I got in a taxi last night to go down to China Town. Could have got the bus, yes, but I was caught in that annoying 20 minutes where only the buses you don’t want come flying by the stop. So I hailed a cab and sat back to enjoy the ride.

Then, to my left, I noticed what appeared to be a phone fixed on to the side of the taxi’s window frame.

I looked closely and saw an ‘O2 UK’ indicator, along with signal strength and a text message indicator.

Strange, I thought.

Then I looked at the adverts on the seats in front of me.

Directly ahead, I saw this:

No charge. Use the taxiphone and call for free. It’s next to the door on your left.

Call for free? Ohhh.

Here’s the picture:

Here’s the phone stuck into the window frame:

That’s particularly cool. HIGHLY cool, in fact. Instead of just doing the usual adverts, it appears o2 have taken advertising to the next level. It’s interactive! You can actually USE their service. No cost. Wow. Really smart.

I imagine the phone is configured to only call mobile numbers and landlines within the UK, but fair-enough. If you’re on a long journey or, well, let’s face it — with today’s London traffic, almost any journey is long — you can dial home or call your friend for a natter. Above the phone was a microphone and speaker, just like the kind you get on a normal car phone. I wonder how many taxis they have installed this into. Maybe just a few to test out the response. Imagine if they put this in every taxi. What brilliant, brilliant marketing, or as Michael Tchong has it, ‘tryvertising’, for them.

I’m rather impressed at o2 for doing this. It’s changed my impression of them. Yes, I still think their data rates are nothing short of ridiculous, but I like this gesture. I do also think that whoever does their public relations is nicht gut, as they say in Germany. I really get annoyed finding out about these sort of things by personally witnessing them. I’d have liked to have known about this at launch date, whenever that was, so I could have documented it earlier. Anyway, it’s still cool.

Then, I looked to the seat advert on the right of the cab and saw this:

Recharge. To recharge your mobile, ipod or Blackberry, just ask the driver to open the hatch on your left.

Now that is double genius. Here’s the pic:

Obviously, I then turned left as instructed by the advert, and saw this:

The recharge facility is integrated into the armrest. The driver unlocks that for you and you simply open the armrest to reveal a plethora of charge leads. Again, absolutely tip-top fantastic if you need a bit of extra juice when you’re going from A to B.

Fantastic.

You know o2 and their £100 a meg data policy? (Ok, slight exaggeration)

Well, SMS Text News reader Owen has had a bit of luck with them. He posted this today:

Link: SMS Text News » o2 chumps, attention: Get unlimited data for £10/month

My contract had run out so I phoned O2 and INSISTED on being put through to “retentions” I then played hell about my data charges and said I’d leave then and there if they did not give me unlimited data plan for free(OK aim high!!) They did a deal with me.

I got £100 quid cashback plus 20MB data a month free (I’m on a £30 contract) I had to extend my contract 12 months not too bad, sorted thanks again Owen

That’s better than a kick in the teeth — and 20mb is a reasonable amount of data to get at no additional cost from such a stupidly expensive network.

Good work Owen. You must have spoken to a very nice o2 retentions specialist.

UK mobile operators T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone have confirmed plans to begin rolling out the High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) standard in the UK by the end of the year.

The technology - which uses packet scheduling - takes the performance enhancements found in the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) standard and brings them to the upload side of a data connection. The net effect is a balancing of the theoretical maximum upload and download speeds.

Vodafone have already launched the technology in Germany, and will begin rolling out their UK service later this year. Rivals T-Mobile and 3 will also be aiming to start upgrading their network by the end of the year, with Orange planning to introduce the HSUPA service in 2008.

The only UK operator not figuring in these plans is O2 - who have at present not announced plans for HSPA enhancements to their network.

(Thanks to SMS Text News reader Mike for providing additional information to correct this article)

Link: O2’s failure to launch voice and video shortcodes ‘holds up entire industry’

According to a couple of industry players, UK mobile operator O2 is “holding back the entire industry” by not being able to offer video or voice shortcodes.

Speaking to The Inquirer, MX Telecom’s Mark Fitzgerald has said: “You couldn’t have an X Factor vote, for example, which worked for everybody in the nation except those on O2. So customers won’t buy into the concept while one network’s subscribers are excluded.”

Meanwhile Jeremy Flynn from mobile video specialist D2See asks:  “Given the amount of money O2 has made from SMS shortcodes, how come they find it so difficult to provide equivalent voice and video shortcodes?”

“There are over 100 video shortcodes in use in UK - how come they don’t seem to want to let their consumers access these services, and make money from this?”

