T-Mobile UK customer, still?  Well, get on the phone to them and see if you too can benefit from reader Steve’s experience.  Not only did he get winning (and, I have to say, quite surprisingly good) customer service, his girlfriend also got what can only be described as a deal of the century.

Although I’ve got issues with T-Mobile’s voice service whilst in the UK, I always found the data to be pretty reliable and I still have two accounts with them.  Whenever I’ve spoken to customer service there, I’ve also found them reasonably helpful.

I’ve reproduced Steve’s comment from this post below:

- - -

Blimey it really is hair pulling stuff. Anyone who has read my rants knows I hate customer support lines too. But the other day I had a sweet and lovely experience with T Mobile…

I called 150 and am straight through to a lovely lady who asks my mobnum and password and then says “how is you day steve, can I call you steve?”. I say my contract is up but am considering staying. She tells me that I’m paying too much!!!!!! I think you’d be better staying with us but moving to Flex 20 given your call pattern, and then it will only cost you £20/month instead of 40 ’odd you’re currently paying. Great, I will do that then.

Next day my girlfriend calls as her a/c is to also expire in one month and says “I’d like to move to flex 20 because my boyfriend is and we’ve both decided it is the bext tariff for us. but my a/c isn’t up for another month”. “no problem” comes the reply. “better still if you extend for a further 18 months I’ll do Flex20 for £5/month instead of £20″.

“Erm what’s that catch?” asks my girlfriend. Nothing. obviously we want you to extend for 18 months but at £5/month that is a mere £90 total for an entire 18 months for the flex20 tariff.

Well yes I’d love to she says, but my boyfriend wasn’t offered this. I’ll only take it if you give him the same deal.

“ok what is his number?”. tap tap, tap. “yes he can have it to”.

Now I have an in-built physchological issue with signing up to anything for 18 months. But at £5 per month how can I go wrong.

So there you have it: no IVR system, a lovely friendly support lady, willingness to offer great deals to both of us. Yes I am in a state of shock at the moment.

And then the next day after another call to T Mobile to rectify my MMS settings which I’d mucked up, they called back an hour later to “check if your MMS is now working ok Steve”!!

Believe me, I do not recommend any mobile operator as I think 666 should be the number they all use for their sales departments. But based on this experience, T Mobile are definitely winning the customer support stakes at the moment.

- - -

Very good news for the industry and for T-Mobile.

AT&T has revealed it will be bringing Qualcomm’s MediaFLO mobile TV technology to users’ phones by May. FLO will launch on AT&T’s network this May on two new devices, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.

AT&T said the service will feature two exclusive TV channels, but didn’t give any more information on their content. The operator did say however that it will offer full-length television content and sporting events and programming from leading entertainment brands CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, MTV, NBC 2GO, NBC News2Go and Nickelodeon.

While there still seems to be a lot of skepticism from several quarters on whether mobile TV is a goer, the networks at least seem to be convinced. I can’t help but think that AT&T will need to add a lot more devices to its line up before too long if it wants to take mobile TV anywhere beyond a niche product.

After the sale rumours that followed Vodafone last year over its stake in Verizon Wireless, it looks like the decision to hold onto 45 percent of the US operator has paid off. According to the Financial Times, Vodafone has revealed it expects to start receiving dividends from its share in Verizon Wireless again from next year.

The paper reports Verizon Wireless last issued dividends back in 2005, it handed over £923 million, with the company deciding subsequently to pay down debt rather than issue dividends and quotes an analyst as suggesting that Verizon should indeed start paying out next year but at a lower level than previously.

So does this make it more or less likely that Vodafone will sell? After all, if it holds on longer, it’ll get to see some pay back for its investment. But, the resumption of dividends also means that its stake could fetch a higher price if Vodafone decided to put it up for sale. And then there’s the question of the 700Mhz spectrum auction, which Verizon Wireless emerged victorious from. While it got itself a juicy section of spectrum, it also shelled out a lot for the privilege. There’s got to be some heads being scratched at Vodafone right now.

Good news for iPhone users out there: Nokia Siemens Networks reckons it’s cracked a way to double the speeds EDGE networks are capable of. The networking company says it can now get 592 kbps out of EDGE by way of a software upgrade.

The company says the EDGE speed boost will be around from the third quarter of this year and that it already has plans for the next evolution of EDGE, called EGPRS 2, which will promise downlink speeds of up to 1.2 Mbps and will double uplink speed to up to 473 kbps.

It’s always good news when operators step up speeds but with most EDGE networks already replaced with HSDPA et al, how much use is NSN’s upgrade going to be? For city dwellers, not much, but for those far out of town where EDGE is the fall back, it’ll be a welcome development.

