IntoMobile » O2

HSPA+ lives on O2 Germany in Munich

Dusan Belic — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:35:46 +0000

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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Nokia, plus almost every major international operator, agree on a standard for voice + SMS over LTE

Stefan Constantinescu — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:47:44 +0000

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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Want a GSM Motorola DROID? Say ‘hi’ to the Motorola MILESTONE!

Will Park — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:11:20 +0000

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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Are O2 prioritising certain types of data traffic for the iPhone?

Ben Robinson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:26:50 +0000

….. 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….

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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Brief: Avenir Telecom and O2 get ‘Joined Up’

Ben Robinson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:15:23 +0000

Avenir Telecom (a business-to- business telecoms distributor in the UK), has announced a partnership with O2 (NYSE: TEF) 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 – 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!

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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GSM Palm Pre – Unlocked and available in the US

Will Park — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:15:07 +0000

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

Will Park — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:48:08 +0000

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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Palm Pre goes live in the UK – less promo than iPhone had

Ben Robinson — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:35:50 +0000

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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GSM Palm Pre Goes Live in Germany on O2

James Falconer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:09:42 +0000

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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Palm Pre demand outpaces intial iPhone demand in UK!

Will Park — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:15:28 +0000

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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GSM Palm Pre Strapped-Down and Ready to Go at O2 Germany

James Falconer — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:56:22 +0000

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.

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Snaps of the O2 GSM Palm Pre

James Falconer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:27:03 +0000

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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HTC launches HTC HD2 (Leo) with Sense for Windows Mobile

Will Park — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:12:28 +0000

Big-screen lovers, capacitive touchscreen fans and smartphone users “in the know” will be happy to hear that the HTC HD2 (aka Leo) is almost here. HTC has today announced that their HTC HD2 will be launching later this month in select European markets. Boasting a class-leading 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen (a first for Windows Mobile smartphones!), blazing fast 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset (a first for HTC) and a 5-megapixel autofocusing camera, the HD2 packs some serious processing and multimedia power under its slim 11mm thick shell. And, as HTC’s first Windows Phone to sport the smartphone maker’s custom Sense UI, the HTC HD2 isn’t just a pretty face, it’s also easy to get along with.

The HTC Sense UI rose to fame as the Android-powered Hero’s slick homescreen interface. And, this is the first time we’re seeing aspects of the multi-pane Sense UI making its way to Windows Mobile, and it looks promising. The new Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional interface has been re-worked to play nice with finger inputs, but it took HTC’s Sense UI to polish it to a touch-optimized shine.

The HD2’s Windows Mobile-based Sense UI also brings along a couple additional features from its Android roots. For one, HTC’s Peep Twitter app makes the jump from Android to Windows Mobile. Another new feature is integrated support for photo uploads to Facebook and Twitter. Facebook also syncs up with the address book.

As for hardware, the HD2 is the first HTC smartphone to take advantage of the powerful Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset. Paired with generous RAM stores, the HD2 should make quick work of anything you can throw at it. Hopefully, that also spells the death of the dreaded UI lag that WinMo users have been gritting through all these years. The 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen is as big as they come in the mobile space, and the 5-megapixel camera takes impressive photos. The feature-set rounds out with a heaping portion of smartphone trimmings – 3G, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD slot, FM radio and a digital compass.

An optional car mount kit turns your HTC HD2 into a fully functional turn-by-turn GPS navigation system. We can see a dash of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s design aesthetic in the HD2’s car mount, but that’s just fine by us.

Suffice it to say that the HTC HD2 is going to turn heads on the street. Unfortunately, those streets will only be in Europe for the time being. Launch is expected later this month in the EU, with O2 in the UK possibly launching on October 12 and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) Spain aiming for a November launch window. Additional markets should go live shortly after. Price? €649, but it’s not like it even matters. We’ll trade a kidney for an HD2. What about it, HTC?

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O2 Kicks Off Free SIM Campaign with England Rugby Viral

Ben Robinson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:10:18 +0000

A tongue-in-cheek viral film and engaging campaign microsite (simrugby.co.uk) featuring members of the England Rugby squad is being launched by O2 (NYSE: TEF) this week, created by creative agency VCCP. The SIM Rugby film sees top England players including Mike Tindall, Riki Flutey, and Steve Borthwick, playing a game of rugby where the traditional oval ball has been replaced by a SIM card.

The film has been created to raise awareness of O2’s Pay & Go free SIM offers which give people the chance to get up to four free SIMs, keep one and pass on the others to family or friends enjoying free calls and texts between them.

