British privacy advocates have reacted with horror to the idea of EE and market research firm Ipsos Mori selling anonymized customer data. On balance, they shouldn’t worry so much. Read more »
We’d have to go all the way back to 2010 to find the last rumored merger between Verizon and Vodafone, but the latest crop of rumors are taking speculation to a new extreme. Read more »
Mere weeks after Verizon strongly denied reports that it was planning to take over Vodafone, the U.S. carrier is now rumored to be planning a buyout of Voda’s share in Verizon Wireless. Read more »
The UK’s second-largest mobile carrier, O2, has become the latest to sign a deal with Virgin Media in order to give its customers free internet access on the London Underground. Read more »
Verizon has unsurprisingly scotched Tuesday’s rumor of a record-breaking takeover – in concert with rival carrier AT&T, no less – of Vodafone. Voda’s shares have dropped a couple percent in response. Read more »
The shift away from subsidies is happening in earnest, as the growing popularity of expensive smartphones makes it less viable for carriers to mask the real cost of the handset. Read more »
Germany’s largest mobile operators, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, both support Joyn now. However, the service’s success depends on all carriers signing up, as has happened in Spain and South Korea. Read more »
Startup Fenix has scored a killer deal with Vodafone in Tanzania, and the telco giant will sell and market its off-grid battery to local entrepreneurs. Read more »
EE, Vodafone, Three, O2 and BT have all won spectrum in the auction, which the regulator Ofcom says will lead to full 4G coverage by the end of 2017. Read more »
Vodafone UK and 3 Austria have told subscribers that they should avoid updating their iPhone 4S to the latest version of iOS, while Apple works on a fix for reported 3G connectivity problems. Read more »
EE has been able to roll out 4G earlier than its rivals because it’s been allowed to reuse its 2G and 3G spectrum for LTE. Now its rivals look set to get the same opportunity. Read more »
Vodafone has fessed up to responsibility for the outage, which affected an unspecified number of BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa on Friday. Read more »
The Nearly New program offers barely-used smartphones at cut-rate prices. It’s available to contract users, but pre-pay customers are the main focus – post-Nexus 4, is this the new battleground? Read more »
Vodafone Ventures is leading an $8.3 million investment in Jibe Mobile, which is working on a platform to help developers integrate Joyn. Joyn, which is backed by GSMA, enables rich communications such as IM, voice and video calling and file transfers. Read more »
The mobile-messaging value chain is changing as OTT players upend mobile operators’ SMS business. There will be 27.7 trillion messages by 2016, and most of the growth in traffic will come from IP-based services. Successful carriers will use this new technology to extend reliability and scalability. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The three biggest mobile operators in Spain have all launched Joyn, the consumer-facing brand name for Rich Communications Services. But, with entrenched over-the-top rivals such as WhatsApp, is this long-gestating platform too late? Read more »
You know what’s cool? $1.1bn. Especially when, like the Irish government, you were only expecting a fifth of that. And, with carriers finally free to roll out 4G, that won’t be the only boost to the Irish economy. Read more »
Consumers are gravitating to an ever expanding array of OTT services – much to the chagrin of telecom operators. Andreas Bernström, CEO of Rebtel, argues that not partnering up means missing out on big revenues and the control of their market. Read more »
Smartphones can enable an amazing level of connectivity, but they can also allow that activity to be monitored and used in controversial ways. But for mobile marketing to realize its full potential, consumers may need to sacrifice their privacy to one degree or another. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
You might not be James Bond, but you could be mistaken for him if you carry Vodafone’s Booster Brolly: With a dozen solar panels, the umbrella can charge a phone while also boosting cellular reception and later lighting your path with the touch of a button. Read more »
Vodafone and O2 are joining forces in Britain to share their grid and try to roll out 4G services faster than planned. It’s being painted as a great deal for consumers — but it’s actually being driven by the actions of their rivals. Read more »
Any remaining doubts of high demand for Samsung’s Galaxy S III can be laid to rest: Vodafone says that pre-orders for the coming soon phone have set records, making the Galaxy S III the operator’s most pre-ordered Android device yet. Carphone Warehouse is seeing the same. Read more »
Five key technology sectors are enabling the smart city: smart grids, smart transport, smart water and waste management, smart building systems, and the enabling ICT platforms for the smart city. Key players like IT companies, telcos and utilities must learn how to harness those technologies, and quickly. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
European politicians have just voted up proposals to slash roaming charges for mobile users who stray across the continent’s borders. But it’s drawn a violent response from Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao who thinks it could create “hell” for operators. Read more »
While some operators in some countries (like the U.S. and Japan) have already celebrated birthdays for their LTE services, 4G in the UK hasn… Read more at paidContent »
That didn’t take long. A day after Verizon confirmed it was going to charge $2 for single credit and debit card payments online and over the phone, it backed down following a chorus of complaints and questions from the FCC. Read more »
In the wake of its failed acquisition of T-Mobile USA, analysts are speculating where AT&T can find enough spectrum to keep pace with Verizon Wireless. But instead AT&T should be scrambling to ensure that it makes the most of the spectrum it does ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Verizon Wireless has agreed to purchase some of Cox Communications’ wireless spectrum for $315 million. With this deal, and an earlier spectrum deal, Verizon looks like it will focus on its wireless biz and use its wireline fiber business to support enterprises and cell towers. Read more »
Several days into the Carrier IQ story — which raised privacy concerns around software that claims to be an innocent diagnostics tool — an… Read more at paidContent »
We have seen this one brewing for some time already, and now it appears to be bubbling over: the Hutchison-owned UK mobile operator Three is… Read more at paidContent »
Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) has put its digital eggs into one basket — centralizing all its global digital operations into one new unit — and w… Read more at paidContent »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Orange have long been rivals in mobile phone markets in Europe, but as growth slows down in the region, the two are… Read more at paidContent »
There are more than 5 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and new growth is coming from Asia and Latin America, according to data out on Thursday from Wireless Intelligence, which ranked the top 20 mobile operators by subscribers. U.S. carriers are way down the list. Read more »
Only one day left to iPhone news nirvana, and a lot of leaks are coming through about who will get to sell the device — and what, exactly,… Read more at paidContent »
Some more consolidation in the digital marketing space, with one of the UK’s bigger mobile specialists, Mobile Interactive Group, showing th… Read more at paidContent »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) stock reached an all-time high yesterday, closing at $411… Read more at paidContent »
London-based network operator Vodafone announced Monday the three winners of its Mobile Clicks 2011 contest. The top three mobile startup app makers shared both a total of &Euro;225,000, but the apps couldn’t be more different, highlighting the breadth of opportunity in today’s growing app economy. Read more »
Very big news today for the mobile advertising world, and a major boost for the mobile ad network InMobi: the company has just announced tha… Read more at paidContent »