Link: Apple attempts blackmail with its Irish Staff

I have just had three phone calls from Apple staff in Hollyhill today panicking about a note they received this morning the contents of which are below.

If you’ve been following Pat’s commentary over the past weeks, you’ll know he’s supremely, SUPREMELY unimpressed with Apple and iPhone launch in Ireland (”Paddy Tax”). He’s been contacted by some Apple store staff today worrying about a rather direct note received from the top chaps. Have a read for more.

A SpinVox modification I’d dearly like to see — and pay for, big time:

See where the email copy arrives, it displays the phone number in the body and in the subject?  I don’t do phone numbers any more.  It’d be really cool if the subject said ‘New converted voicemail from Dan Ilett‘ — all the system would need to do is lookup my address book.  Maybe it could query my Plaxo address book dynamically to see who’s been calling me and get the name from there?

Anyone else find reckon this would be useful?

SMS Text News reader Jay got this marketing message the other day whilst he was abroad, roaming.

Inspired, eh?

First of all he was out of the country.  I suppose that’s too difficult to work out, even for a mobile operator.  Technically possible but the marketing department or marketing company behind this probably only had a list of mobile numbers and a mobile gateway without ‘presence’ abilities.

Second, even if Jay was interested in YouTube on his mobile… there’s no call to action, at all.

I suspect that you’re meant to know that you can get YouTube via your Vodafone Live page (I suspect, because Vodafone live on a Nokia E90 is absolute rubbish).  Where is the click through link?  Deary me.   What was the point in this?

I’d like to know just what marketing chumps in the Vodafone team came up with this idea.  NO link at ALL?  Defend this.  Explain it!  Was this just sent for the fun of it?  Informational?

These guys could learn a thing or two from the 3UK weekly text message updates — all singing, all dancing mobile video ads complete with click through to the mobile web portal.

Deary me.

Got a note in from Michael Becker over at iLoop Mobile. Been following them for a long time. They’re off to CTIA big time and they’re bringing one of those bull riding machines for their stand. Shit. I’m useless at these sort of things. It’s like Skiing. I get the concept, I reckon I’m a genius, I reckon it’s all down to logic… then reality arrives and I fall straight to the floor screaming.

I, er, won’t be videoing that either. Cord McCoy, who knows a thing or two about bull riding (I bet he carries a JCB ToughPhone - I’ll ask him), is going to be giving demonstrations. What’s more, if you’re brave enough, or talented enough, you’ll be able to try a ride yourself — and everyone else watching (that’s me) can then vote by text. Right on.

Michael tells me iLoop are also powering the text information services and event voting for CTIA (in collaboration with Neustar & OpenMarket) — there’s an SMS booth finder as well. Here’s how it works: Text first three characters to an exhibiting company’s name, e.g. ILO to FINDER (346337) and you’ll get back their booth number, meeting room numbers and the booth contact persons name. Smart.

India is, according to Obopay, adding 8 million mobile customers a month — to a market that’s already got around 250 million mobile users (compared to roughly 257 million in America).  So it makes sense for Obopay to head to that area.  It’s not a tip-toe strategy either.  They’ve got together with YES BANK (the bank, I imagine, that likes to say ‘Yes’?) to deliver a fully integrated offering.  Any customer can ’securely and instantly’ transfer money to and from any mobile phone number via Obopay’s mobile application, text message or the mobile web. Genius.  What’s more, any YES BANK customers can withdraw cash that they’ve been sent via Obopay using their debit card.

An excellent move.  I’ll see if I can connect with Obopay at CTIA and get some more gossip.

I had a note in from Skyfire, makers of the uber-fast mobile web browser, letting me know that I’m most probably in ‘Beta Group 1′ — so I should be getting a link to download and play soon. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s Microsoft-platform only at the moment (that platform needs the most help!) but there’s a Symbian client in the works. Excellent.

Here’s the gossip on the Symbian client:

In addition to adding features and building a robust Windows Mobile Skyfire, we also have development underway for a Symbian version of Skyfire. Stay tuned as we extend our beta to the Nokia N-series and E-series phones in the U.S. this summer. Beta 1 and 2 users who have signed up indicating that they have Nokia phones do not need to do anything. We’ll contact you as soon as it’s ready.

Gah! Summer? Ages away!!

So the iPhone browsing experience rocks, yes? But what about the rest of the platforms out there. Well, the manufacturers and software developers have generally been nothing short of abysmal when it comes to browser-innovation so I’m excited about the prospect of a usable, FAST browser for mobile handsets. Let’s not forget Opera Mini — although, unfortunately, I tend to do so. Truth be known, I’m not sure why. I need to take another look at their current offerings.