The activity coincides with the launch of O2’s latest free SIMs offer, Text & Web. This pay & go tariff offers unlimited texts and internet for just £15 per month.

The SIM Rugby viral will be supported through online rugby channels, including the RFU’s recently revamped website (RFU.com), and the online rugby community, Maximum Rugby (maximumrugby.com). The campaign will also see embedded ads on Youtube and Facebook promotion at Twickenham on matchdays during the forthcoming Investec Challenge Series in November. The dedicated microsite www.simrugby.co.uk contains more exciting content such as behind the scenes footage, funny out takes and competitions.

“This is a great example of how we can leverage our England Rugby sponsorship to support current propositions we have in the market,” said Alistair Johnston, Head of Online at O2. “SIM Rugby injects some fun into the free SIMs campaign which is also supported by TV and print advertising.”

Check out simrugby.co.uk for more information, plus the video.

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HTC HD2 (Leo) spotted in official O2 ad

Will Park — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:21:03 +0000

Just the other day we reported on a rumor that the ridiculously big-screened HTC HD2 (Leo) was headed to O2 (NYSE: TEF) on October 12. Today, we have some semi-solid confirmation that the HD2 will be making an appearance in the UK in the near term. A copy of O2’s October product catalog found its way to Engadget’s inbox and it shows the HTC HD2 proudly strutting its stuff in print. Strangely, the HD2 in the ad shows a stock Windows Mobile 6.5 homescreen rather than the HTC TouchFLO 3D UI that we’ve gotten used to seeing on HTC”s Windows Phones.

There’s also talk of the HTC HD2 launch being pushed back to October 26, but we’re not going to put too much faith into that rumor just yet.

Whatever the launch date turns out to be, we can’t wait to get a chance to put the HTC Leo/HD2 and its ginormous 4.3-inch capacitance touchscreen through its paces. It’s not hard to see the HD2’s 512MB RAM, 5-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi and 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset putting the hurt on the iPhone later this year.

[Via: Engadget]

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O2 still the “home of smartphones”?

Ben Robinson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:00:25 +0000

O2 recently said it was the “home of smartphones” (see quote in here), but with the recent iPhone announcements (see here for example), it looks like other Operators are lining up some mobile powerhouses also – let’s compare O2 and Orange for example:

Orange

BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold & Curve & Pearl
HTC Hero
Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) TG01
Samsung i8910 Omnia HD
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Dext (soon)
iPhone 3GS (soon)
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N86

That’s a pretty reasonable spread isn’t it? Taking in BlackBerry O/S, Android, WinMo, Series60, and Apples O/S. Nice.
So What about O2?

O2 XDA Zest & Guide
BlackBerry Bold & Curve & Emerald
Nokia &3 & N86
iPhone 3G & 3GS
Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre (soon)
HTC HD2 (Leo) – (rumoured soon)

So pretty much the same selection of Operating Systems there too, apart from adding Palms WebOS.
T-Mobile, Vodafone , and 3UK haven’t (to my mind) made any big seasonal announcements yet (OK, so VFUK did ‘announce’ iPhone 3GS today!), but when they do, you can assume it will be driven by, or include, smartphone device(s). In simple terms, the Operators are going to become very similar very quickly, in terms of the smartphone device portfolio offered – and whilst it might be good for tariff and device pricing, networks won’t be differentiating on hardware so much – shame, because there’s nothing better than a restrictive exclusivity deal to stir up news and opinion

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UK: O2 and Shazam team up for music discovery service

Ben Robinson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:00:48 +0000

Shazam today announced that it has teamed up with O2 (NYSE: TEF) to make discovering and capturing music even easier for O2 customers. The agreement will mean that anyone on O2 will benefit from an enhanced mobile music experience, discovering music with Shazam and then purchasing it through their mobile, on the move.

O2 customers simply need to dial 2580 on their mobile and hold it up to the music for a few seconds. Shazam’s award-winning service will then text the user back with the details about the track, and O2 customers will then have a link embedded in that text that will allow them to immediately purchase that track.

“This is another great example of our strategy of working with the best companies in the world to deliver compelling music services for our customers,” said Matt Ward, Head of Music at O2. “We have joined forces with a leader in this space to allow our customers to have an even greater in-depth music experience on their mobile.”

Jonathan Symons, EVP Business Development, Shazam, continued: “O2 has a strong music presence through its relationship with The O2 and O2 Academy venues. We’re delighted to work with such a leading company to create added value for our IVR service and we look forward to working even closer with O2 in the future.”

The agreement is part of O2’s ongoing commitment to music and will be supported by an online, viral and outdoor marketing campaign. The campaign will include online advertising on O2 Active, interactive marketing at the O2 Academy venues and rolling on-screen advertising at The O2.