Link: Brussels drops mobile roaming case - Times Online

After seven years, millions of pounds and many thousands of man hours later, the EU have decided to drop an investigation into overcharging on overseas calls by mobile operators.

The anti-trust investigation against Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile, which could have led to multi-million euro fines against the operators, was quietly dropped, as the Commission decided it was redundant following recent roaming caps introduced.

In a statement the Commission said: “This (new) regulation addresses the same issues as those raised in these antitrust cases, and clearly resolves them for the future … The Commission has decided to close the case.”

Meanwhile, UK mobile operators have until the end of August to bring into effect the recently agreed roaming charge caps, which limit the cost of making a call whilst abroad to 49 eurocents per minute and receiving a call at 24 eurocents per minute.

I tried i-mode I went and bought a £49 pay-as-you-go o2 handset. It was pretty cool — but in the concept of a 1995 mobile service. It didn’t look good. It was all text links. I never used the handset or the service again. Please I tried it though,.

Link: O2 drops i-mode mobile internet service in Britain | New media | MediaGuardian.co.uk

Mobile phone company O2 is understood to be dumping its i-mode mobile internet service in Britain, owing to low take-up and a lack of attractive handsets.

The company, owned by Spain’s Telefónica, launched i-mode less than two years ago with its largest advertising campaign since rebranding from BT Cellnet.

The £10m spent has brought in only 260,000 active users in Britain.

It’s always good when I can link and quote text written by a journalist who actually knows his or her stuff. Richard Wray, communications editor at MediaGuardian clearly does, including this paragraph in the article:

The failure of i-mode will bring back some uncomfortable memories for O2 which under its previous parent, BT, was responsible for the last failed attempt to get the internet on mobile phones under the banner of “Surf the Net, Surf the BT Cellnet”. The service was a failure with consumers, who quickly discovered it was nothing like the internet they knew.

Surf the BT Cellnet was quite possibly the shittest advertising campaign ever. Well, the advertising was fine actually. The problem was the fact that it was promoting a pathetic, slow, rubbish wap service.

Another o2 post.

Sat on a concrete seat on Oxford Street eating my pasta salad as folk walked by, my eyes drifted to the o2 shop.

This, apparently, is their flagship one. At least, I think it’s this one.

I looked on in horror thinking that someone had come by in the night and flyposted loads of posters on the o2 shop windows. An outrage. Shocking. That shouldn’t be allowed.

I looked closer and realised that this was, in fact, the window display — advertising Bon Jovi and co who’re playing at the newly named ‘o2 Arena’ (otherwise known as the Millenium Dome).

Ah. Now I get it.

I took a walk-about the other day and popped into some mobile phone shops. It’s always interesting.

I didn’t go in to any o2 stores though. I ..

Well I can’t quite explain it. I seem to have some sort of aversion to o2 at the moment. I don’t think it’s entirely because of their stupid data rates. I think it’s…….

I can’t explain it.

I have an irrational issue with o2.

I reckon it’s possibly because colleague Ed continues to use them and paid POUNDS per meg whilst I paid £7.50 a month for unlimited on T-Mobile/Three. You have to wonder what exactly o2 is coating the bills with to prevent folk from kicking off at their data rates.

I met quite a few folk from o2 recently at a special launch event a while back organised by Sonus PR. All perfectly nice people. Approachable. Bearing Champagne and hot new Blackberries. I dunno. I’ll need to face up to my o2 issue at some point.

Anyway I walked by this o2 store on Oxford Street, right:

And saw this sign:

Well I never. o2, 5th best place to work — EVER — in 2007.

Congratulations!

Link: ENN - Ireland’s IT Newswire

Lucky consumers in Ireland will be able to get their hands on a 3G HSPDA-powered mobile broadband service shortly, giving them speeds of up to 3.6Mbit/s.

The service includes up to 10GB of data transfer per month, and O2 claim will reach 75% of the population from launch. There’s a three month introductory of €15 per month for existing contract customers - or those taking out a new O2 mobile contract, then €30 after that. Non-O2 mobile customers will get the service for €20 per month for the first three months then €40 per month thereafter.

Link: Tech.co.uk | News | No truth to O2 iPhone rumour

So now O2 are denying they’ve got the iPhone gig.

At this point, I think I’m beginning to lose interest. Pass me my trusty non-touch screen Nokia, I’m heading out for some fresh air before my head explodes trying to piece this lot together.

Link: BBC NEWS | Business | O2 ‘to get iPhone contract in UK’

The BBC are reporting this morning that O2 are about to sign an exclusive contract for selling the iPhone in the UK, with the handsets in stores ready for Christmas. Funnily enough an O2 spokesman “declined to comment on the reports”.