Back to Skyfire. They’re hiring developers, big time. More details here.

If you’re heading to CTIA this weekend, there’s obviously a plethora of events taking place across the ‘CTIA week’. One that I’ll be dropping into is Mobile Geeks of London on Tour — organised by our very own Whatley on Wednesday columnist, James Whatley.   There’s a few other events going on that evening, I know, but if you’ve got time to drop in, I may well see you there!

- Facebook link.

And we’re all invited.

This Saturday — March 29th — Ambassador Ricky Cadden of Symbian Guru (and S60) is getting married — live, thanks to Nokia’s N82 and mobile video streaming service, FlixWagon. One camera will be following Ricky as he gets ready whilst another will be following the bride-to-be, Christina. I say ‘camera’ — obviously it’s going to be filmed on two Nokia N82s.

The only URL you need to participate is http://www.flixwagon.com/wedding (will be live on Saturday).

I’ve asked Ricky where the guest list is. If we’re all going to be peering at their special day, I reckon it’s only right we buy some wine glasses for them. Or a candelabra. Or something like that.

Impending congratulations Ricky & Christina. I should have arrived in from my flight and be watching from my hotel room.

This is just brilliant. AND we’ve got AUDIO!

Remember I blogged the other day about the super 3UK offer for pay-as-you-go USB modem deal? Well, reader Dan Lane went straight to the 3UK site and ordered one. The result? Well. Complicated. I’ll let him explain…

- - -

Ok, first things first. Who am I? I’m Dan Lane, mobile geek, entrepreneur and CTO at Howler Technologies (a title I share with legendary mobile developer Jay Fenton, yes, we have two CTOs). I am the polar opposite of a “normob”.

I have strong opinions on most things but this article isn’t about sharing my opinion with you, it’s an opinion-less factual representation of an exprience I just had with Three customer services.

Ewan posted about the £69.99 PAYG USB Modem deal that Three are currently running, in the small print I noticed that there was a further £50 off for existing Three customers and decided that was great value for money and I’d have me some of that action.

When ordering they look up your postcode and guess your address. I always write my address in the following format:

Apartment 123, Building Blah
Street Name
London
SE12 3AB

When I entered my postcode I was offered a list of apartments in the following format:

Apartment 123, Building Blah, Street Name, London, SE12 3AB

Brilliant, I picked mine from the list and my address was filled in as:

Apartment 123 Street Name
London
SE12 3AB

That should do, I know my credit card has authorised payments to similarly mis-formed addresses and there is only one building on my street so the courier can find it. I place the order and think nothing more of it.

Delivery day comes around and I don’t remember seeing a confirmation e-mail so I check my spam folder and there it is, along with another e-mail telling me my payment didn’t go through due to a “mismatch” because my address eventually ended up as:

Building Blah
Apartment, Street Name
London
SE12 3AB

I am told to visit a link and correct my details, the link is: http://threestore.three.co.uk/3pay which, at the time of writing, displays the standard IIS “The page cannot be found” error.

No problem, I’ll just call the 0870 “Three Shop Helpline”, correct my details and we’ll have this sorted in no time at all.

I record all the calls I make to any customer service dept, simply because of all the terrible terrible experiences I’ve had in the past, here is my first attempt to traverse their IVR.

Notice that when I select 5 for any other queries it asks me three questions specific to delivery, when I then select option 3 for “all other delivery options” it claims to be transferring me to a customer service representative but actually dumps me out to the main customer service number for existing customers which, presumably, isn’t going to be able to help me with my existing order. I go a few options into this menu before realising where I am and hang up.

In my second attempt when I select 2 for a query about an existing order it asks me the same delivery-specific questions as it did in my previous call when I pressed 5 for any other queries. Sensing that this call was going the same way I ditched it and called back.

The third time I hit magic number 4 which put me straight into a queue, which was playing a horribly jittery skipping version of Dionne Warwick’s Walk On By interspersed with a crackling voice thanking me for my patience, here is a sample. I won’t post the whole call because a lot of it involves me reading out my address multiple times.

Eventually someone answered and said that because the order had been cancelled I’d have to re-order, since I couldn’t use the website she passed me through to direct sales so they could take my order over the phone. Unfortunately the sales chap told me that the £50 discount offer was a mistake and he was unable to offer me the same price, however they would do the same deal but with £20 off instead of £50. Fair enough, this is still a great deal and I’m happy to go ahead with that, I ask the chap if that’s the very best price he can do and he goes away and checks.