Shazam today announced that it has teamed up with O2 to make discovering and capturing music even easier for O2 customers. The agreement will mean that anyone on O2 will benefit from an enhanced mobile music experience, discovering music with Shazam and then purchasing it through their mobile, on the move.

“This is another great example of our strategy of working with the best companies in the world to deliver compelling music services for our customers,” said Matt Ward, Head of Music at O2. “We have joined forces with a leader in this space to allow our customers to have an even greater in-depth music experience on their mobile.”

Jonathan Symons, EVP Business Development, Shazam, continued: “O2 has a strong music presence through its relationship with The O2 and O2 Academy venues. We’re delighted to work with such a leading company to create added value for our IVR service and we look forward to working even closer with O2 in the future.”

A nice move on the part of O2 methinks – they have quite a music/event-centric proposition, so adding a service that can identify tracks and then deliver them has got to be a good thing!

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UK: What is going on with Internet Tethering on iPhone/O2?

Ben Robinson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:26:34 +0000

Wow.

I wrote a piece a little while ago about the Internet Tethering not working too well on the iPhone/MacBook Pro combo (I think it could just as well be any Mac), but I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad….!

As I noted previously, I’ve been doing some testing of the Tethering to see how it performs – the simple summary was “not good”. However, given that most of these tests had been in areas of only average data coverage, I figured I ought to give things another shot – big mistake!

What I’ve now found is that even in areas of good 3G coverage, the data rates are not very excellent, and even worse, I am beginning to think the Tethering implementation is buggy. Why do I say this? Well, tethering has managed to crash both iTunes on the Mac, and completely lock the 3GS, to the point where it needed the power/home key combo to turn the thing off.

This is really quite disappointing indeed – the 3GS should have everything it needs to make it a great data modem, but I wonder if there is just too much else already going inside it’s shell for it to dedicate sufficient resources to the job. Bear in mind it’s got to hold up a cellular connection really well, and also pipeline the data over USB to the MacBook – something which dedicated USB data modems seem to do with great aplomb.

If I had any doubts, they are now confirmed – I’ll be cancelling the Tethering add-on I have, and buying a separate data modem from probably Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) or 3 – let’s see how they perform!

Wow.

If I had any doubts, they are now confirmed – I’ll be cancelling the Tethering add-on I have, and buying a separate data modem from probably Vodafone or 3 – let’s see how they perform!

If you do still want to try out Internet Tethering, you can visit the O2 (NYSE: TEF) website here.

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UK: giffgaff launches as new Mobile Network …

Ben Robinson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:45:02 +0000

Well this doesn’t happen too often in the crowded space that is the UK Mobile market – a new Operator is launching, called giffgaff:

Hello. We’re a brand new people-powered mobile network. We’ll be fully up and running before Christmas, but in the meantime, a little about us. We love to keep things simple. We don’t provide mobile phones, just the SIM card that goes in it. And the way we’re run is different.

Our members get involved in lots of ways, that’s what we mean by “people-powered”. The more they put in, the more they get back. Involving our members helps us to keep our costs low and allows us to pass the savings back to them. Give and take, that’s what we’re about. The giver-taker-talker-maker. Quite like that.

Not a lot else is clear other than the fact that there’s only one tarrif, it’s an MVNO, and they are running on O2 (NYSE: TEF)’s network – presumably more details will be incoming shortly.

Oh and in case you were wondering what gifffgaff means:

giffgaff was originally a Scottish expression – You give me something, I give you something back.

You can take a look at the giffgaff website here.

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UK: The O2: Michael Jackson: The Official Exhibition

Ben Robinson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:40:48 +0000

The O2 (NYSE: TEF) is putting on an exhibition (the official one, no less) revolving around Michael Jackson. Whatever you might think about MJ, he was an incredible performer, and so this exhibition at The O2 (perhaps in some way to fill in for the shows that he was never able to perform):

Showcasing some of the most personal and iconic memorabilia from The King of Pop’s extraordinary life, Michael Jackson: The Official Exhibition will celebrate his unparalleled career, opening for a limited run starting 28th October 2009 at The O2 bubble.?The exhibit will chronicle Michael’s rise to fame with The Jackson 5 at Motown Records, his record-breaking solo career as a global superstar and the spectacular shows he had planned for The O2 arena before his untimely death.

I wonder if AEG (who operate The O2) and O2 (who brand is obviously on the venue) will put some kind of Mobile content offering to go along with it? That would be a nice touch….

You can find out more here.

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