They’ve created an international calling card application that you can download for your app. It’s a really nice idea — and something that I think most o2 customers who call abroad now-and-again should have on their phone.

If you’re a regular caller abroad then obviously, you should buy a special price plan or add-on to help mitigate the costs. However I think most users won’t call abroad enough to warrant an extra £5 or £10 a month on top of their standard price plan.

And when you want to phone the States, that’s when things get tricky as you’re likely going to have to pay lots of cash for the privilege.

Going to the local store to pick up a calling card is an option. But it’s a hassle.

An infinitely better experience is to download the all new o2 International Calling Card app. It’s a genius concept and a beautiful implementation.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1 – Download the app for free
Step 2 – Buy your calling card through the app, using your iTunes account
Step 3 – “scratch” off the panel to reveal your pin
Step 4 – click on make a call and either dial the number or select from your contact list.

That’s right, you scratch off the panel to reveal your PIN! Heh! A very cool addition, that.

I am particularly impressed that you can bill the cost of the card to your iTunes account. Seamless.

I’m going to give this one a go.

The app is free from iTunes and available now.

Let’s have some screenshots then…

The app frontpage:

Buying calling credit with your iTunes account:

Unwrapping and scratch off your PIN! Note — I particularly like the way you can send the card by email/text. Very useful.

To make a call from the app with your credit, just dial the international number and press call…

And once you press ‘call’, the app sticks on the access number for you and places the call.

Nice work o2!

The series has been terrifically well received — thank you once more to all the executives from around the industry who’ve complemented us. And hello to the chaps from o2 Innovation who, almost every week, point out that they’re working on something very similar. I do hope this is the case — o2 is historically well regarded for innovation. Do you remember Genie Mobile? Utterly fantastic. In recent years, the company’s BlueVia development team has been leading the charge for developer access to operator APIs. So I’m expecting good things from the o2 Innovation team.

Before we get started, I need to deliver a tip-of-the-hat to the team at Orange who pulled the Film To Go service out of the bag this week. Very good indeed. (Find out why I think it’s rather smart.)

Right, let’s get started.

- – - – -

Last week I wrote about wanting one number for all my calls both incoming and outgoing. Right now I have five smartphones on my desk, all ‘live’ and active. Managing their various identities is quite a challenge.

When it comes to SMS, though, it’s even more of a minefield.

I can redirect my calls to one voicemail system, or one follow-me number. There are plenty of shit-but-good possibilities with voice.

But SMS?

It’s a total fracking nightmare.

SMS is still the king — and I do mean king. Even in today’s app economy, SMS still has a priority. It’s still the medium that we all fall-back to, isn’t it? You can arse around with Facebook Chat, Google+ Huddles and even email, but when it comes to needing to get a message to someone, beyond making a voice call, you have to use SMS.

This is because SMS breaks through.

It interrupts.

It’s real-time.

We all have confidence in it’s delivery (despite the fact the operators still cannot assure delivery to anywhere near a decent service level).

It’s built directly into the operating system of every single device.

It works the same on every phone. There is ALWAYS an inbox. There is always some kind of alerting function built in.

It’s international. There is universal compatibility whether you’re in Timbuktu, the Maldives or London.

As Apple are fond of saying, it just works.

And the 160 character limit is not a problem. Again, most devices support multiple-message length transmissions.

(BBM, because of it’s lack of cross platform support, simply doesn’t cut it unless you KNOW the other person has a BlackBerry).

So what’s the problem?

Well, first of all, if you have two or more devices, managing your SMS messages is a flipping-fracking-flucking nightmare. It’s simply impossible. I have come across one or two ‘forwarding’ apps that you can install — they’ll then forward any messages received to you. But this completely screws the return path functionality. You can GET the message, but you can’t easily reply to it. And even if I have forwarded all SMS from my BlackBerry to my iPhone, when I reply, I’m going to get tons of ‘Who is this?’ messages in return, because of the different phone number.

Rubbish.