When he comes back he tells me that unfortunately £20 off is the best they can for existing customers but it’s only available on the website. When I point out that the website won’t work for me he apologises and I ask him to confirm that there is nothing he can do to help me before ending the call.

In situations like this I like asking that final question because it gives the other person one last chance to think about it and perhaps say something like “actually, maybe my manager can help”.

My name is Dan Lane, and I constantly find myself an unfortunate victim of customer service.

If you’re having a problem with a 3 phone that you’ve just had delivered, don’t worry.  Everyone else is.  At least, that’s according to the IVR message on the 3 Shop helpline.  Have a listen to the first bit of this audio file (it’s a link to a WAV file).

Just keep switching your handset off and on, advises the line.

And stay tuned for the full story on why this audio file exists.

Worth a read…

Link: The media industry’s rising stars: top 40 under 40 - Times Online

We present our list of “40 under 40” people from the media industry in its broadest sense - embracing broadcasting, computer games, venture capital and mobile technology. Most are up and coming; some have already made it.

Heathrow Airport’s new terminal, ‘Terminal 5′ has been attracting a lot of attention of late, not least from environmental campaigners Greenpeace. They’re intimately acquainted with new technology and new media — here’s a good example: They’ve been using BAFTA nominated MoBlogUK’s system to deliver a blow-by-blow account of their Terminal 5 campaign today.

It’s not just pictures — but video too. Check it out here.

For those of you who may not be a regular reader of our dear blog, I’ll catch you up to speed.

My name is Krystal, I live in Canada, and our Mobile Industry sucks.

Now that you’re all caught up and sitting comfortably, we’ll begin.

When I heard that Bell was offering unlimited data, I got excited. Super excited. OH MY GOD SOMEONE HERE IS FINALLY CLUEING IN! excited, and I jumped at the chance to demo it on an HTC Touch.

I’m a bit of a normob, not by choice, by necessity. I would happily use my phone to the extent of a James Whatley, but I can’t. Why? 5 cents/kb hurts. Big time.

So after the helpful guys in media relations at Bell (hi guys!) got in touch (get it? touch? ok bad pun.) and said they’d send me one, I was ecstatic and almost started drooling at the thought of having unlimited data all to myself.

The Touch arrived on a Friday and I quickly ripped open the packaging and found myself playing with it. My husband of course sat down with the instruction manual (he’s one of those who has to read the entire user guide first) while I plugged it in and instantly started fiddling. Let me take this moment to say, I hate Windows, and Windows Mobile. I am a Mac and Symbian girl through and through. But for the sake of having unlimited data, I’m willing to sacrifice.

First impressions:

I like the fact that it has a, for lack of a better word, rubbery coating. That was different than any other phone I’ve had. Keeps it from slipping out of my hand. Nice big screen, always a plus for me (considering I’m practically blind without my contact lenses) although it being a touch screen is going to throw me off slightly, I do like having buttons to push. It fits into the cell phone pocket in my handbag (important for a girl!) but alas, Windows Mobile.

Well I’ll deal with it.

First of all, I’ll get it out of the way. The stylus drove me up the wall. (A common occurrence here at SMS Text News) I stopped using it after the first day. I just couldn’t handle it. A) they’re so friggin small and awkward to hold onto and B) I looked like an idiot.

So I ditched the stylus, and thanks to my fake acrylic nails (they’re not just for fashion) I managed to get by. I basically used the qwerty keyboard. The weird Touch version of T9 was annoying, and without the stylus, the transcriber was useless. But the keyboard wasn’t bad, although I had to get used to spelling words out letter by letter. (Which meant I tend to keep emails and text short, much to Ewan’s joy I’m sure)

I won’t get too much into the menus and stuff, it’s Windows Mobile, so you get the idea. Start menu, Internet Explorer etc etc. I tried snapping a few pictures with the camera, but after having an N95, a 2 megapixel camera just seemed like a big disappointment.

I went to work setting up my email account and instantly they started flooding in. Ahh, I think, it’s so simple, they just come to me! I don’t need to connect to my mailbox on my N95, download the message. (Which I usually only do when I’ve got wifi, as I only am allowed 12MB a month currently, and that would get eaten up awfully quickly) I got busy downloading some applications and I sent off my first text message to Ewan who was hiding in San Fran somewhere “Look! A Text from my HTC Touch!” and got a reply somewhere along the lines of “Welcome to the 21st Century with the rest of us.”

Cheeky.

Anyway, onto Unlimited Data!

