rapid increase in overall traffic volume.

To return to the question you posed, “The Data Capacity Crunch: Are we still in it?”, the answer is maybe. It is true that data (especially video) consumption has and will continue to grow. But it doesn’t have to cause a “crunch”, at least not if the operators evolve their approach to it.

- – - – -

Noam Green is VP Marketing at Mobixell.

Have you been hearing about this deal from Orange? It’s been capturing the imaginations of quite a few normob (“normal mobile user”) friends and family. I’ve overheard people discussing it multiple times a day so — anecdotally at least — it’s certainly gathering a lot of attention.

Here’s the offer: If you upgrade to the new Nokia Lumia 800 (on £36/month), you’ll get an XBOX 360 absolutely free. For many, this is likely to be a huge, huge draw — and given the cross-platform fertilisation between Windows Phone and Microsoft’s XBOX (There’s a big green “XBOX LIVE” tile on every Windows Phone) — it does make a lot of sense.

I wonder how popular this offer is? I’ll see if I can find out. From the point of view of Nokia, it’s good to see these kind of offers from operators.

There’s more information on the Orange site. You’ll also see the posters advertising this in Orange Shops across the UK (if you haven’t already).

Yesterday I spent some time talking with Andrew Hull of Pocketapp, in their new office in downtown Bombay, and over the best fish tikka I’ve ever tasted.

Andrew has moved over full time with his wife and daughter to head up a new team in India. With offices already in London and Kuala Lumpur they’re pursuing a global model for app design and development. We talked for a while about the current state of play in the Indian mobile industry and the opportunity it presents. The Pocketapp team have a wealth of mobile telco experience which sets them apart from most of the new “Advertising Agency” backed mobile app companies. This kind of consultancy around content strategies, and user retention will play well with the operators here.

Both of us are exploring the what can be done now within the extraordinary opportunity the mobile market here presents. Right now the data networks are immature and smartphone penetration is still comparatively very low. The market for mobile apps, and web services is still in it’s early stages. By contrast, the European mobile market is fully saturated and recalcitrant in it’s willingness to develop it’s network infrastructure further. All the mobile people I speak to here are looking at the LTE deployments beginning next year, and the prices for 3G data bundles getting very competitive between the big operators. Prices on year old stock smartphones are plummeting too, accelerating their uptake. For example, prices on iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy range have dropped 40% since I was here six weeks ago.

The speed that mobile data is set to grow here is simply phenomenal.

Andrew is planning to continue Pocketapp’s model of de-risking the outsourcing of app development by adding some local expertise to the team they already have in Malaysia. This model is working well for them elsewhere, so they’re gearing up to serve the growing demand for mobile from Indian brands. I have been making use of the cross platform, and truly excellent M-Indicator app serving up local transport and entertainment information for Mumbai residents. Being in Mumbai for a few days has shown me how this forward looking metropolis is potentially the key proving ground for mobile services.

I wish Andrew and Pocketapp every success with their Indian venture. I will no doubt be catching up with him again next year when my own move to India is complete. He’s off to droidcon India on Thursday which sadly I cannot make. If you’re there make sure you say hello, or you can contact him via their site.

Goodness me I’m shocked by what I’m about to narrate to you: It’s a tale of woe, desperation and sleight of hand and it involves:

a) A relative of mine
b) One of those ‘independent phone specialist’ agencies who cold call you regularly
c) And the great company of Vodafone

I should point out now that whilst this post involves Vodafone as the operator, it could easily apply to any other mobile operator. Indeed I’ve had similar experiences at the hands of an agency (apparently) working on behalf of Three.

However I’ve never experienced anything that involved such blatant trickery and manipulation.

Are you ready?

I’ll use the relative’s first name, Julia.

Across the past weeks she’s been getting annoying phone calls from Vodafone. At least, she thought they were from Vodafone. You know the ones, I’m sure you’ve had similar: Someone phones you and explains they can get you a better deal, yada yada. They usually say they’re “calling on behalf of Vodafone” or similar; They’re only interested in adding NEW lines, not dealing with your existing contracts; And they’re persistent.

A few times Julia answered the phone and said she was too busy to talk. Then last week she eventually relented.

“I felt sorry for them,” she said, “These poor people calling me all the time.”

So she listened.

The chap on the other end of the line explained that he was her Vodafone Account Manager.

I’m horrified.

He’s nothing of the sort.

Absolutely ridiculous. I do wonder if Vodafone *actually* know that this kind of thing is going on.

So having introduced himself as her Vodafone Account Manager, the chap proceeded to “confirm her details” including date of birth and address. Julia can’t quite recall this part, but I wonder if he only had her phone number and was therefore *asking* for her account details. I think this is what he must have done.

The chap went on to explain that he could save Julia money on her account by making some changes to her price plan.

She’s been accustomed to this sort of call over the years so she carried on listening.

