Avenir Telecom (a distributor in mobile telecoms in the UK), has announced some pretty sweet results regarding its customer retention efforts…

In October 2009, Avenir Telecom and its dealer base reduced customer churn on O2 (NYSE: TEF) connections to just 8%. Avenir’s churn rate has been steadily declining each month over the past 12 months and is set to fall even lower in the coming months. This single-digit result is believed to be the lowest sustainable figure achieved by any distributor of Avenir’s size in the UK mobile marketplace.

“Churn has been the industry buzzword all year,” remarks Avenir Telecom’s Managing Director, Andy Tow. “We’ve been working tremendously hard with our dealers on this, specifically with our dedicated customer retention team, which is about to celebrate its first anniversary. So it’s great to come to the end of the year with proof that our efforts are working, and that we’re leading the game.”

OK so it’s not big-ticket news that might excite the pants off you, but on the other hand, this does go some way to explaining why O2 are far and away leading the market in the UK at the moment – if you introduce exclusives like the iPhone and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, and then manage the customers that are potentially wanting to churn well, you’ve got both sides of the equation under control – customers coming in to O2’s network, and not many leaving – nice!

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Video hands-on with the Beewi Bluetooth Pocket Car Kit
• Brief: Avenir Telecom and O2 get ‘Joined Up’
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• Top Ten US Wireless Carriers

The data issue is only going to grow in the coming few years, particularly with ‘unlimited’ mobile web add-ons (both for contract and PAYG users) becoming the norm – so this is all good news

O2 today unveiled plans to accelerate growth of its mobile network and build extra capacity for mobile data, in a multi-year programme of investment (running to hundreds of millions of pounds).

The planned investment will cover upgrade of the current radio network and also the delivery of new sites. 200 sites will be delivered in London alone in the next 12 months, 40 of which will be live by Christmas 2009. In 2010 other areas of the UK will see similar developments.

Derek McManus, Chief Technology Officer for O2:

“Anticipating growth in demand for mobile services, we have quarter on quarter increased investment in our voice and data networks. Our £500m investment over the last two years has enabled us to offer our customers the best products in the world, including the Apple iPhone and Palm Pre.

“In the past 12 months the mobile industry has seen an unprecedented change in demand. The introduction of world-class devices, in combination with a wide variety of data applications, has brought about a dramatic change in customer behaviour and created an exponential demand on mobile data networks. To put this in context, watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously.

“We are now aggressively accelerating our network growth programme to ensure we have significant headroom for the future and retain our focus on being number one for customer satisfaction.”

Fairplay on O2 – they’ve taken their share of criticism for issues of network bandwidth/contention with the hugely accelerated data consumption coming from the likes of the iPhone, and are pressing on in addressing the issue.

The data issue is only going to grow in the coming few years, particularly with ‘unlimited’ mobile web add-ons (both for contract and PAYG users) becoming the norm – so this is all good news

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This one’s for our German Android fans. The country’s O2 (NYSE: TEF) subsidiary is offering the Moto Milestone aka Droid for a symbolic price of 1 EUR. Of course, your signature on a two-year contract is required, but you’ll be able to get what many people think is the best smartphone on the market for a friggin’ 1 EUR coin. Don’t expect to have a 10 EUR/month monthly bill, though, as the Milestone price will be included in the monthly bill. Actually, the device costs 480 EUR, and during the course of 24 months (duration of the contract), you’ll pay 20 EUR every single month on top of your monthly bill for your brand new handset. That’s actually a neat way of selling high-ticket items adopted by a mobile operator. We like it.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

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• UK: O2: upgrading to the iPhone3GS – costs….

O2 Litmus (which is the mobile and web application development community from O2) is ready to spread it’s wings – and they’ve decided the best way is a targeted marketing campaign for 1 million O2 UK customers.

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O2 has today announced the addition of Internet Radio to the O2 Joggler, bringing over 100 radio stations to the device for free. The service, which is delivered by PURE, has now been switched on over-the-air. O2 has also reduced the price of the O2 Joggler to £99.99. PURE, working in associated with OpenPeak (the manufacturers of the Joggler), has adapted its radio and media portal, The Lounge, for the O2 Joggler delivering a selection of the most popular UK BBC and commercial radio stations.