On Sunday I was up early and off to a bowling tournament. (I will take this moment to interject with, yes, I am a professional 5-Pin bowler) So I drive there, convinced I know where it is, because I do, although I haven’t been there in at least 5 years. We pull into the parking lot, I scan the plaza and hmmm, where has the bowling alley gone? They must have moved it! I know it’s here! Hmmm. I know! I pull out the HTC Touch and google for their website.

Oh. It’s in the plaza across the road.

Woops.

While I was there, someone asked me a question, which I don’t remember at the moment, and I didn’t know the answer. Normally this would result in wandering around asking a million people if they knew, but never fear! I simply pulled out the HTC Touch and googled for the answer. Simple.

The next day my husband had to go into Toronto to a client and took the train. He sent me a text on the way home to say he was on the 5:30 train. A quick check on my HTC Touch told me what time it came in.

I bought books on Amazon (that were already on my wish list), showed my husband the new jacket I had bought online earlier that day while we were out eating dinner and checked my online banking. Gone was my usual line of “don’t let me forget to show you online when we get home…”

I downloaded ring tones, sent Ewan numerous text messages in San Fran and even did that crazy thing we tend to do with phones and made a few calls.

It was brilliant really, I was getting email anywhere. I could update my Facebook status anywhere, I could read the latest celebrity gossip ANYWHERE. Any time I wanted. I felt like a part of the in crowd, what every one of you have. (Or most of you anyway) Finally.

Don’t read this as me hating the HTC Touch, I actually quite liked it, but am unsure if I could handle it as my everyday phone. It would be great for some I’m sure. I’m just picky. I need buttons. (Upon purchasing an iPod Touch I realized the same thing, an iPhone would drive me crazy)

What I did love was the unlimited data. Anytime, anywhere. I just couldn’t get enough and quickly became an addict. (Seriously, the first couple days I was without the Touch and the Unlimited Data, I actually found myself staring off into space, tapping my fingers when I was out somewhere thinking, my god, someone might have poked me on Facebook and I CAN’T CHECK. My email isn’t coming to me anymore, I don’t know what the current weather is. I felt so beyond isolated. Here I am sitting in the middle of the mall, surrounded by people, and I was alone. Completely lost without it. (I totally understand the crackberry habit now!)

BIG kudos to Bell. THANKYOU. For one, letting me demo the Touch, and two for having the balls to take the bull by the horns, notice we’re stuck in the dark ages and offer unlimited data.

Please fellow Canadians, start demanding what you’re missing. You want unlimited data, trust me. And you don’t want to have to pay a fortune for it, it’s not necessary. Bell’s rate is only $7 a month on top of your existing plan. It’s totally worth it. GO GET IT. If you’re not with Bell, and locked into some hideous 36 month contract while lovingly cradling your RAZR, WAKE UP. Smell the unlimited data coffee and starting demanding from the others (Rogers, Telus, Fido, Virgin, anyone) what you want.

Now if only I could get it on my N95…

The home of the Scottish parliament, the Holyrood building, is planning to spend up to £50,000 to boost indoor mobile phone reception, according to the The Scotsman. The paper says Scots MPs have been uphappy with reception since the building opened several years ago.

The parliament uses Vodafone as its network supplier, but apparently its the building itself rather than the operator that’s to blame for the weak signal. Work on improving coverage started this week, says The Scotsman, with a system of pico cells being used to increase mobile reception.

For £50,000, you’d hope the MPs are using some pretty critical applications on their mobiles.

NTT DoCoMo has been pushing ahead with boosting network speeds: the Japanese operator says it has notched up a downlink transmission rate of 250Mbps over an outdoor LTE test network.

DoCoMo is now working on testing handover from one base station to another, and how LTE performs in both indoor and outdoor environments, carrying out the trials near its R&D labs in Yokosuka.

It’s great to see companies making bigger and bigger leaps in bandwidth - good news for efficiency as much as anything. The only downside? DoCoMo expects it won’t finish testing the technology til 2009, so we’re still years away from actually getting our hands on devices and networks that can deliver this speed. Why do operators keep teasing us like this?!

The US could be getting another mobile TV service, according to The Financial Times. The paper quotes analysts as saying broadcaster Dish Networks “could be considering launching a mobile TV service to compete with the leading US mobile phone companies” after bidding at the US 700 Mhz spectrum auction and winning enough licences to “create a nationwide footprint”.

The speculation the spectrum will be used for mobile TV rather than voice or data stems from the nature of the spectrum Dish, through a company called Frontier Wireless, bought: the spectrum is suited to video but can’t handly two way communication.