The agreement with O2 is reported to include Apple receiving a continuing share of the revenue generated for the network operator.

The handsets are expected to be sold for about £300 and O2 will be hoping that the lure of the fashionable phone is enough to win customers from rival networks.

Update: O2 have denied they’ve got the iPhone gig. See this blog entry for more details.

Link: Mobile ticketing on the buses - vnunet.com

Bus company Go North East have announced plans to introduce a mobile ticketing service this Autumn.

The service, supplied by IT company Atos Origin, will be a prepaid service - with funds being added via a website. Before getting on the bus, the end user texts a supplied code and gets a barcode ticket in return. When they get on the bus, they just have to show the barcode - or scan it on a special modified ticket machine.

Honest opinion on this? As a long time user of London’s Oyster contactless ticketing system, it’s a lot less hassle than what’s been proposed here. I can top-up my Oyster account in quite a few stores locally, online, or at a tube station. No fiddling around texting and waiting for a barcode to come back just to go 5 minutes down the road. Besides, with Nokia, O2 and Orange already in talks with Transport for London over combining the technology with mobile handsets, I wonder how much mileage is in this?

Hot news in from an o2 subscriber and regular SMS Text News reader who has been royally screwed by Messrs O and 2.

Do you remember a few months back when o2 was being nailed in the press for having an absolutely abysmal data policy? Well, a chap contacted me to say he’d got super service from o2. He phoned up, threatening to quit to another network because of o2’s silly data charges… o2 responded by offering him 75mb/month for a tenner.

Only………..

Well they didn’t quite mean that.

Not when the bill arrived.

It’s come flying in for 75 meg x £3(ish). £225.

What a stupid thing to do, eh? I’m sure it’s a billing error. The reader is understandably absolutely SEETHING with annoyance.

Do you know what’s needed right here? A Three Concierge. Someone that I can phone up, with the reader’s permission to say, “Hi Linda, it’s Ewan, listen, this reade needs a bit of help… he’s being screwed by o2 — will you sort him out a decent deal?” and then pass on his contact details.

But then Three don’t even get it. They’re busy staring, nose pressed to the window, watching all these triple rated customers walking straight past them and spending money with other networks.

There should be a Three blog-rep on this post demanding to know who the reader is, so that he can be offered a phenomenal Three deal.

Come to that, there should be a T-Mobile rep. And… heh… an o2 rep. Geez, that chap would be a difficult job.

Anyway, the net result?

If you’re an o2 customer, you really, really, really need your head examined.

And what’s more, you’re a chump for even giving the network the time of day. Even Goliath Vodafone has dribbled out is half-decent, half-annoying mobile data plan.

I was in London earlier meeting a business colleague, who’s just arrived in the country for a couple of weeks. Rather than pay his horrendously expensive roaming charges, he got hold of an O2 prepay SIM and a top-up card. So far so good.

I spoke to him last night and explained how to top-up, and he duly went down to the local corner shop, swipped the card, paid his £20 and left a happy man. However, when he came to switch on the phone this morning for the first time, it came up as ‘SIM unregistered’.

When I met up with him today, I did the usual SIM and handset swapping to make sure it wasn’t anything simple. Alas, it didn’t work. So we took a trip to one of the numerous O2 stores in Oxford Street. Hoping they could just tap a few keys and make it work, I explained his trouble, and handed over the info. ‘Sorry sir, you’ll have to speak to O2 Prepay customer services’, said the assistant, waving a cordless phone in his hands and already dialling the number. He then went off to talk to a bunch of tourists who were eyeing up an N95. About £450 without a contract, incidently, and definitely not available on prepay!

Anyway, I spoke to a very helpful customer service rep at O2. ‘Sorry sir, it appears that SIM card has expired. It’s so old we have no record of it on the system, and, well.. you know if you don’t use a prepay SIM for six months it disconnects? We could put in a reconnection order but that’ll take 24 hours at least’.

At this point, I was a little confused. I’m sure that prepay SIMs didn’t used to expire. Why could they not just reactivate it? And where had his £20 gone?

In the end we fixed it by purchasing a new SIM card (a bargain at £4.99), then typing in a rather horrendously long network code on the handset, which assigned the old top up swipe card to the new SIM card and transferred the top-up he made. Apparently if your top-up card isn’t actually assigned to a SIM card, it acts like a gift card - so the balance remains on that card. Confused? I was. But it sort of makes sense.

