Vodafone launches 1.5m Heathrow ads

The cartridges are being sold for 100 each dropping to 50 each for orders over 10. Unblocker Software and leads for both c12 and Diga are being sold for 500

The web site states:

We are well aware that you may consider this to be a scam due to all the recent scams concerning mobile phones and sky hacks Our only answer is If you were thinking this way Dont jump in with both feet buy one cartridge to test (cont P2) the water. At least this way you can test us with minimum risk If you like what you get then deal with us If not then Im sure well be flamed on the newsgroups and this site will fall into oblivion.

The sellers of the device say:

If the phone becomes blocked by your service provider its not a problem just place the cartridge in the base of the phone power up the phone (with full battery) and press hot key 9 at the same time and wait for 20 seconds

This will allow the cartridge to do its job and hey presto your back on line with the same number and credit. If you wish to put extra credit on the phone this can be done as well.

Warning! each cartridge is unique to the first phone its introduced to so if you try to put the cartridge in another phone it will display contact your dealer. This is unrecoverable

The phones with their cartridges have even sent some abroad to India Pakistan Germany France and Tenerife.

All phones worked fine say the cartridge sellers.

We could make calls back to the UK but could not make Internal calls in the countries we tried. Except of course the UK where you can make as many calls to who ever and where ever you like.

Vodafone has launched a 1.5 million advertising campaign at Heathrow Airport.

It includes exterior poster sites escalator panels and sites above shops in the main buildings.

An estimated 61.5m visitors pass through Heathrow Airport each year.

The campaign features Nervous System depicting a human body.

The second advertisement Vodafone Spoken Here majors on the fact that Vodafone claims to have the most roaming agreements world-wide and claims that no mobile phone network covers more countries.

One 2 One sponsors football for disabled

The scheme will involve a series of football development days staged at league clubs across England over the next two years to encourage disabled people to participate in football. One of the first clubs to sign up for the programme is Everton which is already sponsored by One 2 One.

Everton will now set up a disabled section to provide training.

Vodafone brings out Pay As You Talk derivative for infrequent users

The allcalls package offers calls from as little as 5p a minute with no service charge.

Access to the original Pay As You Talk 2p weekend local call rate is excluded.

Handset packages cost from as little as 60 including 10 worth of free calls in the box 2.50 preloaded on the phone and an additional 7.50 worth of calls for every user who registers. No time limit or use by date on TopUp cards means existing cards can now be used to spend 5 15 25 or 75 all on calls.

Vodafone Pay As You Talk allcalls offers an exciting extension to the Vodafone Pay As You Talk range to further broaden its appeal offering not only an extensive selection of handsets and TopUp vouchers in varying denominations but also greater tariff choice said Vodafone commercial manager Paul Donovan.

As pre-pay moves to the next stage in its development it is natural that networks extend the range of choice available to provide a service to suit an even wider audience.

Handsets on offer include the Siemens C25 Ericsson A1018 Motorola M3788 and Trium Astral.

Customers can now log on to the Vodafone Interactive web site at www.vodafone.net to top-up using a credit or debit card.

Vodafone says it now has more than 4.2 million customers on Pay As You Talk.

Games market will boom but many content providers will fail

Mobile content markets in Europe and North America will grow from e1.8 billion in 2003 to a potential value of e4.3 billion in 2006.

The largest growth will occur in the mobile games and downloadable music markets which collectively could see growth from e510 million in 2003 to over e1.9 billion in 2006.

The content market in Europe and North America is cranking the handle on production and development but there is no effective method to getting these products to market utilising content providers current strategies said Graham Brown author of the report Winning and Losing in Mobile Content.

The industry has yet to collectively develop a winning strategy he added saying: We identified a number of industry weaknesses that surprised us when conducting the research. The most obvious of these was investing resources in mythical killer applications and rich content without an effective distribution channel to get products to market.

Unfortunately we appear to be collectively disposed to pursue industry solutions to industry problems.

W2Forum studied companies both inside and outside the industry and concluded that the vast majority were employing ineffective distribution strategies for marketing delivery and the collection of payment for their products.

The few that employed winning distribution models were rapidly increasing their market share.

The report compares these markets with the developed markets of Asia Pacific where mobile content is already worth up to e2.65 billion and could be worth as much as e5.7 billion in 2006.

Most content providers believe they can become a small part of an increasing pie added Brown and thats their weakness.

Instead he predicted that non-mobile players and the few mobile companies that have focused intensely on core competencies distribution and operational effectiveness will dominate this market.

