Drivers who are caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel will not only find themselves on the business end of a fine from the police, but now they’ll also be penalised by their insurer too.

Allianz Insurance has announced that it’s putting up insurance premiums for motorists with a convinction for driving whilst using a mobile by 30 percent, in the same way it would for people who had been convicted of careless driving.

Another step in the right direction to make sure people get the message about going hands-free when they’re driving. Presumably Jeremy Clarkson is looking for a new insurer now…

Link: TheStar.com - In-flight cellphone calls unlikely to fly in Canada

Just caught this on TheStar.com

Passengers of European airlines may soon be allowed to talk on their cellphones at 30,000 feet, but so far, there’s little evidence the controversial move by regulators will be mirrored on this side of the Atlantic.

The European Union approved a plan yesterday that would allow airline passengers to make and receive calls through an on-board base station, provided the equipment is approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

Passengers would be allowed to turn their phones on after the plane reaches 10,000 feet, when other devices such as portable music players and laptops are permitted.

In Canada and the United States, by contrast, regulators currently prohibit the use of cellphones on flights because of concerns the devices could interfere with on-board communications and navigation systems.

However, Transport Canada said yesterday it is considering relaxing the rules slightly to allow passengers to make calls once their plane has landed and is taxiing to the gate.

Bring on the “YES YES, I’M NOW IN CANADA! YES! CANADA!”

I’ll keep my earphones on

Just caught this on BBC News…

Police are examining a photo that allegedly shows Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson talking on a mobile phone while driving on a motorway.
Adam Blake, 22, and Hayley Byford, 21, claim they saw Clarkson on the phone as he did 70mph (112kph) in a 1970s Mercedes on the M40 in Oxfordshire.

A photograph taken by the pair was sent to the Daily Mirror newspaper, who handed it to the police.

Drivers caught using mobiles face three points on their licence and a £60 fine.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: “We have been handed the photograph and we will be looking at it with a view to a possible prosecution.

“If we have got evidence we think could be supported in court, we will take action.”

Denial

Clarkson has not released a statement on the incident.

The Daily Mirror said it confronted the host at his Oxfordshire home and he denied he had been talking on the phone.

After being shown the picture, the paper said he told the reporter he could not talk to them because he wrote a column for another paper.

A spokeswoman for the BBC’s Top Gear programme said they would not comment because it was not a BBC matter.

Mr Blake was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying: “We could not believe that we’d caught him out. My girlfriend saw he was on his mobile. She grabbed hers and took a picture of him.”

Uhoh…..And she uses a mobile to take a picture of him, there’s irony

After Singapore’s most wanted terror fugitive escaped detention on 27th Feb the mobile phone networks were called on to support the massive man hunt:

“The three mobile phone operators here - SingTel, StarHub and MI - are also sending out messages with pictures of the fugitive to 3.9 million subscribers, police said. “

Link: The Straits Times

Research In Motion, the company that brings you the Blackberry (and lets the service go down periodically) recently upped its estimates for new subscriber growth for their fiscal quarter which ends on the first of March. The company raised its forecast by 15-20%, bringing the total forecast to around 2.1 million new subscribers. This strong growth expectation comes in spite of recent outages, and is likely due to the slower holiday shopping season and older inventory.

The company did not, however, increase its financial projections for the same quarter. Analysts guess this is either because RIM expects to exceed expectations, or possibly simply a slower upgrade trend for the higher-end handsets.

In any case, it definitely shows that smartphone shipments continue to grow, with more and more subscribers picking up a new smartphone.

The New York Times has an interesting article today on how technology has been a blessing to workers for decades. Obviously it has made our jobs easier in terms of actually getting work done, but this piece focuses on how technology has helped us get through the work day, or made work more bearable.

One thing that I’ve noticed across the My Mobile Day series here on SMStextnews is how each contributor, at one point or another, uses their mobile purely for entertainment purposes. Myself, I use mine to download and listen to podcasts while blogging. When I had a desk job (in one of those horrid things called a cubicle), I brought my iPod along to have a soundtrack for my day.

I love reading the reports all the time about how technology is bad for office workers because it distracts them from important tasks and whatnot. I can think of several days that, without the help of music from a portable device, I would have likely gone bonkers.