The Lounge (www.thelounge.com) made its debut in 2008 as the bespoke radio and media portal for PURE’s Flow range of internet-connected radios. PURE originally designed the portal as the online destination to provide easy and effective access to radio content and more for its connected radios and online users. The Lounge now provides over 12,000 streamed internet radio stations, thousands of podcasts, all BBC listen again content and a growing number of atmospheric ‘PURE Sounds’.

Adding features such as Internet Radio is part of O2’s strategy to develop the O2 Joggler as a hub for the home with a wide range of features for everyone to enjoy. In a significant next step in the development of the O2 Joggler platform, O2 also today announces that it will upgrade the device’s software from Flash 8 to Flash 10, making it possible for developers to create applications for the device. A SDK will be made available to developers shortly via O2 Litmus, O2’s web and mobile application development community.

O2 will also be launching an application store for the O2 Joggler which is due to go live on the device by the end of the year. Initially featuring free applications, the store will be developed in due course to allow people to purchase a wide range of apps for their Joggler. These could include anything from internet shopping through to video recipes and takeaway food applications.

The O2 Joggler Application Store will also link into O2 Litmus where developers are able to test and get feedback on their applications from O2 customers. The O2 Joggler will become one of the platforms available to developers through O2 Litmus and the application development community will open up new opportunities for them in selling their applications.

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• WunderRadio Now Available for the BlackBerry Curve and Bold

Yep, O2 (NYSE: TEF) are pulling out all the stops, on the day that Orange launches the iPhone. First of all we had the new internet tethering offer, then we had the offer to unlock the iPhone for free, and now…. we have free Sky Sports for iPhone customers!

It should be made clear that not all of the content on the Sky Sports channels is available – WWE, HBO Boxing, MLB, Serie A and NCAA cannot be viewed using the app. That’s a shame, I’ve got say – because I’d have been well up for watching some sweaty men grunting whilst on the go

O2 has announced today that the new Sky Mobile TV app, available to all Apple iPhone customers through the App Store, will be available on Wi-Fi free to the first 150,000 iPhone customers on O2 for the first three months.

The app allows customers to watch a live feed of content and usually costs £6 a month, however iPhone customers on O2 can text ‘’SKY’’ to 2020 to download a promotional code which allows them to receive the app for free for the first three months.

Sky Mobile TV includes channels such as Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3, Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Extra, Sky News, At The Races and ESPN and can be accessed via Wi-Fi. All iPhone customers on O2 receive unlimited Wi-Fi in the UK as part of their iPhone tariff.

It should be made clear that not all of the content on the Sky Sports channels is available – WWE, HBO Boxing, MLB, Serie A and NCAA cannot be viewed using the app. That’s a shame, I’ve got say – because I’d have been well up for watching some sweaty men grunting whilst on the go

If you want to find out more, go here.

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• ESPN plans to patent system for mobile content analysis

So again, on the same day that Orange goes live with the iPhone, O2 (NYSE: TEF) suddenly (in my eyes anyway) has decided that you can now unlock your iPhone. However, there are some conditions:

Unlocking your iPhone

From 10 November, the iPhone can be unlocked for O2 customers in the UK.

Pay Monthly customers

Your iPhone can be unlocked at anytime free of charge. If you unlock your handset and place a non-O2 sim into it, you will still have to honour the remainder of the minimum term on your contract.

iPhone Pay & Go customers

For iPhone on Pay & Go, unlocking can take place 12 months after you’ve bought your iPhone for a one-off £14.69 fee which will be deducted from your airtime balance.

What do I need to do?

Firstly, complete the unlocking form – it will take up to 14 days for the iPhone to be unlocked and we’ll text you to confirm the unlock request. Then place a non-O2 sim into the iPhone and connect to iTunes via a USB cable. iTunes will confirm that the iPhone has been successfully unlocked.

So there you have it – you can unlock, but if you are in-contract then you’ll need to pay your way out of it – and if you are on PAYG, then you have to wait 12 months, and pay about £15. It’s not hugely restrictive, but, with many people on the 18 and 24 month contracts, its likely to be a while before they are going to be unlocking!

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O2 UK has announced the iPhone Total Connectivity Bolt On, which allows new and existing iPhone customers to purchase the iPhone Internet Tethering bolt-on and receive the standard O2 Home Broadband package completely free.

