Wireless

Wireless connections

UK Is Wi-fi Hotspot Hotshot Of Europe
A report from consultancy firm BroadGroup has revealed that the deployment of wireless hotspots in Europe have soared by 67 percent in the six months up to May 2005.
BroadGroup’s research surveyed 122 service providers in 29 countries with the UK triumphing as the hotshot hotspot of Europe, impressively boasting 34 percent of all Wi-Fi hotspots in Europe.
Wi-Fi growth has been spurred on by steadily falling access charges – albeit slowly.
Weekly subscription packages have plummeted at the fastest rate, falling over 62 percent in the first half of this year.
The study discovered that the vast majority of Wi-Fi access is bought on a pay-as-you-go basis rather than via a regular contract, with only a measly 10 percent of all access being through pre-pay deals.
As many a disgruntled transatlantic traveller may tell you, Wi-Fi access in Europe still remains considerably more pricey than the US market, although the report suggests that “price declines are continuing to trend downwards” (I think this means, “prices are going down”).
As the wireless revolution continues, other services designed for mobile workforces are also set to increase.
Industry analysts Berg Insight have predicted that mobile location-based services (LBS) will be worth € 274 million (~US$331 ~ £189) this year, with sales set for super soar-away growth as operators pile on more data-based services.
Some operators are already keen to exploit the burgeoning LBS market, with Vodafone recently introducing their Vodafone Navigator service, turning mobiles into GPS location devices with mapping technology.
A growing demand for fleet management and monitoring dispersed workforces is also expected to boost global LBS take-up.
BroadGroup
18 July, 2005
Vodafone: Women Can Use Mobile Phones Shock
With a survey that could be described as pointless fluff at best and patronising drivel at worst, Vodafone D2 have trotted out the details of their ‘Women and Mobile Phones’ market research survey.
After interviewing 1,044 female mobile phone users aged between 14 and 49, Vodafone produced the astonishing conclusion that women are informed mobile phone users who know what they want.
Gosh! Whatever next? Women like food too?
The April 2005 survey, undertaken by GfK, apparently confirmed that women are confident mobile phone users with a “sound knowledge and overview of mobile communications when buying mobile phones, using handsets and services and in many daily mobile communication applications.”
In other words, they can use mobile phones just like everyone else.
After wading through pages of the depressing minutiae contained in the report, I can reveal that one-third of women trust their own judgment when buying a phone, with the rest asking their husband, boyfriend, or a sales assistant (lesbians don’t seem to exist in this survey).
Vodafone’s survey tells us that women – just like the other half of the human race – are price conscious, with the operator’s tariff being ranked as the most important criteria (71 percent) for purchase, followed by the handset price (66 percent)
The report claimed to be “surprised” that the ‘typical female’ criterion of colour was only accorded a priority ranking of eleven out of a total of sixteen criteria.
Predictably, the most used functions were text messages (92 percent), alarm clock function (72 percent), calendar (56 percent) and ring tones (50 percent).
Neatly half of women use the camera on their phone with 37 percent of respondents citing the provision of Bluetooth for wireless data transfer as important.
In another startlingly obvious conclusion, the survey reveals that games are used most frequently by the 14-19 years age group, and that camera, video and music functions are becoming “increasingly popular.”
Wow. I bet you didn’t know that.
The report seems almost disappointed that the ladies weren’t lining up to register their approval of pretty pink phones with sparkly bits on, with half of all respondents stating that mobile phone accessories are unnecessary ‘fashion gimmicks.’
Plumbing the absolute depths of irrelevant detail, the survey found that more than half of the women said that their favourite place for making mobile calls is a comfortable sofa, with 43 percent sitting on the patio or balcony and 31 percent preferring to make calls in bed. Fascinating stuff!
There’s even a bit at the end where the report tries to link the impact of mobiles on relationships between men and women, but we’d just about lost the will to live by then.
And so the report drones on in a never-ending stream of dreary stats of little consequence to anyone – and with no comparative stats for men’s mobile phone usage, this survey is not only one of the dullest we’ve ever read (and boy, we’ve seen some corkers!), it’s completely meaningless too.
Vodafone survey
15 July, 2005
SMS Usage Rises In The US
Us in UK-land have long been fans of SMS messaging, with button-pushing Brits banging out 3 million text messages every hour, with 2.5 billions text being sent in January 2005 alone.
In the States, it’s a different story, where network inoperability has held back the medium, but new figures show that SMS is finally make an impact in the USA, as messaging soared 59% last year.
The figures emerged in the June 2005 edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s World Cellular Data Metrics, which pointed out that the value of the US mobile data market has increased by around 80 percent.
