Robi has introduced an on-net SMS offer. The package is available to prepaid customers until March 31 and costs US$0.06 for one SMS and US$0.06 for 10 MMS messages too. The package is valid for one day.
On 03.27.11, In Mobile, By Editor
On 03.24.11, In Mobile, By Editor
Based on results from a comprehensive survey on what mobile users want out of a mobile subscription, Telenor is changing its mobile subscription offering. The answer is that mobile users want a good offer on mobile phones combined with low and predictable prices on subscriptions. They are also interested in coverage that provides the maximum user experience.
Telenor’s radical change to its subscription offering starts 11 April. This will see the start of sales at around 1,500 mobile dealers countrywide. From now on Norwegian mobile customers will only have two options to choose between, Komplett and Prat. In this way Telenor is simplifying and improving its mobile subscriptions.
Svein Henning Kirkeng, Director of Consumer Markets in Telenor, emphasizes that Telenor shall give customers the best mobile experience the market has to offer, and that the growth in mobile Internet usage places major demands on mobile operators.
“Telenor gives people the best user experience when it comes to mobile surfing in Norway; this is documented by independent tests carried out in various media. With our new subscriptions you not only enjoy Telenor’s superb coverage, but also simple and reasonably priced subscriptions with good promotions on mobile phones for surfing. Telenor is now coming out with the most attractive mobile packages on the market,” says Kirkeng.
All additional services, such as the popular FriFamilie, can be combined with the new subscriptions.
The customer decides
Komplett and Prat are offered with various packages that cover the needs of everyone. In an effort to make this adaptation a success, Telenor asked 3,000 people what they wanted out of a mobile. The new mobile subscriptions come as a direct answer to these wishes. Key feedback:
- For the first time in Norwegian mobile history people are saying that surfing using a mobile phone is more important than sending text messages (SMS).
- For the first time in Norwegian mobile history, people are voicing in unison that they want a fixed monthly price that includes as much as possible. This is because people want to keep things simple and predictable.
- Yet again in Norwegian mobile history, people are giving clear responses that, when they are in the market for a subscription, they prefer good offers on mobile phones too.
- The paradigm shift we are now experiencing in the mobile world places great demands on operators. When people are increasingly using mobile phones for a diverse range of network services, they demand network access and a good user experience at all times anywhere they go. Coverage and quality take on a new meaning entirely.
Great value included
Choosing the name Komplett is, according to Telenor, quite obvious since the package contains nearly everything:
- Good offers on mobiles for surfing.
- Everything you need in terms of talk time, SMS and data.
- FriFamilie offers unlimited minutes, SMS and MMS to family members.
- Telenor’s test winning mobile network.
“With Komplett Telenor is providing Norway’s best total solution in terms of mobile subscriptions. Everything is included here; talk time, SMS and data – and the customer gets a great price on a new mobile phone too. The total value of the subscription is actually higher than the monthly price,” says Svein Henning Kirkeng.
Komplett comes in Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large – and Control. Since the mobile user is getting a large package at a fixed price, there is great value included. Telenor will make this value known to customers, because the company wants to show everyone how big a price reduction the subscriptions represent as well as how much value is included in the subscriptions.
Reasonable packages for the windbags too
For those customers most interested in calling with a mobile, Telenor is offering Prat. Prat offers good call prices and predictable customised use. Varieties of Prat are named for how much talk time is included: Prat 100, Prat 400 and Prat 1200. Here too the customer gets very attractive prices on a new mobile phone – and again, FriFamilie and Telenor’s superb coverage are included.
Out with the old, in with the new
Sales of all current subscriptions ceases on Monday, 11 April 2011, and sales of Komplett and Prat starts the same day. Telenor will not be automatically moving customers from the old subscriptions to the new ones but it will be simple to change subscriptions.
“Our existing customers will be informed and guided by us via the Internet, e-mail and SMS, so that they can familiarize themselves with our new reasonably priced offers at a relaxed pace, and choose the package that best suits them, says Kirkeng. He points out that whether they go over to the new subscriptions or keep their existing ones is entirely up to the customer.
In closing Svein Henning Kirkeng points out that although Telenor is going the extra mile to fulfil wishes for reasonably priced mobiles for surfing, the company will still offer good package prices to those who want to keep their old mobiles, yet still benefit from Komplett or Prat.
On 03.23.11, In Mobile, By Editor
Vodafone Portugal has launched ‘Vodafone web phone for Facebook’ service.
This service allows user to make and receive voice and video calls, as well as send and receive SMS and MMS with their Vodafone phone number, from the Facebook social network.
To use the service, customers need to access Vodafone Portugal’s Facebook page and select the Vodafone web phone tab. The application is available for use on PCs and Macs. The Vodafone web phone can also be installed from the operator’s website.
