MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

So, early last week I predicted that...

How Wireless Will Pave the Path to Neobank Profitability

I'm delighted to bring you an opinion...

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

I thought it was worthwhile highlighting this...

Just don’t mention the V word..

Link: Network Operators Trying to Restrict Hyperlinks to their Websites

Here’s an interesting story, courtesy of Cellular News.

The “blogosphere” has been buzzing about a legal statement on the Cingular website which restricts how people are allowed to create a weblink from their website to the Cingular website. As we have bookmarked the press pages of practically every cellular operator who have an English press service – we sat down and took a random selection to see what their websites said about people linking to them.

Interesting. This sort of thing has potential to directly affect blogs such as this one, as we’re forever linking off-site as part of the postings. A quick glance through the article reveals that there are no issues with linking to any of the UK operator sites, apart from Vodafone – who say:

1.6 You may establish a link or “deep link” to the Site from your site, provided that you have obtained Vodafone’s prior written consent and that in Vodafone’s sole discretion, the context is relevant and the link or its description is not detrimental to Vodafone.

So from now on, we’ll be referring to them as V**f***, and putting little a asterisk next to their name pointing to the small print at the bottom of the page, which’ll say:

We can’t link to this, but guess the operator. The first four letters rhyme with Yoda, the next four is a misspelling of ‘phone’. Work out the correct website, then enter the following URL after the first slash.

It’s either that, or we’re going to only say nice things about Vodafone – which, to be honest, we can’t guarantee. In our quest to be fair, balanced, and on the odd occasion rather scathing, it can’t always be good. Otherwise this site would turn into the equivalent of a Communist country’s state TV channel.

However.. if anyone from Vodafone wants to get in touch and give us permission to carry on how we were, merrily plugging their new products and services and directing traffic (and potential new customers) to their site, please get in touch. The address is [edited due to our new terms and conditions not allowing us to link to our own site]

1 COMMENT

  1. when are the powers that be going to realise that they don’t have the power any more and that they are now unable to ‘control’ the message that goes out? Are they going to stop us talking about them in the pub to our mates in case we say something negative? Or what about if we mention them in a podcast.. what then? I understand copyright law and that’s fair enough but this just seems barmy to me. Grrr.

    out of interest, does creating a tinyURL constitute linkage or would it be tinyURL that gets into trouble?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recently Published

MWC: What device highlights did you miss?

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

How Wireless Will Pave the Path to Neobank Profitability

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

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

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

Mobile World Congress: Did the mainstream media notice?

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

NordVPN: Thanks again, Revolut

When I upgraded to Revolut's Ultra offering, I did so with a strong focus on the Financial Times digital subscription which normally retails at...

Revolut’s Roaming eSIM: 1 week later

This week I have been using Revolut's new eSIM capability whilst I was in Sweden for Stockholm FinTech Week. I'm an Ultra subscriber so...