Mobiles2day - Mobile Industry News

Tech Digest reports that long awaited Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 smartphone will be available in UK from 3 in November this year.

3UK’s website does not state anything about this handset, Tech Digest reports that handset will be available with 30£ per month contract.

I hope other carriers will sell this handset too, so that we can have a choice and competition, unlike iPhone, which is only available on O2.

Let’s wait and see what will happen!

Today T-Mobile is launching multi-million marketing campaign to promote their £30 tariffs Solo and Combi. T-Mobile is confident that they provide best value for £30 than any other network in UK. New TV ad will start today and will appear before tonight’s Euro 2008 semi-final. Apart from that there will be billboard signs and ads in newspapers.

Not only T-Mobile promises best deal, it also assures you that in the future if you find more minutes for £30, T-Mobile will either match it, or beat it!

This is a bold move from T-Mobile, this could start a fierce competition between network providers. Flext made a big impact few years ago and this could be another event which will keep UK mobile operators on their feet.

T-Mobile today announced that from July 1st it will cut roaming data charges. Reduction is substantial, from current £7.50 per 1MB, price will drop to £1.50, which is 80% reduction! This is good news for business travellers, who are required to travel extensively within EU and need constant access to email.

CEO of T-Mobile Jim Hyde said:

“This substantial cut in European roaming charges signals our commitment to make mobile use overseas much more affordable and flexible. We have seen a growing demand to access the internet and make calls while traveling outside the UK. We are staying true to our reputation for providing exceptional value by introducing transparent and flexible tariffs for roaming that go a long way to leveling the cost of using your mobile at home and abroad.”

“We’ve been working hard to drive efficiencies in our business in order to pass these savings on to our customers in a number of ways. These latest measures will allows our customers the confidence to use the internet and make calls as they would at home. This is no longer the domain of the prolific business user. Occasional users who have relied on local phone services to call family and friends back home now have the freedom to use their mobiles without fear of the financial consequences. With one in four new contract customers signing on for Mobile Broadband and our user numbers expected to quadruple in 2008, we have taken timely action to remove the single biggest constraint for the growing number of people who rely on mobile internet access while travelling in Europe for business or pleasure.”

Also price for sending text messages will be reduced from 40p a message to 25p. This change will take effect from 30th August. T-Mobile is planning to introduce special roaming bundles from 1st August, called Euro Holiday Boosters.

The Euro Holiday Boosters will include the following bundles:
• £5 - Gives £7.50 of allowance that can be used on minutes or texts or any combination of the two
• £10 - Gives £15.00 of allowance that can be used on minutes or texts or any combination of the two
• £20 - Gives £30.00 of allowance that can be used on minutes or texts or any combination of the two
• £30 - Gives £45.00 of allowance that can be used on minutes or texts or any combination of the two

Good initiative by T-Mobile, which follows recent unpopular increase in charges for calls to 08xx numbers. You can about that here.

Looks like this summer we will see many interesting phones being launched.

O2

Everyone already knows that O2 is launching 3G iPhone in July. This time punters will be able to get it for free on selected tariffs. See my post here for details.

Also O2 is launching Sony Ericsson C902, new 5Mpx camera phone. It is listed as coming soon on O2 website.

Vodafone

Vodafone is first to advertise HTC Diamond on their site, which I have blogged about here. Also Vodafone is bringing Blackberry Bold in July, this phone packs nice features, including HSDPA connectivity, GPS, Wi Fi and 5 hours talk time.

Vodafone will give Bluetooth handsfree car kit for free with this device.

Apart from this, Vodafone has Sony Ericsson W980 Walkman phone and Samsung Steel coming soon.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile website used to have coming soon section on their website, but for some reason they have removed it. I guess this is due to the fact that phones that appeared in that section never launched in time they were promised. See my blog entry about that here.

Contact from within T-Mobile has tipped us that they have T-Mobile Ameo 16GB (HTC Athena) and T-Mobile MDA Compact 4 listed as coming soon. Also T-Mobile is expecting to launch following phones in Q3:

Nokia N96	Nokia 6220	Nokia 6600	Samsung i900
MDA Compact IV	Blackberry Bold	T-Mobile Ameo 16GB

It is interesting which provider will have Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 first?

If you are calling 08xx numbers from your T-Mobile handset, then you probably received text message from T-Mobile about new charges to call these numbers.

I personally call these numbers for international calls (Telediscount, Telestunt etc), so looking at new pricing structure, I guess I will have to use landline instead.

Here are new charges from T-Mobile website:

On some tariffs, price increase is pretty drastic, from 10p to 40p! So please be careful now when dialling 08xx numbers! Calling various customer services numbers may now cost you an arm or leg, especially when they put you on hold.