Bloomberg’s got the scoop today on RIM and Motorola’s recent lawsuits over - you guessed it - patent infringement. You’d think by this time, RIM would have learned their lesson in regards to getting swept up in patent lawsuits, but I suppose some things never change. Motorola filed suit on February 16th in Marshall, TX courts (2nd most popular place for patent infringement lawsuits, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers) claiming that RIM was willfully infringing on patents in their 8100, 8130, 8320, 8800, 8820, and 8830 handsets. The patents cover remotely storing contact information and recognizing incoming phone numbers, neither of which any Motorola products seem great at, but that’s beside the point.

RIM promptly counter sued in Dallas, claiming Motorola is willfully infringing on their patent for ‘a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs’, among other things.

Am I the only one who steps back from most of these patent infringement cases and sees two 3-year olds fighting on the playground because someone else is playing with their toy? I can understand if your R&D department comes up with something *really* cool, but can you really patent something like a thumb keyboard or a phone with essentially caller ID? I wish a court would someday slam the hammer down and say, “you both owe this court $2 million dollars and a heartfelt apology for acting like children.”

Nokia has setup a new advisory group inside the Nokia Entertainment and Communities Group (the one I don’t think anyone else has heard of). The sole purpose is to help make sure that revenues are shared evenly with artists as digital music trends continue to grow. Nokia hooked up with Dave Stewart (yeah, the Dave Steward that makes up half of Eurythmics) to help make sure it’s a success.

The Nokia Artists’ Advisory Council, as it’s been creatively titled, is a step for Nokia towards cutting out other middlemen such as recording studios that dig into profits. Nokia’s CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer, see what they did there?) Tero Ojanpera told Billboard “It’s really about getting to the source of creative talent and helping them connect through technology.”

I like it.

Nokia today announced the grand opening of its 8th Flagship store around the globe. This one finally put the Finnish manufacturer on London’s Regent Street, directly across from the Apple Store. The store features Nokia’s entire current collection of handsets, all with internet connectivity so you can fully explore their capabilities.

We sent our very own James Whatley on assignment to check it out with his Nokia N95 equipped with Qik, and he was able to take this wonderful video:

Note how friendly the Nokia staff are, and totally willing to help him out, not really camera shy in the slightest (though James respectfully resists capturing them without permission). A cool fact is that Nokia requires all Flagship store employees to graduate from ‘Nokia Academy’ before starting, to make sure that they are able to offer the absolute best service and knowledge to visitors.

Nokia will also be opening a location in Heathrow Airport later this year.

So, here’s the situation. About a decade ago, Nokia setup shop in Bochum, Germany. They hooked up with the local government and secured a bunch of subsidies (to the tune of $60.5 million) to help renovate a TV factory into a cellphone factory. Stipulations of these subsidies included a certain number of jobs created and a certain amount of additional funds invested in the factory over time.

Recently, Nokia announced that it was closing the plant, and moving the work to nearby Romania, which will reduce associated operating costs by about 90%. The local Germans got uber-upset, holding protests and claiming that they would never buy Nokia products again, blah blah blah. It’s been a big PR mess, and I have to say, honestly, I’m a bit dismayed at the Germans reacting so poorly. Sure, it sucks to have a big factory like that closed, but seriously?

In today’s news, it turns out that German government wants Nokia to repay the subsidies that it was given 10 years ago for said plant. Nokia’s holding out, maintaining that it has done everything and more to satisfy the terms of the agreement, and that it’s not refunding anything.

Really, I think Germany is suffering the worst in this situation. It hasn’t really affected Nokia much on a global scale, and if I’m a company looking to setup shop, I’d be a bit more wary of Germany, if this is how big a pain it is to get out later on down the road.

I had a note in from Steven Dotsch, top man at Match Capital Partners Ltd to let me know that they’ve just officially launched. Match Capital Partners specialises in raising money for for growing companies with wireless, mobile internet, online media, mobile and fixed telecoms activities requiring funding amounting to at least £1m.

