BT adds consumer Wi-Fi version of Fusion

A consumer version of Fusion – BT's wireless VoIP offering – will be launched on Monday 8th January which uses Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth as per the service it replaces. The move follows a soft launch of the same service to business back in December [2006]. The big difference – from a consumer's standpoint - is that a digital cordless phone bought for the home will also work with public hotspots. Fusion handsets are designed to work with BT's OpenZone national network of Wi-Fi hotspots. It's thought that the service will be initially offered via three handsets : the Nokia 6136; Motorola A910; and Samsung P200. BT hopes to have around 20 compatible handsets available by Q3 2007. Fusion will be sold like a cellular service with a contract and initially only to customers of BT's own broadband service. Later in the year the company hopes to sell to customers of rival broadband suppliers and to offer a prepaid version too. In the Sunday Telegraph, BT's head of mobility and convergence, Steve Andrews, Claimed, "I think we'll see mass market adoption for BT Fusion over the next 12 months. Over 60 per cent of mobile calls are made indoors – at home, in the office, at railways stations and airports. We believe this is an underserved market in terms of good low-cost access to the internet." It's not clear, of course, whether it will be possible to access Skype via a Fusion phone – something which will probably disappoint many consumers.

The full Inquirer story ... BT offers Wi-Fi phones to consumers

www.bt.com/fusion 

ICSTIS allows premium number for complaints

A Mobile Insight reader who called up to complain about a 'Text to Win' competition via SMS (text) was given a premium rate number by industry enforcer, ICSTIS, to make his complaint. Of all organisations, ICSTIS (which oversees premium rate telecoms services complaints in the UK) should have known that a non-geographical number – in this case an 0871 number – incurs a premium rate fee. Mobile Insight checked with ICSTIS and it is the case that the body gives out no other number besides the 0871 number for complaints against the content provider in this particular case. When Mobile Insight pointed out that calling an 0871 number from a mobile phone normally costs around 50 pence per minute, ICSTIS helpfully suggested trying a land line where the normal charge drops to around ten pence per minute. In this instance the competition appears to be run by Mobizar, which recently changed its name to Tanla Mobile. The helpdesk operator confirmed that the competition invite was sent out arbitrarily to selected UK mobile phone numbers. Our reader is adamant that his son did not enter the competition but was still charged for 15 premium rate text messages – taking the total bill to £22.50. There also appears to be no means of barring premium rate texts from being sent to a specific mobile phone number. Our reader is considering swapping his son over to prepay from contract to prevent any repeats of this kind of incident.

The full Inquirer story ... Premium rate text victim irate

www.mobizar.co.uk
www.tanlamobile.com
www.icstis.org.uk

Essar may combat Vodafone offer

A fresh blow was dealt to Vodafone's ambitions to seize a stake in the emerging Indian cellular market when it was revealed that minority shareholder, Essar, is lining up a deal to take a majority shareholding. According to a report in the FT, Essar – which already holds a 33 per cent stake in fourth largest Indian cellular operator, Hutchison Essar – has been lining finance houses up to help it purchase the 67 per cent it doesn't already hold. There are also hints that Vodafone's shareholders might be getting a bit anxious about the price Vodafone might have to pay to muscle in on Hutchison Essar. The FT reckons that Vodafone might end up paying as much as $18 billion for Hutchison Essar, whereas its local rival, Reliance – which is number two in the market – is only worth about $19 billion. As previously reported, Vodafone looks like it might get itself heavily involved in Portugal. Does this mean that Vodafone is planning a move into Latin America – and Brazil specifically – which is another 'emerging' cellular market? Let's hope Vodafone doesn't get too heavily involved in the other 'big' market, Russia, given what is happening to European petrol companies who have invested there.

The full Inquirer story ... Essar delivers fresh blow to Vodafone Indian ambitions

www.hutch.in

Vodafone's Indian chances improve

The mess that has become Vodafone's bid to enter the Indian cellular market has improved slightly. Rival Essar's chances of gaining victory have declined. Documents which cover Essar's first right of refusal should Hutchison decide to sell its stake in India's fourth largest mobile operator appear to exclude a stake sold to a non-Indian company. So Vodafone should be alright. But Essar might still decide to fight the issue, thus delaying any sale by Hutchison. It's becoming more and more obvious why such a fierce fight has emerged for a controlling an operator which is a mere fourth largest player in its market. India has overtaken China as the fastest growing cellular market. It gained 6.8 million new subscribers in November alone bringing the total to about 145 million. But the population is around 1.3 billion. The catch is that around two thirds of India's population live outside the major cities. So, in order to be successful, Hutchison Essar will need a company which knows how to roll out a network nice and cheaply. That company could be Vodafone, of course. However, Vodafone's ability to source handsets on a global basis looks like helping very little. As suppliers like Nokia and LG have started to build their handsets for as little as $35 in Indian factories, that doesn't give Vodafone much room to manoeuvre with handset vendors over price. Vodafone is also facing yet another competitor for Hutchison Essar. This time it is Hinduja – an Indian company best known in Blighty for a passport scandal involving Peter Mandelson. Some observers argue that a big conglomerate like Hinduja knows little about running a mobile phone network. They seem to forget that Hutchison itself is a big conglomerate with a very wide range of holdings .

