Orange UK subscriber charged £8k on roaming for data
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The capping of wholesale price of mobile data roaming rates in Europe does seem to work for the mobile users as a whopping amount of £8,000 was paid by one Orange UK subscriber for mobile data access while working abroad.
Orange charges £2.94 per MB for anyone travelling abroad and the student used internet believing he was entitled to 3GB of downloads under his existing tariff. That works out at €3.32 per MB, and is someway higher than the €1 per MB wholesale charge introduced by the EU in July.
Last year, a cap on wholesale data roaming charges was introduced by EU in order to cut the overall cost of roaming.
T Mobile & Orange UK merger vital for competition: T Mobile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The 50-50 joint venture, between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Telecom’s Orange in UK announced on September 8, 2009 is crucial for the two companies to be able to compete against bigger rivals.
The announcement was made by T-Mobile UK Managing Director Richard Moat. According to Moat, the margin pressures are altering the competitive landscape and altering the ability to fund the future.
The joint venture proposal is waiting for the nod from European Commission, which will investigate whether there will be any adverse effect on the market, has until Feb. 15 to rule on the joint venture.
UK’s largest mobile operator with a 37% market share will be created if the propsed venture is successful.
Sierra Wireless AirCard Arrives at Orange
Feeling the need for more speed, Orange UK turned to Sierra Wireless to help rev-up its 3G network. A newly signed agreement makes Sierra Wireless’ AirCard 850 Mobile PC Card available to Orange’s 3G customers.
The deal with Sierra marks the first time Orange has offered a 3G+ card in the United Kingdom, which is said to deliver mobile connectivity at speeds three-times faster than 3G.
Orange is already offering the AirCard 850 at retail, online and through business channels, even though its planned 3G network upgrade is not slated to begin until the first quarter of next year. Orange will market its upgraded high-speed service under the Orange Business Anywhere moniker.
The 3G+ wireless WAN Type II PC Card, according to Orange, also is compatible with 3G EDGE and GPRS networks. The AirCard 850 makes use of the 2100 MHz 3G frequency band common to European 3G networks. The AirCard delivers average data rates of 1 Mbps, with bursts up to 1.8 Mbps on the Orange 3G+ network.
Sierra Wireless has been making a push to help carriers speed up their networks. The company, for instance, is helping power Sprint Nextel’s migration to EV-DO Revision A technology.
Source- wirelessweek Wireless Mobile Telecom