Voice calls, video calls and chats between Vodafone web phone users are free of charge. Voice calls, video calls, SMS and MMS to mobile and fixed networks are charged in accordance with the customer’s price plan. To mark the service launch, Vodafone has launched a ‘Happy Hours’ promotion, offering free calls to any Vodafone Portugal mobile phone from the Vodafone web phone. The Web Phone for Facebook service has been developed in partnership with Portuguese company WIT Software.
On 03.23.11, In Mobile, By Editor
KT Olleh is offering free incoming MMS messages on roaming when customers travelling overseas.
KT is already offering free incoming SMS and LMS messages. Furthermore, KT has launched a data roaming limiting service.
When service fees exceed US$89.3, the data roaming service will be blocked. KT has also strengthened its secure roaming service by offering a flat rate of US$0.44 per message for roaming MMS messages to any destination in the world.
On 03.18.11, In Mobile, By Editor
A new research report has revealed that France had 15.5 million mobile internet users, defined as people who connected at least once a month, in 2010, 3.3 million more than a year earlier.
Half of the users are using “advanced services” (MMS, radio, video/TV, e-mail, instant messaging, video telephony) and nearly half have downloaded an app. The number of fixed internet users rose by 10% in one year to 38.3 million in December 2010, with some 24 million connecting daily, or 3.2 million more than in December 2009.
According to the report, every hour between 9:00 and 21:00, an average of 5.4 million people are online in France in 2010, versus 4.6 million in 2009. Social media have created a permanent connection to the internet, with over three quarters of internet users having consulted a blog or social network in December (32.1 million people) and 11.7 million people did so daily.
Internet users are increasing the amount of time they spend on such sites, rising to 5 hours 30 minutes, on average, in 2010 from 4 hours 10 minutes in 2009. Consumers are using the internet to seek others’ advice before buying products, with two-thirds of internet users sharing their opinions on products and services they buy by commenting on e-commerce sites, blogs, forums or social networks. There were 27.7 million online purchasers in 2010, 3.3 million more than a year earlier.
Online video is gaining more and more viewers, with video portals hosting professional and amateur productions attracting 24.5 percent unique visitors last year, nearly 60 percent of all internet users. In the mobile sphere, one in ten mobile phone owners watched video or TV content in the preceding month. Fixed internet podcast downloads were up by 26.5 percent year-on-year to over 14 million in December.
On 03.18.11, In Mobile, By Editor
InfoSonics has announced its new Verykool S810 handset and first customer shipment to Latin America.
The S810 is the second phone developed entirely in-house by the Verykool R&D centre in Beijing.
The S810 is a septa-band phone (tri-band in 3G plus quad-band in GSM), bar type phone with a QWERTY keypad and 2.4″ QVGA TFT LCD screen, based on WCDMA/EDGE technology.
The S810 handset also features 2-megapixel camera and video camera with 3GP voice and video recording and playback, FM radio, MP3 and MP4 capability, as well as Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity with 3.6 Mbps USB tethering and PC synch.
The device also offers data capabilities with USB 1.2, SMS/MMS messaging and e-mail, 23MB internal memory, expandable to 32GB, with speakerphone, 72 polyphonic ringtones, 3.5mm audio jack and stereo headset included.
On 02.28.11, In Mobile, By Editor
New variant of spyware ‘Spy.Felxispy’ on Symbian devices causing privacy leakage has recently been captured by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre of China.
According to NetQin Mobile, there are more than a dozen variants of the spyware since the first was spotted, and the latest has affected over 150,000 devices.
Once installed, the spyware will turn on the Conference Call feature of the device without users’ awareness. When users are making phone calls, the spyware automatically adds itself to the call to monitor the conversation.
According to Dr. Zou Shihong, Vice President of R&D from NetQin, the conference call feature allows more than two parties to join a conversation, and it’s easily available to most smart-phone users. The privacy stealers exploit the vulnerability of this feature for financial purposes. The privacy protection on mobile devices becomes more important than ever.
NetQin Cloud Security Centre detects that the spyware can remotely turn on the speaker on the phone to monitor sounds around users without the users’ awareness. Apart from that, the spyware is also capable of synchronizing the messages the user received and delivered to the monitoring phone. These performances will compromise users’ privacy.
According to NetQin, the privacy stealers usually install the spyware on the phone or send MMS containing the spyware to users to lure them to click. As the spyware is artfully disguised, users can easily be trapped.
On 02.25.11, In Mobile, By Editor
MTS Ukraine is planning to launch a single quality monitoring system for value-added services on its network.
The operator will install 30 local modules with dedicated software and a central server in Kiev for the system.
The system will test VAS based on known subscriber behavior, including SMS, MMS, WAP, EDGE/GPRS and other services. The system is supplied by Russian integrator Sitronics.