The full Inquirer story ... Vodafone Indian takeover chances improve

www.hindujagroup.com

Saddam's death movie maker arrested

It appears that the person who used a mobile phone to film the last minutes of Saddam Hussein wasn't a humble guard but a VIP. According to an Associated Press report, a man arrested by Iraqi authorities in conjunction with the filming was an official who supervised the execution and he's now under investigation. One key witness is Munqith al-Faroon, an Iraqi prosecutor who helped convict Saddam for the killings in the town of Dujail. He claimed that two top officials had their mobile phones on them, even though the official witnesses had been searched before boarding US helicopter that carried them to the execution site. Those witnesses had their mobile phones placed in a box for safekeeping. The footage was most likely initially circulated via Bluetooth transfer before somebody had the idea of actually posting it on the Internet

The full Inquirer story ... Saddam mobile phone death film man arrested

Player X supplies geekTV to 3

The UK arm of network operator,  3, has signed up for geekTV which is put together by Player X. geekTV went live on 3 today and can be viewed for a day for a mere 49 pence. Player X claim that geekTV becomes 3's first ever 'made-for-mobile' channel and will feature short clips from the likes of the Dom Joly (Brit Comedian) show. However, part of the deal is that geekTV will encourage subscribers to send in their own home-made video clips which will then be featured separately on 3's own SeeMeTV section. To view geekTV, 3 subscribers should follow the links to 'Mobile TV' where they will see the new service listed. geekTV was already available to O2 customers with i-mode handsets. Mobile Insight's not sure how a US based service also calling itself geek TV here will react to the loss of its trademark to Player X. Commenting on the launch, Bruce Renny – marketing director with Rok TV, told Mobile Insight, "I see this genre of short, sharp, punchy TV content being very successful on mobiles. After all, people are watching mobile TV for an average of three minutes at a time so content must reflect the 'snacking' habits of its viewers. What's perhaps even more significant, however, is that smaller independent content producers have an opportunity right now to create ground-breaking new channels for mobile TV, ahead of the majors, to build new media brands for mobiles."

The full Inquirer story … 3 Signs up for geekTV

www.iamgeek.tv

Review: Alcatel/TCT E801 musicphone

In order to get the cost of an MP3 enabled handset down to very a low level (£50 on prepay with Orange including a 512 MB card), Alcatel/TCT obviously had to cut some corners. Mobile Insight had expected the E801 to be features-light. Instead the quality of speech this handset offers is well below current expectations. The E801 comes with built-in music player which allows the user to play back standard MP3 music files. Indeed to make life easy there are three dedicated music keys built-in to give instant access to your tracks. The company claims the unit normally comes with a 128 MB Micro SD disk as standard, although this can be expanded up to 2 GB if so desired. Better still, the card is accessible via a side slot – so the battery doesn't have to be removed. The big snag comes when downloading MP3s from a PC to the handset. In theory, the E801 is immediately recognised as a removable (memory stick style) hard drive. So it's merely a question of cutting and pasting. That was the theory. In practice two PCs Mobile Insight tested the E801 against, failed to recognise the handset at all. The instructions claimed a driver was available on the Web site but Mobile Insight couldn't find it. Alcatel/TCT claim they are looking into this problem since the handset is useless if you can't download files to it. Naturally the E801 is perfectly capable of using MP3 files as ringtones. In order to 'cut' an MP3 tone from a complete MP3 track, there's an MP3 converter supplied on the Web site. This program does actually work – Mobile Insight succeeded in 'cutting' a 20 second ringtone with it. But the control keys are badly translated from the original Chinese version and you have to guess what their function actually is. The handset's headphones work well – enabling you to speak hands-free when a call is received. Once the call is finished the music carries on with the track from where you left off. The supplied headphones are also unusual in that they plug into the handset's mini USB port. So the same port is used to charge the phone; connect to the headphones and connect to a PC. The screen is more than adequate for the purpose and the colours are bright. Overall, the E801 looks good – it's smart, slim and light. Given it's price point, it's no surprise to find there's no camera; Bluetooth connectivity nor infra-red capability. It doesn't even have a WAP browser. In case you're wondering the handset is made in China not France and TCT simply uses the Alcatel brand alongside its own name. The E801 would have been given a big thumbs up save from the fact that Mobile Insight couldn't live with the poor quality of speech. But if you want a cheap MP3 player that can just about make phone calls, it's worth the investment.

Manufacturer: TCL Communications Technology Holdings (TCT)
Web: TCTMobile.com
UK Suppliers: Orange & T-Mobile
Price: from £50 on prepay
Verdict: Appeals to cheapskates

The full Inquirer story ... The MP3 player that thinks it's a handset

Snippets

NTT DoCoMo is hoping to have a 'Super 3G' network in place by 2009. Unlike 4G, Super 3G is an upgrade to DoCoMo's existing W-CDMA network. It should be around 260 times faster than standard 3G. That equates to 100 Mbit/s for downloading and over 50 Mbit/s for uploading, compared with up to 384 Kbit/s with current 3G technology. DoCoMo hopes to start field tests of the Super 3G network in 2007. www.nttdocomo.com ...

The Washington Research Foundation (WRF) has sued Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Panasonic of North America and Matsushita Electrical (Panasonic) for making and selling Bluetooth products that infringe on at least one of its US patents. www.wrfseattle.org ...

In Site of the Week (by Tony Dennis)

This week                                                                              BBC Three Mobile

More information ... www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/mobile/