It’s not just about the users with multiple devices though.

Even if you just have one phone, the ability to be able to archive, review, reply and create text messages from your desktop, iPad, iPod Touch, laptop or browser, would be really, really smart. Sometimes I just don’t want to write stuff on my actual phone.

Archive my SMS in Google?
Why can’t you copy every SMS that I receive into Google and attach an ‘SMS’ tag to it? This is precisely what Hullomail does. They send you a copy of every voicemail you’ve ever received. Your voicemail is actually stored IN your Gmail. It’s fantastically useful. It certainly doesn’t have to be Google, but I’d go so far as to suggest that if you’re a multi-geography operator, it’s highly likely that Google would do the development for you as long as you assign them one bod to help with the integration. Likewise I suspect Yahoo would be delighted to offer true SMS integration into their email client as a bonus.

07769658104@vodafone.net
And whatever happened to the ability to send a text via an email? I know some operators still offer this. But why was this facility switched off for so many? I loved this. It was a quick way of getting 160 characters to someone’s phone via the medium of email. Some bright spark decided that it might cannibalise revenues, eh? Idiots. Utter idiots. Don’t worry. They’ve probably either left the company or been promoted to CEO. So it’s worth a look again. I do know that lots of operators have moved to offering the facility via MMS. But.. eww, it’s just so badly implemented.

Real-time device SMS Synchronisation, anyone?
Indeed, if you’ve got a moment and a few million quid of development money, I’d like my SMS messages to be synched across all my devices. Why isn’t this possible? Why hasn’t it been done? Come on!

SMS from the desktop
I want to be able to SMS from my desktop. One bright spark has actually made this work for you if you’re an o2 customer. You can text from your phone’s number using Text Deck Pro on the Mac. But you can’t receive. There’s no inbox. I want to be able to browse all my SMS messages. I want to see what I’ve sent and received since the start of my relationship with the operator. Don’t even consider telling me that this is ‘logistically difficult’, Mr Operator. Just stick them all in Google if your 1TB SATA hard disk solution isn’t good enough.

SMS: The ticket to relevance for operators
Just like the phone number I depend on for my voice calls, SMS is also your ticket to continued relevance. Lose this at your peril.

And you know what, that’s precisely what every single over-the-top player is trying to do. They’re all iterating fast to try and remove our reliance upon SMS. You just need to look at what Apple’s doing with iMessage and Google’s G+ Huddles. Once you make the username (Facebook, iCloud/Apple, Gmail) the unique identifier — properly — the operator is literally moved to a place of irrelevance. Just the bandwidth, thank you very much.

I’d very much like to see operators working on methods to solidify the position of SMS by extending the technology all over the place. First of all, I need to be able to see the back archive. Second, I need to be able to access and write messages from some browser/app. Wouldn’t it be neat to see the Vodafone logo on my Apple desktop? Third, you need to let me do smart things like sync and archive into Google. And I expect to be billed for the privilege. Maybe it’s a quid a month. Maybe it’s a ‘come on’ to get me to swap to a higher range of price plans. Can you imagine going out to market and asking people if they’d like to archive all their SMS messages for £0.50 a month? Folk would love it.

The SMS Mobile Application
I’d LOVE to be able to download the Vodafone SMS application on to my Three iPhone. I’d just have to verify my account and boom, I would be able to get ALL the SMS I normally receive on my BlackBerry via my iPhone too. And I’d be able to write messages from the iPhone via the app that get sent out using my primary Vodafone number, not my iPhone number. This would rock. Voda could send me a push notification of SMS to my iPhone. The integration on an Android phone would be even better.

Ah dear.

Back to reality, eh? The fact that I’m actually getting excited over something so mundane, so easy, so SIMPLE to implement, geez it’s depressing.

Thus ends the fifth Operator Innovation post.

[Note: o2's Bluebook is due a mention. Just a brief mention. You sort-of got this working, folks. Sort-of. But to my utter annoyance, you really didn't go anywhere near as far enough. Come on. What about a proper refresh, eh?]

