Hackers to target mobile VoIP calls

No sooner have vendors turned their attention to providing mobile phone users with access to low cost VoIP networks, than analyst firm, Ferris Research, is warning that it will open up handsets to all the dangers of the Internet. As VoIP means that an Internet MAC address effectively becomes a telephone number, it will be possible to make thousands of simultaneous Internet 'calls', according to Ferris. Those calls could end up as 'spam' voice messages which clog up your phone's voice mailbox. Then there will be loads of 'phishing' attacks where hackers use virtually untraceable VoIP numbers to call vulnerable people and trick them into giving out personal information. The most outrageous Ferris claim, reported by The Business is that hackers will be able to break into VoIP calls and overhear consumers giving out their credit cards details to theatres and cinemas. Mobile Insight isn't sure such a 'hack' is actually possible. Anyway, the mobile VoIP arena sure is hotting up. Voxlib has just announced it will be launching VOX for Skype on September 11th 2006. This will be a highly interesting service because the claim is that it will work on any mobile phone and link not just to regular VoIP/SIP users but to Skype too. VoIP is, of course, big business. According to Ferris, Vonage has around two million regular users; Skype claims it has over 110 million 'customers' but it probably has about 30 million regular users, of which about seven million are online at any time. Then Ferris estimates that there are perhaps another 50 million regular VoIP users on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo

The full Inquirer story ...  Mobile phones opening up to spammers

www.ferris.com
www.voxlib.com
 

Vodafone and 3 face realities

 Beleaguered UK network operator, Vodafone is planning to introduce a far more cost-competitive tariff for its UK customers over the next few days. According to the Sunday Times, this is Vodafone´s response to T-Mobile´s Flext tariff. The new tariff will put an end to the confusion which existing contracts inspire - whereby the subscriber has set quotas of voice minutes, MMS messages and text messages which frequently get unused. Copying Flext, the new Vodafone is expected to embrace all three types of usage with just one tariff. It's not presently clear how this tariff might incorporate charges for data usage. At present, Vodafone offers a flat rate tariff for heavy email and Internet users. The move follows 3 (UK) 's recent forced admission that its rate of customer loss ('churn') is actually much higher than previously admitted. Its parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, accidentally admitted last week that the figure was around 50 per cent. It also appears that 3 is finally going to face up to the fact that its number of 'active' users may be a lot lower than the figure of 3.75 million it likes to quote. This problem was first highlighted by O2 ´s Peter Erskine back in 2005. He referred to customers who owned a SIM card but didn't make a call for six months as ´spinners´. See Mobile Insight passim [WAP Insight 250]. The next market which Vodafone will have to fix is Germany where it is in some instances twice as expensive as rival E-Plus, owned by KPN of the Netherlands.

The full Inquirer story ... Vodafone responds to price pressure

www.vodafone.com

Secure@phone uses IMEI for anti-theft
 

The full Inquirer story ... Handset register as anti-theft device

www.secureaphone.com

Orange UK call centres overloaded

Both the general public and its resellers have been plunged into chaos by Orange UK's decision to axe around 1,000 members of staff from its call centres last month [July 2006]. According to a report in Mobile magazine, dealers are waiting up to two hours to connect new customers via Orange's 'Enable' service. Those dealers trying to use email instead of calling the centre are finding that it takes as long as three to four days to get a reply, Mobile reports. It's equally bad for Orange's existing customers. One reader told Mobile Insight that he had held on during the day for an answer to a handset query for so long that his battery ran out. So he rang back at 3.30 AM in the morning. To his chagrin the call centre was still telling him that "Orange is committed to excellent customer service" but it was "currently receiving a high number of calls." Orange has previously been very proud of its record on customer service. In May 2005, the company gained the top ranking for customer satisfaction among mobile phone contract customers in the annual JD Power and Associates 2005 UK Mobile telephone customers satisfaction study. An Orange spokeswoman claimed that the company had actually allocated extra staff to handle calls and reduce waiting times. A Mobile Insight reader claimed he'd got through twice and been cut off before the call centre agent had been able to provide an answer. "She actually tried to send me a text," he added. "But the message was incomplete."

The full Inquirer story ... Orange help call centres go into meltdown

www.orange.co.uk

Rok to offer mobile VoIP calls

 The full Inquirer story ... Firm offers free VoIP calls on mobile phone

www.rokviper.com

Snippets

The Sunday Times newspaper has revealed that Paul 'The Plumber' Davidson is working on another very worrying invention. It's a main adapter which screeches - the Noisy Charger- when it's not actually doing anything. So, besides you mobile handset irritatingly beeping at you when the battery is low, the handset charger might start to screech if you leave it in the mains socket with no handset attached.