In 2005, Steven Dotsch launched WirelessMatch -UK’s wireless and mobile telecoms funding network for sector dedicated business angels- catering for the funding requirements of earlier stage companies. Match Capital Partners is a logical extension to the introduction-only service of WirelessMatch: as well as the introduction to funders, private as well as institutional, Match Capital Partners offers a full blown small cap corporate finance service to revenue generative growth companies requiring later stage funding.

Match Capital Partner’s strategic relationship with Capital Partners Group allows Match Capital Partners to assist companies when they are considering a listing on ShareMark, PlusMarkets or AIM, as well as operating in a wide range of corporate finance advisory transactions (type, size and geographical).

If you’d like more information, you can get Steven on Skype via wirelessdotsch or on the blower (as they say in black and white British movies) on +44 208 374 8718.

A Federal California judge has ruled in the patent infringement case between Broadcom and Qualcomm. Broadcom claims that Qualcomm is infringing on three patents, covering WCDMA chips, EV-DO chips, and technology around mobile video compression, walkie-talkie services, and simultaneous network connections. The judge decided that Qualcomm has to immediately stop shipping all 3G/WCDMA chips infringing on the patents. However, for the EV-DO chips, they’re allowed to continue selling, but with restrictions.

The EV-DO chips that Qualcomm has been selling since May 29th, 2007 can continue to be sold, but only to existing customers, and only until January 31st, 2009. On the 31st, they must cease selling/shipping the chips, and are barred from infringing on the patents again. Also, Qualcomm must pay mandatory royalties to Broadcom for all chips sold and shipped between now and January 31st, 2009.

Broadcom was seeking a much more strict ruling, and has already complained that the chips that Qualcomm says work around the patent are still infringing.

I can understand why the judge made his decision. Qualcomm is a major player in the mobile network infrastructure around the globe, and he didn’t want to completely put them under by requiring them to halt all sales immediately. However, with the current ruling, he essentially slapped them on the wrist and said, ‘It’s not ok to infringe on the patents, but since you’re already doing it, I’ll give you time to develop something else, so that you aren’t fully punished for what you’ve done.’

Qualcomm used to manufacture handsets, in addition to chipsets and the like. In fact, my first cellphone was a Qualcomm on Sprint’s network here in the U.S. However, as of late, they’ve become what appears to be little more than a patent holding company, which really bothers me quite a bit. They’re at odds with the ITC, as well as with Nokia and most of the other cellphone manufacturers for unfair licensing policies. At the same time, I do believe that they should be compensated for the things they’ve researched and designed.

Reports are coming in that the Nokia N82 is showing up online at the Nokia UK online shop, as well as at Carphone Warehouse. The N82 was announced not too long ago in Finland, and brings back the classic Nokia candybar form factor. The phone is an imaging powerhouse, with a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and autofocus. Those crazy Finns have also added a true Xenon flash for really killer pictures. HSDPA, WiFi, GPS, and TV-Out round out the feature set, and I have to say, after spending a few weeks with the handset, it’s really a knock-out device.

The N82 runs 399 GBP at the Nokia UK Online shop, and is part of the ‘N82 Adventure Pack’, bundled with the Nokia Sport Tracker Application and a Salomon backpack. Reports also say that 3 months of free voice-guided GPS navigation (an 18 GBP value) is included as well. Symbian-Guru has a multi-part review of the N82 here.

The Associated Press reports that Palestinians will soon be allowed to setup a 2nd cellular network. Israel controls all of the cellphone frequencies in the West Bank and Gaza, and have repeatedly turned down requests from Palestine to be able to set up a 2nd wireless network, to meet demand.

The change in heart from Israel is due to warming relations between the two groups, who have been at odds since 2000. The second network is not official yet, with with peace negotiations starting last week, they should be announced soon.

Air France announced today that they have equipped an Airbus A318 with an inflight calling system. The network will start up with a 6-month trial. The first three months, service will be limited to SMS and Email, but is expected to be opened up to full voice by the end of the trial. The system is setup with OnAir, which is negotiating deals with Orange, Bouyges Telecom, and SFR, with prices looking to be $2.50/minute.

Personally, the last thing I want on an airplace is cheaper voice calls. I mean, you can already make telephone calls on most flights, it’s just disgustingly expensive. When I flew home from Amsterdam on American, it was $5 just to connect, and $10/minute. I personally enjoy the quiet time on a flight to get things done offline, sleep, and that sort of thing.