Total revenues from non-voice services for the four biggest US mobile operators roared up to more than USD 1.2 billion in Q1 2005, compared to a comparatively miserly USD 689 million in the same period of 2004.
Kester Mann, Senior Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media has the answers: “Interoperability is fundamental to the success of messaging and has been the key limiting factor to SMS usage in the States in the past.”
“The near 60% increase in traffic last year would not have been possible if subscribers could have sent SMS only within their own networks”, he added, sagely.
GSM operator T-Mobile was particularly chuffed with its performance as its customers belted out a total of 3.6 billion messages during Q1 2005 – that works out at around 67 texts per subscription per month.
This total is more than double last year’s volume, and SMS traffic looks set to rise as operators like T-Mobile roll out attractively priced “unlimited texting” tariffs.
Just like in Europe, texting in the US has also been boosted by cheesy TV shows offering interaction via SMS.
“Thanks largely to SMS, data now typically contributes 6-10% of mobile operators’ total revenues in the States,” mulled Mr Mann, manfully.
“While this still remains some way below the industry average, it marks a significant increase from the 4% recorded this time last year and less than 2% at the beginning of 2003,” he added.
US text traffic still has a long way to go until it matches Western European levels – where non-voice services form an average of 15-16% of mobile operators’ revenues – and is unlikely to top the 48% of revenue generated by SMS-smitten Filipinos.
And while we’re in the mood to throw around some SMS-related facts, get a load of this UK selection, courtesy of text.it:
On New Year’s Day 2003, the number of text messages sent in one day topped one hundred million for the first time, and on New Year ‘s Day 2004, the daily total reached 111 million messages
On New Year’s Day 2005, the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association was reached, when 133 million messages were sent
UK text message figures for January 2005 topped 2.5 billion, with 2.4 billion sent in December 2004 and 2.2 billion for November 2004
92 million text messages were sent by Britons on Valentine’s Day 2005, compared to the estimated 12 million cards sent.
15 July, 2005
UK MobileATM Banking Service Launches
Cashpoint network The Link and IT bods Morse and have got together to launch a mobile banking service across the UK.
After an extended brainstorming session with much flip chart flapping, the creatives have christened the joint venture MobileATM, and the service will provide services to the 37 banks connected to the Link network.
Customers signed up to the service will initially be able to check their balance, authenticate Internet payments, and transfer funds from their mobile phones.
Plans are afoot to extend the service to facilitate mobile payments direct from mobiles with customers being able to pay for items such as tube tickets and parking meters.
Unlike most existing mobile banking services where customers are automatically sent banking text alerts to their mobiles, the new service will allow customers to request information only when needed.
Andrew Bud, chairman of mobile firm Mblox, said: “This marks an important step in the delivery of financial services via the mobile phone. Monitoring and controlling cash using mobiles is rapidly becoming part of the economy.”
First Direct’s text messaging banking alert service has already proved a hit with their customers with 400,000 of its 1.2 million customers receiving balance statements by SMS.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, the Co-operative Bank, Nationwide and Bank of Ireland are expected to be the first in line to use the service.
Users of the MobileATM service will need to have phones capable of downloading and running a small Java application, so those on older phones will have to upgrade or stick to bits of paper.
MobileATM
13 July, 2005
Skype Zones Offers Wi-Fi VoIP On The Move
Boingo Wireless and Skype have fluttered eyelids at each other, gone for a quiet snog and, ruddy faced, jointly announced Skype Zones, a partnership that offers global Wi-Fi access to Skype customers at (ahem) “revolutionary” prices.
Skype Zones will let Skype’s 45+ million users access the popular VoIP service via Boingo’s network of 18,000 Wi-Fi hot spots worldwide, using a customised Skype version of the Boingo Software.
Currently, unlimited Wi-Fi access for Skype Internet telephony calls is being charged at $7.95 (~€6.53~£4.50) per month, although terms and availability may change as the service is still in beta.
Customers can access Skype on the move via the Skype Zones software which includes Boingo’s Wi-Fi sniffer, connection management and roaming authentication capabilities.
Once connected, laptop flipping punters will be able to make Skype calls and access features such as presence, global user directory, contact lists and instant messages with the Skype software.
“Partnering with Skype demonstrates the evolution of public-access Wi-Fi to include VoIP and other value added applications by allowing greater connectivity and productivity on the move,” said David Hagan, Boingo president and CEO. “Skype’s convenience and call quality have made it as important to travellers as email, and we expect Skype usage to increase traffic and revenue at our network of hot spots.”