- – - – -

Check out the other posts in the Operator Innovation series:

- 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!

I’m not bothering with names at the moment though. I wanted to get stuck in.

This series focuses on changes and enhancements I’d like to see mobile operators make. Today I’m writing about card transactions when I’m abroad.

Here’s the problem overview: I’m sure you’re familiar with it.

A few weeks ago I got off the plane in Austin, Texas, and hopped in a cab to the downtown Radisson Hotel. I arrived at reception about 20 minutes later and presented both my passport and my Natwest credit card. Having been out of the country for about half the year on business, I’m an old hand at this. I don’t even wait to be asked. I get the card and the passport ready just before I approach the desk. In many hotels now, the receptionist will simply swipe the card without bothering to ask now. It’s how things work.

But, there’s a fundamental problem for me — and, I’m sure, you — when I’m traveling.

Despite the fact that my credit record clearly shows me going all over America, France, Germany on a routine basis, 9 out of 10 times, my credit card ‘swipe’ fails.

I’ve already checked the balance on the Natwest app in the taxi to check there are no surprises. But when that ‘swipe’ fails (on a valid card with plenty of credit), a little mobile operator fairy dies.

That’s because the mobile operator knows where I am. It knows that I’m in America. It knows I’m Austin. In fact, it can probably infer with a bit of LBS jiggery-pokery, that I am *at* the Radisson hotel.

That information is sitting in the big dark ‘orrible mobile operator cloud. Locked away.

Marry this with the clueless bank fraud detection system and, goodness me, it’s a flipping depressing experience, it really is.

All I want to do is check-in. All the receptionist wants to do is for my card to swipe properly. The bank’s fraud systems — or perhaps, Visa’s systems — I don’t know and I REALLY DON’T CARE — trip up over this unexpected behaviour. This is perfectly fine. I understand the need for these kinds of systems.

What is COMPLETELY INEXCUSABLE is the total lack of innovation in this business segment.

Natwest will tell you that you ‘need to advise them’ when you go abroad. Bollocks. Utter flipping rubbish. I am not — repeat NOT — going to phone the bank and tell them where I’m going. I’ve done it. I’ve tried this. It’s a flipping con, it really is. The nice lady on the phone sounds incredibly professional whilst she lists down the dates and locations as I read them off my itinerary.

I know — and she probably knows — that this information is all but pointless. It doesn’t get integrated into the automatic fraud system. I’ve tried it. I’ve tried phoning up and giving the information like a flipping idiot. How stupidly inefficient is this? I’ve given them the dates. I’ve given them the locations. And the card is still ‘marked’ or declined or — well, I really don’t care except for the fact I can’t get my hotel room key.

One time, when I’d actually called to say I was going abroad, my card was declined. I phoned up — luckily there’s 24/7 access for my account — and the chap said, “Oh yes, I see from your record that you’re traveling to the United States Mr MacLeod?”

“Yes, I’m in San Francisco,” I said.

“Right, yes,” he replies, “I see that here in the notes.”

I take a breath.

“Ok, so why is my card blocked?”

“Ah well it’s just a routine blah-de-blah-de-blah.”

And then I get transferred and go through the flipping rigmarole of confirming transactions. All at a gorgeous £1.25 per minute international call.

£20 later the card is ready to be used.

Back at the Radisson, I gave them another card — the HSBC Business Card. That was declined too, despite the ton of credit available. Finally one of my other cards — you know the one in the bottom of the wallet that you forget about? — that one worked. Despite the fact I hardly EVER use it. So much for ‘fraud detection’.

I know all institutions are different. But the experience is broadly the same, isn’t it?

I got so annoyed and so frustrated with this stupid, stupid arrangement that I got one of those ‘cash cards’ from Lloyds Bank. You charge it up with up to $3,000 and boom — it’s there to spend. It works everywhere. It’s like a pay-as-you-go credit card. I was delighted with this. I used it all the time because it never got declined.