In case you are wondering what the big deal is, there’s two things here:

1) you can get home broadband (standard) bundled in to the bolt-on for free

2) O2 has reduced the price of their internet tethering by roughly £5

Pay Monthly iPhone customers who purchase the discounted £9.79 per month 3GB Internet Tethering Bolt On before 31 December 2009 will be entitled to the O2 Home Broadband standard package for free. The service means users can stay totally connected and get the best connection possible, whether at home or out and about on their phone or laptop.

The 3GB Internet Tethering and O2 Home Broadband package is available for just £9.79 per month and will be compatible with all versions of the Apple iPhone 3G. Alternatively, customers can claim a £7.34pm discount against any other O2 Home Broadband product including Premium, Pro or O2 Home Broadband Access.

The offer is available from today – there’s apparently more info at o2.co.uk/iphone

Of course, the fact that Orange has now got the iPhone up for sale has nothing to do with this press release, I’m sure

Related News from IntoMobile:

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Telefónica O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany has turned on the switch to its HSPA+ network in Munich. Actually, not whole city is covered at the moment, but we assume that will happen in no time (and the same will also happen to other German cities, as well). At the moment, it’s the city center and western part of the city as well as around the Marienplatz where you can get the ultra-high-speed mobile Internet. That’s of course if you’re one of lucky few with HSPA+ USB modems, which are capable to deliver download speeds of up to 28 Mbps and upload rates of up to 5.76 Mbps!

China’s Huawei provided the hardware for the infrastructure upgrade, and they are also making compatible USB modems.

Finally, our readers from Munich may want to know how they can jump on board. If you’re already using unlimited data plan, you will get a new HSPA+ enabled stick for free! All you have to do is visit a local O2 store until the end of the year. On the other hand, if you don’t rely on O2’s mobile Internet service, you’ll have to visit/call O2 and follow instructions provided which [instructions] will certainly include some contract signing/money exchange activities…

[Via: the::unwired]

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LTE, Long Term Evolution, 4G, whatever you want to call it, was designed to be a complete IP based system. Many of you may be surprised to hear this, but when LTE became a standard, it only supported data. That’s right, 4th generation networks didn’t have an interoperable standard for voice and SMS. Several solutions have been proposed, and I’ve extended my support to VoLGA, but it looks like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) will be the way going forward.

Who supports the decision? AT&T, Orange, Telefonica (many of you know them as O2), TeliaSonera, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE). That’s a lot of companies. Their posse is called “One Voice Initiative” and now that the big boys have all decided on a standard, progress towards getting LTE networks up and running will start to pick up. Verizon and TeliaSonera are competing to see who will launch the world’s first commercial LTE network in 2010, but it’s going to quite a ways off until 4G coverage is equal to the current 3G footprint.

If anyone can point me (and IntoMobile readers) to a blog post or a book that explains how IMS works, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ve always avoided the standard since I thought it would never fly. Oh how wrong I am now.

Update: The One Voice spec has been published, check it out [PDF] if you’re a network engineer.

[Via: Press Release]

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The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid is all the rage right now. It’s chock full of Android 2.0 goodies like Google Maps Navigation and enough smartphone hardware to satisfy even the hardest core of mobile enthusiasts – all wrapped in a slim, yet masculine, package. But, Motorola is going to have to look beyond Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s CDMA network to go truly global. In fact, Motorola’s already got O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany in its sights. Yup, O2 will soon launch the GSM version of the Motorola Droid/Sholes as the Motorola MILESTONE.

O2 lists the price [PDF link] of the MILESTONE at €404.20 ($595), but that number should get a nice little price-chop after some carrier subsidies. The O2 website shows the Motorola MILESTONE looking every bit the GSM Droid we expected it to be, which is a good sign that German’s won’t have to wait too long before picking up their MILESTONE.

We’ve already seen the GSM Droid pass through the FCC and pop up in Vietnam, so it’s not surprising to see it going official in Europe. The only question is, when will Motorola release a US-spec GSM Droid?

[Via: BGR]

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….. or are certain apps on the iPhone just not very good at connecting to the network? Let me tell you my story…

The other day there was a particular track that I fancied listening to, but I was out and about – normally I use iTunes via the Mac, but on this occasion it wasn’t an option – so for once, I fired up the ITunes app on the iPhone.