But whether that actually translates to mobile TV remains to be seen. After all, few broadcast mobile TV services are up and running commercially, let alone are bringing in the revenue. Dish so far has refused to comment on its plans for the spectrum. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if there’s more mobile TV on the way.

If you’ve been reading the news about Emirates and Qantas’ launches of in-flight mobile access and wondering when such mile-high talk and text would be coming to the UK, Ofcom has the answer.

The regulator has announced that it will permit mobiles in aircraft as long as the airline has the backing of either the European Aviation Safety Agency or the Civil Aviation Authority. Ofcom gives the proviso that phones must still be switched off on take off and landing and connectivity can only be switched on once the plane reached 3,000 metres.

Initially, airlines will be able to offer GSM and “if the service is successful it could be extended to 3G and other services in future”, Ofcom says. Is this the death of work downtime on planes as we know it? And how long before there’s an air-rage incident because someone couldn’t keep their voice down in-flight?

CBS Mobile has teamed up with Aggregate to help users find the type of news stories they want to read, after teaming up with Aggregate Knowledge. CBS Mobile will recommend articles to its readers by using behavioural targeting - picking out patterns in what is being viewed, clicked and read - anonymously and in aggregate - by mobile users with similar interests.

“For instance, if a user reads an article about “super delegates” they might be led to a story about the upcoming democratic primaries because others who read about the super delegates went on to read about the primary. Consumers will see article suggestions initially in the form of “Your Headlines” functionality,” CBS said.

Aggregate will also help CBS provide better targeted ads and services, the company said, with the service set to go live on CBS Mobile news site this week. With mobile news sites having a much smaller screen to deliver content to than their PC equivalent, it makes a lot of sense to try and get those stories at tightly focused as possible and crowdsourcing has already proved successful on sites like Digg.

As the owner of 33.5 million Motorola shares, Carl Icahn watches them carefully.  He’s been none to impressed with their performance to date.  Me either.  They really need to up their game.  Spinning out the handset division is, I think, a good move, if that means that they’ll be able to focus.

After having published recent news that the Motorola Board is considering a split, Icahn whacked out this release which, for posterity, I have documented in full.  It’s wickedly written.  Heh.  I can’t imagine how some of the old fuddy duddy Motorla Board executives are reacting to this.

                              Carl C. Icahn
                        c/o Icahn Associates Corp.
                       767 Fifth Avenue, 47th Floor
                           New York, NY  10153

                              March 26, 2008

  Board of Directors
  Motorola, Inc.
  131 E. Algonquin Road
  Schaumberg, Illinois  60196

  Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today’s — much delayed and long overdue — announcement regarding the spin-off of the Mobile Devices business and the establishment of two fully independent companies with separate management teams and Boards is clearly a step in the right direction. As you know, for some time I have argued that this should be done. However, as one of the largest Motorola stockholders, I continue to have concerns about the speed and manner in which a new management team is selected for the Mobile Devices business and the separation transaction is consummated. Time is of the essence and decisive action is required to reposition the Mobile Devices business for success as an independent company. Furthermore, today’s announcement begs a few key questions:

      1. Why will it take you until sometime in 2009 to accomplish the
         separation?

      2. Why does it take the threat of a proxy fight for you to make
         promises we all want to hear?

      3. Do you intend to carry out your proposals or will it be a repeat of
         last year’s proxy fight strewn with a string of broken commitments?
         Obviously the tepid reaction of the market manifests shareholders’
         views concerning the value of your commitment.  The only statement
         made in your conference call we totally agree with is that . . .
         “there can be no assurances that any transaction will ultimately
         occur.”

You stated during today’s conference call, “we discussed Board Nominees with Carl Icahn and we proposed two nominees and he declined.” Again this is only partially true. It is true that Sandy Warner, head of the Nominating Committee called me and offered seats to two of my Nominees if I would drop the proxy fight. However, you failed to mention in your conference call that I told Mr. Warner that I would gladly accept this offer if the Board would also accept Keith Meister. Mr. Warner replied summarily to this offer that Meister did not “qualify.” I asked Mr. Warner what does one have to do to qualify — lose $37 billion dollars? Mr. Warner then replied that the Board did not “know” Meister. My answer was that Meister would fly anywhere at any time to meet the Board so they could “know” him (I did mention that the situation at Motorola is too serious for the Board to remain a country club). My offer to Motorola stills stands.
You have stated to the press that our request for information about what steps the Board actually took to correct the problem at Motorola is an unnecessary distraction. We disagree. In a political election when constituents believe their representatives’ performance was inadequate, they are certainly not denied information as to whether their representative acted in a grossly negligent fashion. Why should it be different in Corporate America?
I do however agree with you that this proxy fight is a distraction that Motorola at this junction can ill afford. If as you have stated, we all want to benefit the stockholders of Motorola, then what possible reason is there for not putting Keith Meister on the Board. After all, how much can he eat at the Board meetings? On a positive side, having a highly intelligent, energetic individual like Keith, who has 145 million reasons to spend his time working toward the spin-off being accomplished, may well make this promise come true in a timely fashion.
We ask the Board meet with Meister, put egos aside and let’s get on with the urgent business at hand.
Sincerely,

Carl C. Icahn

Let’s see what happens, eh?