Until one day when they ‘detected unusual activity’. I spent about £50 on the phone walking up and down University Avenue in Palo Alto trying to get them to unlock the card. They eventually managed it. I promptly withdrew the whole balance as cash and never used it again. Arses.

Now.

Let’s get to the point of this post. The mobile operator is to blame here.

Show me a virtually full-proof manner of determining whether I am present during a transaction? Yeah. Location-based services from your mobile operator.

Why haven’t the mobile operators jumped into the breach? Why can’t I authorise Vodafone to provide my bank(s) with real-time location lookups for in-person transactions?

Why isn’t this a service that Vodafone offer? Why haven’t some sharp Vodafone chaps put on some sharp suits and popped down to the Square Mile to have a sensible conversation with some High Street banks?

Why haven’t High Street banks done the opposite?

You know, there’s a revenue model here. I could imagine a Bank agreeing to pay a fee-per-lookup. Or a fixed fee per month to be able to query customer locations as part of their fraud systems — all subject, of course, to the proper data protection opt-in stuff.

If your bank told you that you could be virtually assured of having ALL your foreign transactions be processed instantly — and that all you have to do is ‘click here’ to agree that Vodafone can provide this information — we’d all be doing it.

There is NOTHING WORSE than standing in a queue at Starbucks in San Francisco (and those queues do get veerrrrry long) and having your flipping card decline for some mundane fraud reason.

I could imagine Vodafone charging an extra £1 per month to me for the privilege. Some kind of financial-location-assurance charge. I’d stump up for that.

Indeed I’d be happy for Vodafone to act as my trusted location broker, offering the data to services on-demand and anonymised as necessary for banks, insurance and other such purposes.

But no.

The operators are NOT doing this, are they?

Of course not. They’re too staring into the abyss of irrelevance.

Because, dear reader, here’s a rather annoying problem for Vodafone [For 'Vodafone', by the way, read, 'your operator' -- they're all as bad as each other in this context]. The problem is called OTT.

Over-the-top. It’s the phrase being bandied around often now. It means, effectively, cutting out the lumbering irrelevance that is the mobile operator.

The operator COULD do this.

But they haven’t.

I need the service.

Natwest needs the facility too. They need to limit and assure their fraud processes. It’s in their interests to keep everyone happy and the fraudsters out.

This OTT issue is painful. Really painful.

You see Natwest already has a mobile application. It’s provided by Monetise and they’ve recently upgraded it to make it look and function half decently. (The first version was an abomination, it really was). This application runs on my phone. Monetise has physically verified my identity prior to letting me use the app. I wasn’t able to run the app until I received a special PIN code through the sodding post. Fair enough but incredibly annoying.

Still. The app is as secure as a consumer banking app needs to be. It even has a PIN number that is requested every time the app runs.

I use it a few times daily when I’m abroad.

And now let’s get to the science bit.

The app is location aware. Well, it can be. Oh, I don’t think Monetise has done anything about it yet — but the fact the app is running on an iPhone means that my precise location is available to the app with just a function call.

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch of imagination for Monetise to walk into their next meeting with Natwest and ask for £20m to deliver an enhanced upgrade to the consumer banking app that integrates directly with the Natwest fraud protection engine, would it?

Provided I’ve run the application and verified my physical location — and, of course, provided I’ve got sufficient avialable credit — the Natwest Fraud system should approve any transactions that take place AT my location within 30 minutes.

That works.

That’s communicable to customers.

Run the app when you get to the hotel. Just by running it, you verify your location. That will help ‘us’ (the bank) automatically approve any transactions you make from that location/venue.

You could even physically check-in to the location. When I was waiting for a receptionist to become available, I fired up Facebook and ‘checked-in’ to the Radisson.

My concern is that I could easily see Monetise or the banks building this into their application strategy. This would render the mobile operator useless. Just another example where this is happening.