I enjoyed the user experience (well done AGAIN Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)!) – finding stuff, previewing it, and buying is SIMPLE – the only criticism I could possibly level is that perhaps the fonts and graphical bordering are a bit big – it would be nice to get more results/text on-screen in once go.

However I then purchase the track I wanted (Britney, obviously…!), and waited for a sluggish download – but I was shocked – the rate of download was incredible – seemingly only 20 seconds after I hit download, 7MB had shot down to the phone!

But how could this be? When I use Safari and Mail, the rate at which the network connection is made, and then rendering/email download occurs is slow – in some cases almost intolerably slow – and I know I’m not the only person that thinks this, it’s widely reported.

For some reason though, iTunes download traffic seems to be prioritised on O2s network – and to test this theory, I had a go at downloading a 15-track album – oh my god – it absolutely flew!

So this tells me one of two things:

1)     Either iTunes data traffic is prioritised on the O2 (NYSE: TEF) network – via IP, APN, or even at HTTP request level – something is going on….

Or

2)     Mail and Safari are really really bad at implementing their calls to network access / protocols for download

The disparity is quite amazing – I’d suggest you give it a go if you don’t believe it. Go to a 3G area (let’s at least give the network a chance to shine), and then try out collecting say 20 emails (or whatever is in your inbox to download), and then trying downloading a track. Now bear in mind a single iTunes track will probably be orders of magnitude larger than ALL the emails you download – what gives?!

Answers on a postcard, or better yet, in the comments to this post….!

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Avenir Telecom (a business-to-business telecoms distributor in the UK), has announced a partnership with O2 to provide its new Joined Up communications service to the UK channel.

Avenir is O2’s leading distribution partner, and Joined Up is a fixed line service which will enable businesses to have one single converged solution for their telecoms requirements.

Sorry, not much more info that at the moment (more when it comes) – what you should take away though is that O2 is active in all market segments, including businesses, and they are willing to partner to go after market share. That’s probably why they are leading the pack in the UK at the moment!

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• O2 launches landline numbers direct to mobile phones

The GSM Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre has been available in the UK and Germany, bringing with it Palm’s intuitive multi-tasking webOS and multi-touch display. Here in the US, though, the only Palm Pre available comes in CDMA guise and works only on Sprint (NYSE: S)’s network. Fortunately, Americans can now get their hands on an unlocked GSM Palm Pre from Expansys – as long as they’re willing to make some sacrifices.

The GSM Palm Pre will ship with some O2 (NYSE: TEF) branding and lacks the frequency support to pull down 3G wireless data from AT&T (NYSE: T)’s network (nor T-Mobile (NYSE: DT)’s network). You still get the same 3.1-inch multi-touch display, 3-megapixel camera, WiFi, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack and 8GB of onboard storage that every Sprint Palm Pre user has been enjoying for months now. But, you’ll have to deal with a “QWERTZ” keyboard that swaps the “Y” and “Z” keys like those crazy Europeans like to do.

If you can deal with non-US branding, European 3G “banding,” and a quirky keyboard setup, Expansys will be happy to sell you an unlocked GSM Palm Pre for $714.99. The website shows the unit out of stock, but should be back within a week or so.

GSM Palm Pre

[Via: Gagdetell]

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The Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre is a great smartphone. It features some of the highest-end technology you can expect from any smartphone today – capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch, gesture controls, wireless (inductive) charging, true multi-tasking support and more. The Pre is also seen as the best alternative to the iPhone 3GS. So, it’s no wonder Popular Mechanics has named the Palm Pre one of “The 10 Most Brilliant Products of 2009.”

Unfortunately, no amount of praise is going to boost Palm’s ailing bottom line. The Palm Pre was touted as Palm’s answer to the struggling smartphone maker’s dwindling market share, but has yet to see the Pre capture consumer minds in the same way the iPhone has done for the past few years. But, with encouraging interest from the UK market, Palm might see the Pre out-performing the iPhone on O2 (NYSE: TEF)’s network.

[Via: PopularMechanics]

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Yep, today was/is the day when the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) pre goes live in the UK, and you can get your grubby/clean (I don’t know what your personal hygiene is like, do I?) mitts on one.