The chap explained that if Julia liked, he “Could send her a cheque for £90.”

Julia was confused.

“Why can’t you just credit my account, I pay by direct debit,” she told him.

He obviously made some good excuses — but couldn’t hide any further, so pointed out that his firm wasn’t actually Vodafone but worked closely with them. Ouch.

Julia was rather confused by the whole call but she does recall saying words to the effect of, “Oh very well then,” regarding the chap sending the cheque.

Her viewpoint? If he was able to save

Now here’s the science bit: According to Julia’s recollection, at no point was an upgrade discussed. At no point was an additional line discussed. At no point was a new BlackBerry handset discussed.

Julia uses a Doro handset that she’s delighted with — she has absolutely no use for a BlackBerry — “And I’d have said that at the time, if I’d been given the opportunity,” she points out.

Fast forward a few days and a cheque arrived as the chap had promised. The cheque was drawn on the account of this independent agency, not Vodafone. Julia was worried that she’d been conned.

So she phoned Vodafone.

When she got through she was astonished to find that she’s got a new line on her account (reportedly for a BlackBerry!)

Further, she’s even more astonished to discover that she’s already out of her 14 day cooling off period.

She concludes that the chap must have used one of the previous times when he’d got through to her (but she declined to talk) as the commencement date for the ‘transaction’.

Now she has to unravel the mess. As you might expect, that’s not easily done when you call up Vodafone’s call centre, especially when you’ve got an enquiry like this. Customer service agents are not, I hope, used to dealing with this kind of nonsense.

What an appalling situation. Absolutely appalling.

It’s a sad indictment of the British mobile industry when this is how these weasel agencies conduct themselves.

I have to say I’m particularly alarmed by the “I’m your account manager” bit. Indeed, that’s the most concerning part of the whole transaction for me. This was a total out-and-out lie intended to win the trust of Julia.

How was the chap able to add a new line in her account without her understanding that this is what he was doing? If you talk to Vodafone directly, they’re always ultra clear about what you’re buying. They repeat everything. They use carefully authored language to make sure you understand. They insist their sales people read out all the terms and conditions.

But when it’s a third-party agency, I presume it’s game on.

The chap must have been able to use her date of birth and address that he “confirmed” by explaining he was her account manager. That must be how he was able to get the whole thing processed without Julia’s express agreement or any signatures.

Highly dodgy. Highly suspect. Truly disappointing.

Julia finally got through to Vodafone and explained the problem. They are, I understand, in the process of dealing with it. I hope that means they’ll reverse everything.

Further, I trust that Vodafone’s senior management will burn the sales agency involved. To the ground.

Other mobile operators should also be careful about how they handle these types of sales agencies. To have third party sales folk impersonating mobile operator account management staff in order to make a sale is simply inexcusable.

Well, reader Dmitri decided to take up the offer. I think it’s pretty accurate to say that his expectations were set to rock bottom when he phoned up initially as the Orange person didn’t seem to know much about the service. However all was not lost:

Today (a day-and-a-bit-later) I get a call from a knowledgeable person who asked me what prefix I want. Five minutes later she calls back and confirms the line is working – I am pleased with the number they picked for me. I promptly received an SMS and an e-mail with the summary of everything and later on I’m going to set up the service and see how it really works!

This is good news.

One point that Dmitri makes is that, unfortunately, he can’t call out from that number:

I just discovered a slight disadvantage to this feature. If, say, I want to call somebody, they’ll be seeing my mobile caller ID and not the pocket landline caller ID.

Still.. it’s good to see positive feedback about an operator service!

There’s a whole community of stakeholders. Thankfully, someone’s put a steak in the ground and said, let’s fix it. Or, at least, let’s discuss it, let’s look at some ways ahead and see what can be done to make things better for everyone.

This story at Exhibition News outlines what’s going on. If you’re a vendor or operator, I strongly recommend getting in touch with the organisers. If you need an introduction, drop me a note — I’ve been doing a bit of work with the team at Reed Exhibitions.

The meeting of 28 delegates at Reed Exhibitions’ offices in Richmond follows discussions on LinkedIn that led to a meeting at the Event and Exhibiting Show in July and now a working group exploring how to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the show floor.

“This began as a discussion on Reeds Ops LinkedIn Group and seems to have struck a chord with all parties within theindustry,” Reed Exhibitions operations director Piers Kelly said. “Technology will become an increasingly important part of exhibitions and we need to have reliable, available and cost-effective solutions to providing Wi-Fi irrespective of size of event or location.”

Just in case you think it’s a non-issue, consider this rather delicious fact from a related Exhibition News post:

According to Max Wi-Fi, the wireless provider for the recent London Art Frieze Fair, attendees transferred nearly 1TB of data during the four-day event.

(85% of devices connected during the event were iPhones and iPads!)