Critics will, I’m sure, point out that Vodafone doesn’t know where I am when I’m roaming on AT&T or T-Mobile in the States. This is true. But Vodafone can easily request it. The guys int he roaming team will have a fit because it upsets the applecart, but it’s totally and easily doable.

Now then: There’s a lot of holes in this example — but, broadly speaking, it’s possible. It’s doable. It’s adding value, it’s helping everyone have a better day.

Will the operator do anything about this? No. I doubt it.

Will banks do so? I reckon some of the more enterprising ones might do so.

I’d switch operator for this function.

I’d switch banks for this function.

ANYTHING that stops the ‘sorry sir, that card doesn’t work’ experience. Anything.

What do you reckon?

Update: Sam Machin of The Lab at o2 comments: “Watch this space”. Interesting.

Here is the video:

The broad thrust of Matt’s presentation was to point out that content piracy can actually be a positive force for connected content. The smart thing to do, Matt maintains, is to copy pirates:

If you can’t control it, and people keep doing it and want to share this content… really that’s a market signal that there’s something going on outside your market

I managed to get a few minutes with Matt on camera after his presentation:

You can find more information on Matt and his book at The Pirate’s Dilemma.

How foolish I’ve been. Five months ago I wrote that tablets had come of age, and even sifted my way through the line-up cherry picking what must-have features would make for the perfect device. A month later, in the afterglow – or should that be aftermath? – of the iPad announcement, I marvelled that, while Apple’s slate wouldn’t necessarily satisfy every user, there was nonetheless plenty of choice on the horizon for those given a taste for tableteering. Our analyst contributors wisely told me not to count my touchscreen chickens before they’d hatched onto the market, but I wouldn’t listen. I thought the iPad’s arrival would rejuvenate the tablet segment, but all it seems to have done is killed off any attempt at innovation.

Carry on and read the rest of his post (then have a look at the iFans going nuts at his daring to criticise the JesusPad!)

What has to annoy me the most with mobiles, especially here in the UK, is the locking, and branding of mobiles on certain operators.

I absolutely loathe this.

Yes, mobiles are subsidised by the networks we buy them from, and hooray for that, but loading horrible, cheap, and ugly firmware onto a device I have just paid for is at the very least; highly annoying. And then plastering your network brand all over my shiny new device? No thank you!

I will use the example of my Sony W810i, it has Orange branding all over it (which I hate), and when I used to turn it on, and use the menu, It was all Orange branded. No I don’t use Orange, and I don’t want them infiltrating my phone. So I decided to get it debranded; now apart from the fact that none of the high street retailers knew of such a term, was irritating.

I ended up doing the procedure myself; which for about two hours nearly bricked my phone. I was panic stricken, and worried.

The point is one shouldn’t have to half scare themselves to death in order to use a mobile they paid for, in the way they like. And even if you don’t break your mobile yourself as my friend found out, Nokia’s which (can) come hard locked can cost around £25 to unlock.

My answer to this problem is now to ask the staff at mobile shops “What phones do you sell on PayG unlocked?” and from there, only the devices which are unlocked, unbranded and free for me to do whatever I wish, I will take into consideration. It’s a terrible truth, but I will not pay in excess of £200 or £300 for a network free phone, but nor will I pay £100/£110 for a mobile that is complete with horrible firmware.

So to you, another mobile consumer, if anything, if you had one thing to change, what would it be? Would it be something to do with the handsets, sales, operators, applications, or anything!

The Near Field Communications (NFC) which O2 had been trialling with Nokia has had some optimistic results. Apparently nine out of ten (90%) of the five hundred trialists said they were happy using the technology.

The Oyster Card is a hassle, and personally I hate the thing. Along with having to remember it, place it somewhere safe, but accessible is highly inconvenient.
Ewan said back in January “Integrating it into a mobile handset makes sense to me” and I have to say, I agree.

The results of this trial don’t come as much of a surprise really, when similar uses of technology have been implemented in Japan for example. I hope that this won’t be the end of the line for NFC technology; it’s taken long enough to get here, and from the results of this small, but useful trial scream that there is a strong desire, and liking towards it.