The last thing I want on a cross-Atlantic flight is a screaming baby and the guy next to me calling home to tell his girlfriend about it. I don’t mind the data part of it on the plane, though. Not like most laptops will last all that long, but still.

Joining the likes of ESPN Mobile, another MVNO, XE Mobile, recently posted an announcement on their website letting the world know that they’re shutting down. Effective December 31st, 2007, phone service will be terminated and all account balances will expire, apparently. Users wanting to keep their number should port quickly, or call 611 from their XE Mobile, or 866-994-3893 from another phone.

XE Mobile is a youth-oriented MVNO running on AT&T’s GSM network in the U.S. Slightly humorous (given the announcement) is their “About Us” page:

XE is thinking smart; taking advantage of opportunities; looking sleek while being functional, and saving $$$. XE is our commitment to you to be there every step of the way, back you up when you need us, and to do it with no strings attached.

Obviously not, fellas. One of the major benefits touted for users is the XE Club VIP card, which supposedly is the U.S.’ largest youth discount program, offering discounts at over 20,000 locations. Free incoming SMS and relatively cheap calls were also among the draws of XE Mobile.

Nokia announced earlier this year that it was buying out navigation overlords Navteq for approximately $8.1 billion. Not only does Navteq offer maps to most of the industry players, they also own Traffic.com, offering traffic updates for nearly anywhere online.

Nokia also acquired Gate5 a few years ago, and in the past year introduced Nokia Maps for S60 and Windows Mobile, a mapping application that offers full maps and tracking for free, with paid upgrades for voice-guided turn by turn directions and city guides. Nokia also introduced the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet recently, with a GPS receiver built-in and oddly using Wayfinder’s mapping software.

Currently Nokia offers 4 handsets with GPS receivers built-in, with plans to offer a more complete lineup in the future. With the purchase of Navteq, Nokia now controls most of the world’s navigation and mapping platforms, as well as a wealth of research and knowledge.

It will be fascinating to see how Nokia integrates this into their new push for services, in addition to handsets. Stockholders today approved the Navteq buyout, with Nokia paying $78 USD for each outstanding share of Navteq. The Navteq brand will remain intact after the merger.

I’ve been working like crazy on the new SMS Text News Directory.

We had one before, but I just wasn’t happy with it. It was getting a good lot of traffic but it’s design, layout and back end system was really, really winding me up. So I eventually worked through the night and built a new one.

I kept a copy of some of the old data; but I decided to start afresh. However the frustrating thing is, when you’re in the middle of creating stuff, it’s hopeless trying to think of all the companies I know and talk to regularly to populate the directory. When I was working on the Public Relations category, I drew a total blank. Ridiculous. I ended up having to search my mail for the words ‘public relations’. I’ve missed tons of people out, I know it. So it’s looking rather bare right now. I’ve only added three categories so far and knocked in the likes of MX Telecom, TynTec, Esendex, iTAGG — anyone on the front of my mind at the time.

I’m working on creating a comprehensive directory of every company I come across. If I mention them on the blog, I’ll knock up a directory entry and link to it, in an effort to brain-dump the people and companies that I come into contact with. It’s of little use to readers if it stays there. The concept being, when I find some wickedly useful supplier of shortcodes in Bolivia (for example), and when a news post isn’t really appropriate, instead of sticking their email into my growing archive, I’ll document them in the directory.

Basic entries are of course free. There’s an option to pay for those who’d like a more prominent listing — that also comes with additional privileges. For example, an expanded entry, a guaranteed Q&A interview here on the site together with priority editorial attention (but not guaranteed publishing!)

I’m building the directory human-style. Pen and paper, basically. I did have a very nice lady from India go through and collate information on hundreds of companies a while back but whilst it was comprehensive, it was also……… well, [pained face] the quality wasn’t entirely there. Nicht gut.

If you’ve got a few moments, help me out with a few suggestions of categories and companies to list — if you’ve read this far, take a look at The Directory (loads in a new window) and knock me a few suggestions on email (ewan@smstextnews.com? Your help is most appreciated.