I’m off to CTIA this Saturday.   I’ve had hundreds upon hundreds of invitations to meet … strangely, precious few PR companies were up for paying for my time in order to do a decent profile of their client/s services.  There’s a few evaluating the offer but I suspect, in the end, $500 is quite steep when it comes to a preallocated budget that the PR is expecting to receive in full.
Here’s what I was offering to all the companies whose pitches were relevant to the SMS Text News audience:

- A guaranteed interview/profile on SMS Text News
- 1 hour interview with executive(s) focusing on the company’s key story or news piece
- 2-3 minute video interview published on the site during the CTIA week
- The ability for me to take up to half a day to sit down, analyse and then write up a profile/interview and publish on SMS Text News

Total cost? $500.  250 quid.

I thought that was reasonable.  As predicted by a few readers when I published a week or so ago, almost every public relations professional has politely declined my offer.   I actually, in the end, only sent the offer to about 15 who were requesting interviews.

When I talk to companies directly — in particularly their marketing managers — and explain that I don’t have a multimillion pound expense budget behind me, they’ve been very receptive, indicating that a $300-500 fee to cover costs is no issue, as it will  enable me to take the time to sit down with their executives and deliver you, the reader, what I consider to be an excellent piece of coverage.  Rather than a knocked-up quickie post.

What’s quite fascinating is that many companies, especially some of the bigger players, really like qualified, independent coverage from sites such as SMS Text News.  I regularly do blog consultancy and awareness training for many companies — and from these face to face events, I see quite a dichotomy beginning to arise.  Companies want coverage.  They can’t buy coverage.  At least, that’s what the public relations industry tells them.  You need to pay $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 a month to a PR professional who will do their best to reach out and get ‘free’ coverage on your behalf.  Still accurate when it comes to mainstream media (or is it? If you switched off the PR industry tomorrow, mainstream media would fall over immediately), however when it comes to blogs — independent blogs such as SMS Text News — there’s a different model available that most companies, and their PRs, aren’t aware of.  Pay for it.

I most certainly don’t mean pay for editorial coverage.  Absolutely not.  Pay for coverage and pay for attention. If you understand and recognise that blogs fronted by humans (i.e. like me and SMS Text News) rely highly on the reputation of the main contributors, then the question of ‘paying for coverage’ vs editorial independence becomes irrelevant.  I can’t write rubbish.  I can’t write tosh.  I can’t cut and paste public relations material and pass it off as my own work.  I can’t publish advertiser written tosh.  Quickly, the audience would disappear.  You’d just stop reading if you thought this site was delivering a bunch of bollocks each morning.   Therefore I have to be particularly careful what I write because it’s my own personal reputation (archived by Google for years to come… hello kids!) that’s on the line.  Most readers recognise this when it comes to the question of funding.  If a company is willing to support SMS Text News — whether through advertising, at one of the unlimited drinks events and so on, clearly there’s a quid pro quo.  That company wants my attention — but I’m just the gateway — it’s your attention they want.  They’d also most probably like your business.  And if you’re well disposed to SMS Text News, you’re more likely to give ‘X’ a call to discuss possibilities, right?  Hopefully.

The challenge is recognising that paying a public relations professional to interact with me is, actually, not required.  Far sighted, forward thinking marketing managers get it.  I talk to many on a regular basis.

As for getting coverage, simply send me an email and provided I’ve got time to read it, I’ll do my best to post up your news.  If you’d like to guarantee a ’service level’, if you’d like to reach the niche audience of this on a regular basis, advertise with me.  It is that simple.  This comes as a surprise for many marketing managers spending $10,000 per month with PR agencies.

“But you’re independent, you have to be independent!  You can’t be independent if people are paying you!” some cry, when we discuss this subject.