Eighty-nine percent of the trialists said they were interested in having their Oyster Card integrated into their mobile phone.

I want to know, do we ever expect a release date for this technology to be rolled out completely within London’s transport systems?

I’ve been sitting here looking at mine, a Sony W810i, and it just looks so boring, and big, compared to everything else.  The thing is, I haven’t even had it that long, and I normally don’t just go off my mobile phones this quickly. Now however, I feel a sort of resent towards it.

However, I’m stuck with a horrible choice…
What mobile do I buy?

I’m extremely picky, and horribly indecisive, which makes buying anything almost near impossible. I also have a list of requirements, a FM radio, at least a 2 megapizel camera, a torch, and a good set of buttons. Ideally, I would love a QWERTY keyboard, or something along the lines of a Sidekick, but that isn’t going to happen.

I have a budget which I’m limiting up to £110 (there is absolutely no point in spending loads of money, to only be made quickly outdated by new technology). Also, I want something I can personalise. So that means either by a proper means, or in Sony ways – use some software, and reconfigure it a little.

Comment any ideas you have, because I’ve looked around on some websites, and nothing seems to be remotely inspiring. All the mobiles seem to be copying each other; they all look too “samey” if you get my drift? I’m not expecting massive innovation here, just something has a personality.

Or if you wish, feel free to drop me an e-mail at samantha@smstextnews.com – all ideas are welcome!

With that, here is his first article for us, Where is the innovation?

—

The first mobile phone I ever had (over 10 years ago now) was the Nokia 2110 – the original brick. I would probably recoil in horror if I was asked to use it now, but at the time it was fantastic. I seem to recall that I even carried it in my jeans pocket, however unlikely that seems.

Over the last ten years, I’ve had a lot of different phones, and it used to be interesting and exciting to get a new phone. I have declared on many occasions that my latest phone is the best one ever: the Ericsson R380 and 520 had useful PIM applications and offered the promise of a single device; the Nokia 6210 synchronised reliably with the PC and allowed you to enter multiple numbers per contact (a big deal at the time), the Nokia 6310 added Bluetooth – which was a huge wow factor for me; the Sony T68i redefined the jeans pocket test; the T610 and later the T630 beefed up the speed and had a nicer keyboard.

My first windows mobile phone was the Orange SPV C500, and for the first time I could have all my contacts in my phone. I still think the windows interface to the address book, where it matches T9 style from the home screen, is one of the most useful things ever to happen on a mobile phone.

Around the same time, there was innovation in style from Motorola with the V3, and from Samsung with the D500. When someone in the office got one of these phones, it was an event.

Fast forward to today. Walk into a mobile phone shop and ask them what’s exciting. If it’s an O2 store, they’ll probably say an iPhone. If not, there’s an N95 in your future (at least if the Vodafone, Orange and CPW I wandered into at lunchtime are representative – I think CPW had sold out of iPhones). Yawn.

It’s not that I dislike the N95. True, it fails the pocket test, but what I struggle with is differentiating it from any other S60 phone. Even something like the 7610, which must be four years old now. I know, I know – built in GPS, better screen, camera, more memory, blah blah. That’s not innovation, that’s a list of incremental improvements.

Hold on, you may cry – what about Shozu, Jaiku, Google Maps, and the other great stuff I can do on my N95? The thing is – they are all third party apps, not part of the phone.

It’s not just Nokia. I’m struggling to see any excitement from any phone manufacturer at the moment. It’s all just tweaks and twiddles – a megapixel here, a xenon flash there, an extra half inch on the screen, which may even be a touch screen.

Maybe I’m mobile weary, maybe it’s a sign that the industry is maturing, maybe it’s a sign that a million exciting new phones will be hitting the shops in time for Christmas. In the meantime I’ll carry on quite happily, if a little boringly, with my trusty S60 – an E65 which does pass the pocket test – and wait for the next best phone ever.

I just fear I might have to wait a while.