Now, I’m off to write-up the results of the Texperts vs AQA vs Ask Terry test this evening. Surprising results they are too.

Nokia and Vodafone have launched a new website designed to help share ideas on how to use mobile communications for social and environmental benefits. The site, www.shareideas.org, was created in direct response to NGO calls for better tools and information to help them use mobile services more effectively in their work.

Ndidi Nwuneli, Founder and CEO of LEAP Africa, a Nigerian NGO dedicated to nurturing a new generation of African leaders, said, “The positive contribution mobile technology can make to societies is without doubt, but to realise its full potential we need to share our experiences and learnings more effectively. The partnership between Nokia and Vodafone has created something which is simple and practical to use, and will give us access to information which will help make a real difference to people’s lives.”

Adam Bird of Esendex is in Monte Carlo at the Global Messaging Congress. He posted the following report on this page last night and I made a note to highlight it this morning.

Have a read..

- - - - - -

Ewan,

Currently at Global Messaging 2007 in Monte Carlo. My job has its rough assignments, but this isn’t one of them. Saw Steven van Zanen of LogicaCMG, sorry Acision, speak today on SMS 2.0 and the development required get to SMS 3.0.

The thrust of his presentation was that the mobile operators were acting like rabbits in headlights in the face of the Mobile IM hype. Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL where playing the ‘my community’s bigger than yours’ game and trying to wade into the mobile market by essentially replicating the IM experience in mobile.

Regular readers will probably all atest to the fact that the mobile internet is no where near the reliability experience of the fixed line alternative and that you cannot rely on the network always being there. Existing PC IM solutions essentially make that assumption.

Stefan’s view, or that of the major vendor of SMS kit, was that SMS was still the best experience on town. You can’t beat a community of 2 billion subscribers or put another way one third of the global population. It works on every handset, ignoring the US of course, and all operators need to do is augment the existing experience with IM type features and MSN, etc will not be able to compete.

It is going to be an interesting battleground over the coming months.

Two other quotes I liked:

‘SMS is the biggest brand in the world’
‘SMS is the only mobile data service that has been successful’

- - - - - -

Adam, thanks for writing — very interesting indeed. I particularly liked the ‘SMS is the biggest brand’ quote. Strictly speaking, I don’t agree with the reality — it’s not a brand, you can’t buy and own ‘SMS’ — but I most certainly agree with the sentiment.

When you’re preparing for substantial and signficiant investment, or the likes of an IPO, there’s a few things you have to do. Sort out your legals, get your old shareholders in line, make sure everyone’s got their option agreements to hand — and get a decent CEO to take you to the next level.

That’s not to cast a shadow on the outgoing CEO, no, not at all. It’s recognising that zero-to-a-few-million requires a particular set of qualities — a-few-million-to-Millions requires an entirely different set of qualities. For mobile television pioneer ROK, this set of requirements comes in the form of Mobile Titan, Laurence Alexander.

The news release I got through from ROK describes Laurence as a Mobile Heavyweight. Entirely accurate, given his pedigree at o2 and more recently, as CEO of mobile handset manufacturer, Emblaze.

Laurence was the chap who was responsible for bringing Blackberry to the UK via o2. For that, I upgraded his status in my eyes from Mobile Heavyweight to Mobile Titan. Blackberry changed my business lifestyle forever.

A quick ROK refresher:

Formed in 2003, ROK Entertainment Group currently employs 150 staff worldwide and has, to date, been privately financed. ROK has filed more than 40 patent applications for a suite of mobile technologies it has developed ranging from unicast mobile TV streamed over 2.5G, 3G and Wi-Fi networks through to content-loaded memory cards and mobile VoIP and content applications.

ROK is about to do an IPO through a share exchange with US publicly listed company CyberFund, Inc. (CYFD) so on the back of what they’ve already achieved, they’ll be going through the roof shortly.

The obligatory Mobile Titan quote from Laurence:

“I’ve been amazed and impressed at all that Jonathan and the team at ROK has achieved over the past three or four years and I’m delighted to be joining the company at this exciting time” said Alexander. “We’ll be looking to consolidate our position as a world leader in the provision of mobile entertainment services and applications through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world”.

We’re expecting great things, Laurence No pressure!