The first thing I point out is that I am not independent.  Absolutely not!  If anything, I’m far worse than a journalist.  I do what I want.  I often follow whatever’s on my mind at a particular point.  I have, for example, been giving Nokia a particularly hard time over the last few days because when I ‘updated’ by E90, the restore didn’t work very well at all.  I suppose I’m free to choose what I write about and in that context I’m independent.  However if you’re advertising, I’m most probably going to be well disposed to covering your activities.  Interesting point: If Nokia were an anchor advertiser here, would I have written the diatribes I’ve done recently?  I think so.  But I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t have used the words ‘bollocks’, ’shit’ or ‘crap’.  It’s just not polite if someone’s paying, is it?  To be clear, they’d be paying me.  Not some multimillion pound publishing house.  So I would certainly moderate my editorial a little bit — a bit less sharp, I reckon.  But I couldn’t avoid writing what I am thinking and feeling.  I have my own issues.  I think RAZRs are ridiculous.  I think it’s a total crime to use a stylus or wear your mobile phone on a belt clip.  Your average New York Times journalist can’t be so opinionated.  They have a duty to be truly independent and objective.  I, on the other hand, am free to express whatever whim I wish — provided it’s entertaining, informative or relevant to the audience.

If I get an email from Clickatell, the chief advertiser here at SMS Text News, I shove everything else out the way and give priority to them.  If there’s a story there, I’ll write one.  I don’t give them editorial control at all.  But I’ll definitely give them attention.  Similarly if I see Clickatell on the caller-id, I answer.  Everybody else goes to voicemail  (or, er, SpinVox).

I don’t think I’d have a problem describing a Clickatell service as ‘ridiculous’ or crazy, crap or stupid (as I’ve been doing with Nokia recently).  I’ve never come across a situation where that’s been remotely relevant though.  And since I have direct access to Clickatell, I can get straight to one of their executives and resolve the matter — or at least find out if there’s a fix planned — very quickly. I think it’s probably of more value for all concerned to have me publish a problem or an issue, and then publish a resolution when one appears.

Anyway back to CTIA.

I have income from other sources, yet I more or less qualify myself as a professional blogger.  That is, I generally do ‘this’ — blog — full time and I’m not backed by a big company paying the expenses.  So when I fly out to CTIA this week, it’s me who’s paying for the privilege.

When I hundreds of requests for interview, I was quite disheartened because each and every one that I’ve glanced over is relevant in some way to SMS Text News.  There’s a time issue though.  I can’t meet everyone.  At one point, when I had 25 interview requests, I thought ‘Wicked!’ and reckoned I could do some sort of live-blog kind of coverage with them all, one hour after each.  Then I got more and more offers — as most (real) journalists do I suspect.  I began to get a little disappointed, then hugely disappointed.  I feel for each of the companies that have emailed.  Unfortunately I can’t cover them all.  How disappointing.

What have I found myself doing?

Well, since I’m paying for this trip, I need to guarantee success.  I can’t risk spending a few hours with a company that I don’t quite know.  Instead I’ve done as we all do, and focused on the big players.  Why?  Well, I know their brands.  I know there will be something to report.  I’ve confirmed my reservation for the Yahoo Mobile launch, the Microsoft one and the Accel Ventures one.  I’m off to ShowStoppers and the Sprint event.  Aaaand that’s more or less it.

Disappointing.  I’m disappointed with myself.   But then I want to watch the keynotes, I want to make sure I can deliver some good coverage for the site and I don’t want to be swamped with hour upon hour of meetings.  I’m paying therefore I’m choosing.

I thought it would be good (and certainly and interesting exercise) to offer some companies guaranteed attention in return for money that would help me a) offset the expense of the trip and b) contribute toward keeping the lights on here at SMS Text News.  No takers so far so I’m going to sprinkle my attention as I see fit.  If you’ve got any recommendations for companies I should meet, let me know — whack me an email and I’ll certainly do my best to meet them.

Finally: If you’d like sustained blog coverage and attention, call up the relevant blogger and ask them what you can do to support them.  Make it clear to the blogger that you’d like them to guarantee some editorial attention on a regular basis in return.  Some will decline.  Others will readily accept provided you don’t demand editorial control.

On top of their existing BAFTA nomination and on top of last month’s MediaGuardian Innovation Award the chaps at MoBlogUK are going nuts with delight to have been nominated for a further TWO more BAFTA awards. They’re now nominated in three categories:

- Interactive
- Interactive Creative Contribution
- Interactive Innovation - service/platform

This is for their work together with Channel4 on the Big Art Mob project — which aims to put public art on the map, via the medium of mobile.

Congratulations to the team there at MoBlogUK and kudos to Channel4 for having the confidence to greenlight the project in the first place.

I called Alfie, one of the MoBlogUK co-founders and asked him how he felt. He took a second then responded with, “At last, something I can tell my mum about to make her feel proud.”

Right on Alfie!