So, 20 minutes later, £4.99 expenditure, and the loan of an O2 in-store cordless and their sofa, and it was all sorted. However, what would have happened if someone with local knowledge of the mobile market (plus knew where the nearest O2 store was) wasn’t there? How many business people visiting the UK do the same thing, only to find they can’t get it working, or even worse have splashed a load of cash on a SIM on Ebay or made a top-up only to find their money has disappeared down a black hole?

I went hunting for Google’s UK MVNO this afternoon on London’s High Street (Oxford Street).

I popped into three different o2 shops. Nothing.

I don’t know what I was thinking. Now and again the mobile geekery inside me overflows into a wanton lust for technical advancement — and in the absence of any decent information about Google’s UK MVNO, I hoped, stupidly, that, well, you know, there might be a poster up in one of the o2 shops about it.

Or that one of the store assistants might have misplaced their everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-Google-UK-MVNO guidebook and left it in view.

Nah.

Not a bit of it.

When I sit back and peel the technolust layers away, my key interest with Google’s apparent MVNO is the fact that o2 is mentioned all over the place. Yes, o2… the network that can’t, apparently support unmetered mobile data plans. Goodness knows how that sort of outlook is going to play with a Google MVNO.

It won’t, obviously.

So, I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what’s been cooked up. If you’ve got any gossip on this, shoot me a mail (ewan@smstextnews.com).

Link: Ring Nokia: Google Phone = MVNO using O2’s network in the UK + Nokia + Google’s secret sauce

Gossip gossip.. apparently there’s an announcement due in the next couple of weeks!

Just got this in from SMS Text News reader, Maggie:

Just got 75MB data from o2 for £10 a month, with minimal voice, an 18 month deal. Not sure how interesting this is, but..

Very interesting indeed Maggie! Thanks for taking the time to write.

If you’re on o2 and up for renewal shortly, it might be worth asking o2 for the above plan. When they say ‘oh we don’t do that’, don’t take no for an answer.

A tenner for 75mb is better than nothing. Better than paying 3 quid a meg anyway…

Another reader — J — has emailed me to tell me about his trauma with o2’s online ordering system.

He’s also been trying to get hold of an 8800 Blackberry. (Shit hot looking, by the way, those.)

Have a read of his traumatic experience…

I rang up today — AGAIN — and was on hold, twice — once for 10 minutes, and then, the phone just got cut off.

That’s a favourite call-centre way of getting the lines cleared… when you hear someone momentarily pick up then hang up…

When I did finally get through, I was told someone from “admin” would have to call me back. When asked why, they just said I have to wait for a call.

I waited until 2pm after no call and told O2 where to shove the contract.

Good man! Good man!

That was the dark. Now for the light…

I just rang T-Mobile, got through first time. They ran a credit check, it was succesful (of course!), and I am having my blackberry 8800 delivered by 1pm tomorrow on Web and Walk, Flext 35 and Blackberry service. The guy on the phone was great, very helpful, answered all my questions quickly, and explained the whole billing of all of my packages really well.

Why is it that T-Mobile can get the phone to me the next day, yet O2 can’t even tell me when I will receive my phone!?

Now let’s just hope T-Mobile’s network is good enough for me. Although saying that, it can’t be much worse than Orange, can it!?

Thumbs up for T-Mobile I say!

Let me know how you get on, J.

I had a phone call just now from a rather annoyed potential o2 customer. He’s been waiting a rather long time to get hold of a new 8800 Blackberry on o2.

After calling repeatedly only to be told, ‘er, another three days, sorry sir,’ he phoned through to their business store this afternoon and managed to get an explanation.

The delay, the customer services agent reportedly explained, was because the ‘online ordering system has been taken out by a virus.’

Now, whether that’s just a ruse to get the SMS Text News reader off the phone and off their backs… or whether it’s actually a geniuine explanation, I don’t know.

But the last thing you want to be doing is telling your business customers that your ordering system is out of action because of a virus. Ooooh dear.

Has anyone else encountered problems recently with o2?

Link: Virgin Mobile Tops UK Customer Care Report

Virgin ranks highest in customer satisfaction for its mobile telephone service in both the pre-pay and contract service sectors, according to a  J.D. Power report. The study, now in its 10th year, measures the customer satisfaction of pre-pay and contract customers with the UK’s leading mobile network providers

Congratulations to the guys and gals at Virgin Mobile, but how did the other UK operators do? Well, O2 came in a close second in the prepay market, with Tesco Mobile just behind them in third place. Meanwhile in the world of contract phones, Virgin were 1st, O2 second and T-Mobile third.

