Mobiles2day – Mobile Industry News

Expansys UK expects new Nokia E75 to arrive on 13th March. Phone running on Symbian S60 and has slide out keyboard.

Quick glance at features:
• Battery:
- Capacity: 1000 mAh
• Display:
- 320 x 240 pixels
• Network:
- GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
- WCDMA: 900/2100 (Dual-Band)
- HSDPA (3.6Mbps)
• Camera:
- 3.2 mega-pixels (auto-focus)
- Digital Zoom
- LED Flash
• Video:
- Hi-Resolution VGA Video Recording
- 30fps Video Recording (QVGA)
- Supported formats: MP4, 3GP, H.264, Flash, H.263 & Real Player
- Video Streaming

• Music:
- Supported formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA
- FM Stereo Radio
- Nokia Music Store
- Nokia Podcast Support
- Nokia Music Manager Support
- Windows Media Player Sync
• Ringtones:
- Monophonic
- Polyphonic (64)
- MP3
- AAC
- Talking Ringtones
- Video Ringtones
• Messaging:
- SMS
- MMS (with video) – E-mail (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange)
- Instant Messaging (MSN)
- Text-To-Speech Reader
• Memory:
- Phone Book (unlimited)
- Dialled Calls (30)
- Missed Calls (30)
- Received Calls (30)
- microSDHC (external)
• Call Features:
- Hands Free
- Caller ID
- Voice Dialling
- VoIP Support
• Connectivity:
- microUSB
- Nokia 3.5mm AV connector
- Bluetooth (2.0)
- Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
- GPRS Class 32
• Navigation:
- AGPS
- Nokia Maps
• Security:
- Device Lock
- Remote Lock
- Device and memory card encryption
- Mobile VPN support
• Features:
- Dual Home Screens (Work/Personal)
- Office Document Viewer (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)
- PDF Document Viewer
- ZIP File Manager
- Nokia Web Browser
- Dual Keypad Design

Motorola has been testing 4th generation networks in Swindon, demonstrating calls over next generation mobile networks over Long Term Evolution (LTE) connections.The Swindon-based lab demonstrated voice calls and data streaming using the LTE standard, operating at 2.6GHz – a frequency that should come onto the UK market later this year.

LTE is the next generation of GSM, following on from W-CDMA which was commonly known as 3G. This is the technology that will connect the next generation of mobile phones and computers, despite attempts from the WiMAX crowd to get their technology integrated into the GSM process – incumbent network operators are wholeheartedly endorsing LTE around the world. See our previous post about LTE here.

Not only is LTE happy to operate in a wide range of frequencies, but the standard also enables connections to broaden the radio band they are using. This allows potentially breathtaking speeds, assuming no one nearby wants any bandwidth.

The technology has been demonstrated before but the installation in Swindon is more of a test-bed to allow network operators to come along and see how their infrastructure will integrate with the next generation of radio interface, ahead of Motorola launching commercial LTE products in 2.6GHz and 700MHz later this year.

Source: The Register

BT today became the first UK mobile company to make calls to 0800 numbers free for its BT Mobile customers. The landmark decision won immediate support from consumer groups that believe companies should stop charging for calls to freephone 0800 numbers. Consumer Focus and BT today called on the big mobile operators to follow their lead and give customers back the £50m a year they are charged for calling 0800 numbers from mobiles.
Mobile companies such as Orange charge up to 25p a minute for dialling the numbers, which companies set up in an attempt to let customers call them for free. Vodafone charges up to 20p a minute and O2 15p.

Other mobile companies also charge high rates for calling ‘free’ 0800 numbers, with 3 charging 15p a minute and T-Mobile 10p.

However, BT Mobile is scrapping all charges for its Consumer customers who dial 0800 numbers and similar 0500 numbers from May 1, despite the loss of tens of thousands of pounds in revenue.

BT announced in February last year that it was switching all its helpline numbers to 0800, making it free for all of its 14m customers to call them from any landline.

Consumer Focus, which incorporates the former National Consumer Council, is calling for mobile companies to give customers a fair deal by ensuring that calling an 0800 number from a mobile is free – the same as if you call the number from a landline.

Audrey Gallagher, of Consumer Focus said: “Scrapping unfair charges on 0800 calls from mobile phones is good news for BT customers. With so many consumers using mobile phones rather than landlines to contact essential services, find information and seek help, it is more important than ever that they do so for free across all 0800 numbers. Consumer Focus calls on mobile phone operators to follow BT and stop making money out of 0800 calls.”

John Petter, managing director of BT’s Consumer business, said: “We think mobile customers are irritated by having to pay high rates to call ‘free’ 0800 numbers, so we have put our own house in order by making it free for any BT Mobile customer to call these numbers.

“We have all called an 0800 number from our mobiles and experienced the frustration of the message telling us that the call will be charged at standard rates.

“A customer with Orange would pay £7.50 just to make a 30-minute call their insurance company or bank and sort out a few issues. But if they made that call from a landline it would be free, so we can’t see the need to have this huge difference in price.

“We had already made calls into BT free for our 14m landline customers and we are happy to back Consumer Focus and other consumer organisations in their efforts to address this anomaly. We also recently announced that calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers would be included in call packages for BT landline customers, so it is a good time to be calling these organisations from a BT landline or mobile.”

Source: BT Press Release

This is good news, whether other mobile operators will follow or not, that is the question! We hope they do!

 Last weekend T-Mobile launched “Life is for sharing” campaign with this creative ad where hundreds of people are dancing in Liverpool Street station. advertising company, Saatchi & Saatchi filmed an advert for T-Mobile using hidden TV cameras at London’s Liverpool Street station.

If you haven’t seen this ad yet, please see video from youtube below.

Vodafone and Orange are close to signing a deal that will see the two companies share the costs of technology, engineering and maintenance at their network base stations in the UK.

The move, which could be announced shortly, is expected to save Vodafone £1bn a year at a time when revenue in some European countries is being hit by competitive pressure. The agreement is expected to be viewed positively by the City and should be seen as a feather in the cap of new chief executive Vittorio Collao, who took over from Arun Sarin.

Orange and Vodafone already share the costs of running some aspects of their base stations, but the latest agreement goes much further and is expected to include integrating their 3G access networks and possibly a degree of collaboration in managing their international network coverage. Germany’s T-Mobile and Hong Kong-owned 3 recently signed a pact that will enable them to pool their 3G network services in Britain.

In the City, investors are nervous that Vodafone will be hit by the global slowdown, but there is little evidence of consumers cutting back on calls or texting.

Colao is seeking to cut costs at the company to the tune of £1bn by 2010-11 and wants to make Vodafone “simpler” and “faster”, to cope with rising economic, competitive and regulatory pressures. He said: “My ambition is to lead Vodafone in an industry I believe is still attractive, and to fully explore … Vodafone’s strong advantages in brand, scale and assets.”

Vodafone has announced changes to its dividend policy by abandoning the practice of paying out 60 per cent of earnings.

Source: Guardian.co.uk