Fluffing up the big pink cushions of corporate love, Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO purred passionately about his new partner: “Boingo is a world-class company that offers Skype users unprecedented global communications mobility and accessibility, at an aggressive, market disrupting price.”
“Affordable broadband access is fundamental to open communications, and partnering with Boingo to deliver unlimited Skype access around the world at such a compelling price point will generate new customers for both companies,” he added.
The combined Skype Zones service is available immediately as a beta test, with Skype inviting user feedback to help them fine-tune the service.
The Skype Zones client is available for Windows PCs and can be downloaded from the Skype store or the Boingo Web site. The software includes a directory of Boingo’s 18,000 hotspots.
Monthly access to Skype Zones is $7.95 per month for unlimited Skype access or $2.95 (~€2.42~£1.66) for a 2-hour connection.
UK users may find the pricing offered by Ready To Surf a little more ‘revolutionary’, as it gives free Wi-Fi access to make Skype calls in 350 Internet locations across the UK.
Boingo
Skype
Ready To Surf
12 July, 2005
Camera Phones Used For London Bombing Coverage
The growth of photo and video-capable phones has resulted in news agencies sourcing more and more content from members of the public who have used their mobiles to record disaster scenes.
As the story of yesterday’s terrible bomb outrages in London unfurled, news agencies told their reporters on the scene to ask witnesses if they’d taken any images with their camera phones, with the main UK TV networks also running notices instructing viewers to send in any videos they had taken.
Elsewhere, Websites, bulletin boards and blogs also formed a valuable source for news agencies hungry for stories, with Sky tracking down and then interviewing a tube blast victim whose photo had been posted up on a Web site.
Mobile video footage also played a major part in news bulletins, with shaky mobile video footage taken from inside a blackened tube train leading some news updates.
Footage of the destroyed bus was also shown extensively on TV with Sandy MacIntyre, director of news for Associated Press Television News, paying US$250 (~£144~€209) for the amateur video clip.
Mobile-sourced footage was used by several US networks with some TV executives commenting that it was the first time that video taken from a mobile phone had been used during the coverage of a major story.
Jonathan Klein, CNN’s U.S. chief believes this “citizen journalism” will become a more important part of coverage in major news events. “No question about it,” he said. “There’s been a lot of talk in terms of the increased democratization of the news media relating to blogs and the like. This is another example of the citizen journalist.”
Still images taken by mobiles were also extensively reproduced in newspapers all over the world, with a photo by commuter Alexander Chadwick appearing on the front pages of both The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as other international and domestic publications.
News organisations are increasingly relying on amateur photography and video to help tell major stories, with NBC News President Neal Shapiro describing yesterday’s coverage as “a portent of things to come.”
Jonathan Klein, CNN’s U.S. chief, also predicted that mobile phone footage will play a more important part in major news events coverage, bringing about what he describes as an “increased democratisation of the news media relating to blogs and the like.”
AP News
AP story
11 July, 2005
Apple To Become Mobile Phone Operator?
The Apple rumour mill has been cranking into overdrive over the weekend after Forbes reported that the company may be considering becoming a mobile phone operator.
With Apple already rumoured to be developing a hybrid iPod/cell phone with Motorola, the article claims that “the pieces are in place for it to happen later this summer”, adding that companies like Virgin and Walt Disney have already proved that a new network model can allow all kinds of businesses to easily enter the mobile market.”
Disney will be launching its family-centric ‘Disney Mobile’ wireless phone network sometime next year, aiming to serve up a family-friendly mobile service with custom handsets and premium phone content (i.e. irritating ringtones and Disney-based games).
Since all the calls will be routed through Sprint’s national cellular network, Disney won’t have any infrastructure investment costs, but will gain access to a dedicated, direct marketing channel to da KidZ, scooping up network revenue and gaining a new content outlet.
Forbes predicts that Apple’s reputation for creating cool, user-friendly handheld gadgets could ease their transition into the mobile business.
In July last year, Apple announced its partnership with handset maker Motorola to create an iTunes-capable phone, but the product failed miserably to materialise at its scheduled CeBIT March 2005 launch.
However, a report in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday claimed that Motorola will finally “unveil the first fruits of its partnership with Apple next month with the launch of its iTunes mobile phone at the V Festival.” The festival runs from 20th to 21st August 2005.
So far Apple is keeping Mum on the rumours about it entering the mobile market, although Steve Jobs has frothed enthusiastically about the cellular marketplace in the past:
“The mobile phone market…is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world.”
Forbes.com concludes that Apple is not the only big company that might roll out a cellular service this year with analysts suggesting that uber-brands like Nike and Wal-Mart could be planning their own networks.