Nokia working to streamline access to e-commerce sites

Nokia says consumers expect mobile internet services to be as easy to access as the internet itself and that its new WAP technology takes all of the configuration headaches and sucks them into the infrastructure away from the user.

With the new method a mobile user browses the internet on a PC and finds an e-commerce site that is mobile enabled. The user simply clicks on a designated icon on the web page and inputs their mobile phone number. Settings are automatically programmed over-the-air to their WAP-enabled phone.

This programming is expected to speed the way the subscriber can directly access this e-commerce site wirelessly without any additional input or programming to the phone.

Ease-of-use is one of the key advantages mobile phones have over PCs today particularly for buying things over the Web said Mark Bregman general manager IBMs Pervasive Computing Division.

Hewlett Packard IBM and Nocom will work to bring the new over-the-air WAP solution to market during the first half of the year.

C. Warehouse kicks off new fixed-line service

Called talktalk the service is the result of CPWs purchase of fixed operator Opal Telecom last year. It became available throughout CPW stores from last Monday.

The service is available to users of BT residential lines. As well as saving 30 per cent on the price of calling fixed lines customers are promised up to 25 per cent off the cost of calling mobiles.

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said:

For all the talk about competition BT has around 80 per cent of all residential landline customers and a 73 per cent share of the residential voice market.

Many customers receive no discounts and those that do end up paying higher line rentals for the privilege. We think people are paying too much for telephone calls and thats why were launching talktalk.

Alcatel brings out its consumer WAP phone phones

Siemens made the same claim for its new WAP phone earlier this month (Mobile News February 7).

It uses WAP 1.1 and a microbrowser from Phone.com and comes in a range of five colours with high-gloss finish. Measuring 122 x 48 x 25mm and weighing 150g with the standard Nickel Metal Hydride battery the One Touch View db will provide up to 123 hours of standby. The super power Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) 580-mAh battery offers up to 110 hours standby.

Alcatel is working with five operators in Europe to provide terminal packages and bundles to suit the national marketplace. These bespoke packages and bundles will be commercially available during the second quarter this year.

New SP promises world-wide SMS links to users

In the last two years more cellular phones were sold than personal computers and automobiles combined. By 2003 there will be more than a billion mobile users in the world and virtually anyone will be text message enabled through SMS said Christophe Dolique executive vice president of MobileWay.

Until now it has not been easy to access this large mobile customer base for business and technical reasons.

MobileWay is partnering with wireless operators and content providers for the development of wireless services particularly tailored to the mobile subscribers day-to-day needs.

Subscribers will not receive unwanted or unwarranted data as they only sign up to the specific message service they require.

Subscribers will be able to get the services and information specifically related to their day-to-day life he said.

People love the mobile phone but hate the technology says latest Philips survey

The survey was carried out by Taylor Nelson Sofres between 26 and 30 November from a sample size of 1011 adults.

The challenge facing the mobile phone industry is to help educate all consumers that these services will become possible. Whether it is via the internet or other means consumers are sending a clear message that they are interested in new features and benefits not in the technology or medium which delivers them. And with mobile phone purchasing on the up and 15 per cent of people using their mobiles more than their home phones this is a challenge that needs to be met now says Philips.

Philips asked customers across all regions of the UK their opinions on current issues and developments for mobile phones and what their expectations and needs are for future.The survey covered everything from serious to anecdotal issues from why people buy a mobile phone to the most embarrassing place they have used it. The results have been analysed independently both demographically and geographically.

The most important qualities in a phone remain quality of reception and price. These were vital to nearly 40 per cent of the people surveyed. Almost half of all phones (44 per cent) are purchased for safety or use in an emergency situation like breaking down.

Females are not surprisingly. more likely to buy for security (61 per cent). Parents are also buying phones for their children for security reasons. Over 3000 phones are being purchased for the younger age group each week.

Use of the mobile phone is split two thirds social one third business. Six out of ten people spend less than one hour per week on their phone.

This figure rises to over eight out of 10 in Britains Central region. The survey showed 68 per cent of people surveyed are not embarrassed to use a mobile phone in public. But over six out of 10 people are in favour of mobile free zones in places like cinemas churches and public transport.

And the health issue may all be a bit of media hype with 54 per cent of the population not concerned about the supposed health risk of mobile phones. This figure rises to 71 per cent in Wales.

Most of the British population believes that it is getting good value from the mobile phone manufacturers. Apart from in the Central region where 68 per cent consider it to be too expensive.

While 60 per cent of those surveyed are not interested in connecting to the internet via their phone they are interested in receiving other services like e-mail messages and ticket booking facilities which are only available via the internet