I figured it might be interesting to go take a wander to the local O2 (NYSE: TEF) shop in Staines at lunchtime, to see how much the Promo effort was in full swing – and what I actually was confronted with was Samsung Genio posters in the shop window – harrumph!

On looking around a bit more, I managed to find two videos promotions running on PDPs at the back of the store – not exactly ‘front of house’! A nice comparison is what happened when the iPhone 3GS launched – they had posters everywhere, in all O2 shops… so this tells me that either O2 aren’t expecting as much interest, or who knows – maybe they spent all of their print media budget and can’t make any more posters

On a marginally more serious note, it’s good to finally see Europe getting the Palm Pre – now if only Palm’s PR company in the UK would respond to our emails and give us a device or two to trial… (hint hint Palm PR!).

At any rate, if you want to check out more about the device and the tariffs, head on over to the O2 landing page here.

[Image via: O2]

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Congratulations to all of my German friends and colleagues, the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre has arrived! Folks in the country can grab the GSM Palm Pre for €481 (just over $700 USD) sans contract, or finance it with 24 monthly payments of €20 via something called ‘My Handy’. For all the details brush up on your German and head over to O2 Germany.

To coincide with the launch, O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany has added a couple of apps to the Catalog for ‘Preebies’… a move that will certainly please the early Pre adopters in Germany. The apps include wetter.com, VZ-Netzwerke, ran and billiger.de. I’m sure the German audience loves the local flavor, along with the fact that each of the aforementioned apps are free.

[Via: TheUnwired]

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While the iPhone might be the most satisfying smartphone in the US, more and more Brits are looking toward the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre to quench their smartphone cravings. A new survey from TNS indicates that a healthy 26% of the UK is interested in picking up an O2 (NYSE: TEF) Palm Pre of their own – they are either definitely or probably going to buy an O2 Palm Pre in the near future. Compared with just 16% of Brits that were showed initial interest in the iPhone in TNS’s 2007 survey, it’s clear that the Palm Pre is in higher demand than the iPhone.

The survey also showed the 27% of current O2 customers were interested in picking up a Palm Pre. That compares with 17% of O2 customers that were looking to pick up an iPhone from their carrier in 2007. The numbers point to a UK Palm Pre launch that might just give the US launch some insecurity issues.

To be fair, the higher interest in the Palm Pre is likely attributable to the Pre’s free-on-contract pricing. The iPhone was offered for £269, and many of those initial iPhone customers are coming up on contract renewals that would allow them to put a Palm Pre in their pockets for free. There’s also the possibility that the iPhone itself may have boosted Palm Pre awareness by way of bringing the smartphone to forefront of the consumer mind.

The Palm Pre hasn’t been the fantastic success that Palm had hoped for the US market, but all is not lost. If TNS survey results pan out, Palm could see the Pre carving out significant market share in the UK.

[Via: CN]

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• Popular Mechanics picks Palm Pre as one of 2009’s top gadgets

The good folks at PreCentral have managed to get their hands on some pretty darned good pictures of the GSM Palm Pre… from Germany. As you can see in the first pic above, the Pre is strapped-down to a dark, wood-grained display. Looks nice. I fully expect the display area to contain many bookshelves stocked with many leather-bound books… and one can only assume the O2 (NYSE: TEF) store where this was taken smells of rich mahogany.

But enough lame ‘Anchorman‘ references for now. Can I get a w00t from folks over in the UK and Germany regarding the release of the Pre? Not long now for you folks to wait! Are you excited? Or could you care less?

Note: The Pre is due out in the UK on October 16th, and Germany on October 13th.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Snaps of the O2 GSM Palm Pre
• BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Coming to O2 & T-Mobile in Germany
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• Palm Pre to Arrive in Spain October 14th?

Well what do we have here? A few snaps of the O2 (NYSE: TEF) Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre in Germany? Yessir! The GSM variant of the Pre comes in packaging strikingly similar to the one over here in North America, but with a nice blue flavor. Of course, it comes with some different accessories and it’s not QWERTY but a QWERTZ keyboard… Little differences, but all-in-all, still pretty much the same deal with a GSM radio packed-in.

If I recall correctly, the Palm Pre is coming to the UK and Ireland on October 16th, and Germany on October 13th. Not much longer to wait now!

More images below.

[Via: webOS-blog.de]

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