Forbes
11 July, 2005
London Explosions Lead To Jammed Mobile Phone Networks
Mobile phone networks in London were overwhelmed for several hours following a series of terrorist blasts across central London.
As news of the attack spread, networks were running at near capacity as concerned Londoners reached for their phones to check up on friends and family.
The huge surge in the number of calls caused problems over mobile networks with many people unable to connect the first time, if at all.
Vodafone said it had reserved some network capacity for the emergency service workers dealing with the disaster, with a spokesperson adding, “because all our switches are at capacity, we need to ensure police and emergency services can communicate.
It would be a section of the network across London, so people can still make calls but it will be more difficult to make a call.”
SMS text messages were, however, still getting through due to its simple store-and-forward mechanism.
As with 9/11, many people turned to the Web for news and updates, resulting in major news sites struggling with the enormous surge in traffic.
News sites like the BBC and Sky both suffered slowdowns or brief periods of unavailability.
Bloggers were also quick to report the news, with the blog tracking service Technorati stating that there were more than 1,300 posts about the explosions by 1015 GMT.
When we looked for updates, we found that Technorati’s Web site had also gone down at 1300GMT.
BBC News report
Technorati
NewsNow
7 July, 2005
Mobile Content Market To Triple to €7.6Bn: LogicaCMG
Consumer demand for mobile downloads is going bonkers, according to research by LogicaCMG.
Downloads are predicted to triple in the next 12 months, creating a €7.6 billion (£5.23bn, $9.12bn) global market for mobile content by this time next year.
Twenty per cent of mobile phone owners worldwide have already busied themselves downloading content to their handsets and this figure is expected to soar to 60 per cent in the next 12 months.
The international survey – covering Europe, Asia Pacific, North and South America – revealed subscribers are currently shelling out €6.32 (£4.35, $7.60) per month on downloads, with more than 40 per cent of respondents expecting their spending to rise.
With over 1.5 billion mobile users worldwide (predicted to rise to 2 billion by the end of 2005) the global market for downloading content looks sure to become a multi-billion euro money-spinner within a year.
Globally, subscribers just lurve downloading ring tones, games and music, with news and sports also gaining a growing audience in Europe.
Video and movie clips also showed promise, with more than 10 per cent of mobile phone users worldwide expecting to download such content within 12 months.
New multimedia phones are fuelling a growth in video and movie downloads, with more than 10 per cent of mobile phone users worldwide expecting to download video content within 12 months (this figure rises to 25 per cent in Asia Pacific, with 10 per cent expecting to be downloading full feature films to their mobiles within 12 months).
With consumers demanding ease of payment and the ability to share content with friends, there’s pressure on the industry to invest in digital rights management and intelligent payments systems.
Paul Gleeson, chief operating officer at LogicaCMG commented: “This survey proves that a substantial market for mobile content exists, with great opportunities for mobile operators worldwide.
Mobile phone users are starting to experiment with their phones’ capabilities but, drawing a parallel with the popular SMS experience, it is clear that the service needs to be simple, safe and intuitive from initial browsing through to payment and download.
To secure a share in this booming industry, mobile operators need to look at the bigger picture, building strong relationships with customers and content partners alike to deliver high-quality services that meet the markets’ needs.”
It’s also worth noting that there’s now nothing to stop individual countries legislating software patents on their own.
LogicaCMG
LogicaCMG report
7 July, 2005
US Wi-Fi ‘Thief’ Man Charged
US police have arrested a Florida man for gaining illegal access on a domestic wireless Internet network.
In one of the first criminal cases involving this practice, Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pre-trial hearing this month after an April arrest on charges of “unauthorised access to a computer network” – a third-degree felony in the States.
Police say Smith ‘fessed up to sneakily logging on to the Wi-Fi signal after he was spotted using a laptop in his SUV outside the house of Richard Dinon.
Although it’s quite a widespread practice, the newness of the crime means that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement doesn’t even keep statistics, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times.
With the rise of domestic Wi-Fi networks and Wi-Fi enabled PDAs, laptops and smartphones, more and more people are sniffing out unsecured networks and enjoying a free ride on other people’s connections.
There’s not much harm in that, but the newspaper report points out the darker side of Wi-Fi pilfering, with criminals using the unsecured networks to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information and even send death threats.
The problem is that few people bother utilising the security protection that comes with their Wi-Fi routers, even though turning on encryption or requiring passwords would make things considerably more difficult for network freeloaders.
If Smith is found guilty of the charges, the outcome could set a dangerous precedent for wireless networking and potentially criminalise tens of thousands of mobile users who regularly log on to any signal they can find.
St. Petersburg Times
7 July, 2005