There’s also some interesting stats on mobile phone usage patterns in the report, so worth a read.

Link: RIM’s outage spreads to Europe and mid-East

Poor old RIM, when it rains it pours. After a ‘non critical’ upgrade a couple of weeks back that left millions of Crackberry users in North America without email service for a few days, the same thing seems to have happened in Europe and the Middle East, according to IT tech news site The Inquirer.

An INQ reader working in a small City bank claims his five users have been without service since Friday 27th April. Complaining to his local service provider, O2, he was told that RIM had performed a ‘cosmetic’ upgrade to its system over the weekend. The outage appears to be affecting only those who connect directly to their own Microsoft Exchange server and not those who employ RIM’s own BES server solution.

The INQ has seen an email from RIM confirming that the ‘high severity outage’ has indeed taken place. Although the email says the problem is confined to Europe, the reader’s sister company in Dubai has also been affected.

Oopsy. Another good reason (no pun intended!) to dump your Crackberry and use Good Mobile Messaging instead?

That’s what I thought when I bumped into a chap from o2 at the networking evening. Perfectly nice chap.

Although I nearly chucked up the glass of water I’d just been drinking when he said he was ‘Data Manager’ for o2 Business.

All of a sudden I had to tell myself…

BE POLITE, DON’T MENTION THE PER MEG DATA COSTS
BE POLITE, DON’T MENTION THE PER MEG DATA COSTS

I did my best to change my thought processes…
MARGARET THATCHER
MARGARET THATCHER

Anyway, turns out he was ‘data manager’ in the context of making sure that o2 meets its business customer needs — that is, I gather, big business customers. I was very clear to point out that I thought o2 was doing extremely well and it’s customers are Class-A Chumps or ‘El Chumpos’, if you’re hunting for a more exotic phrase, for paying stupid amounts for their data.

One of the o2 subscribers was standing next to me as I said this.

I called him a chump.

Heh.

Was that rude of me, do you think?

CHHHHHHHUMMMMMMMMMMMMMP!

Ch CH CH CH CH CH CHUUUUUUUUUUMP!

Chhhhhhhhhh–chooo-choooo-choooooo–chuuuuu-chumpppppppppp!

Five quid on Three, you know.

Seven and a half on T-Mobile.

Don’t worry, by the way, I know the o2 subscriber. I’ve been ribbing him about it for a good month and a bit so far. I didn’t randomly yell CHUMP at o2 customers. That would be uncouth. Save that for when I’ve had too much coca cola.

Ah hah…. I was sent this in by the SMS Text News anonymous form yesterday. Good job too as I’ve spent the day on trains, in taxis (but no planes).

Check this out — it’s related to what I blogged about a week or so ago.

Link:
O2 slashes cost of net access to keep customers | Business | Money | Telegraph

Mobile phone network O2 is slashing the cost of internet access for existing customers who threaten to leave as pressure builds on operators to reduce the price of using their 3G services.

Customers ringing O2’s call centre wanting to switch to other networks are being offered a flat rate of £10 a month for web access.

The deal is being offered only by the retentions team, and not all callers are eligible, but new subscribers are still being charged anything from £48 to £225 for the same level of access.

Heh.

You know what? I know a guy who phoned up and tried this last week. O2 said it was a minimum of £75 quid a month. He didn’t bother switching though. That’s the problem. Smart o2, eh? I reckon they’ve got a psychological profile of each customer so they know whether or not to refuse the customer or relent and charge’em a tenner a month for unlimited data.

So you’re an o2 user, right? You’re paying 4 quid a meg for data, right? And you’re a chump for doing so? Yes?

Well, here’s a fix that saves you having to swap. It comes to us care of SMS Text News reader Alan who contributed a comment to this post about o2’s upcoming data strategy.

I’ve copied the comment here:

When I cancelled my O2 account (to switch to Three’s x-series) I was offered “unlimited” data for a tenner a month as long as I had a tariff of £30 a month or more. It was put to me as though it’s a standard deal, but obviously it’s just a retensions thing as it’s never appeared on their website.

That’s a bit rude isn’t it?

You phone up to cancel and then they say, ‘well, er, hold on… you know we were screwing you for 4 quid a meg? Right. Well, look, we still want your business, and since you’ve woken up, smelt the coffee, we’ll do you a deal..’

So if you’re paying shitloads to o2 for data, gonna do me a favour? Just, please, help reduce my generate stress levels by phoning up o2 and sorting yourself out with an unlimited data addition. OR terminate your contract and get hold of a Three or T-Mobile contract.

No guarantees that you’ll get the same treatment as Alan, but worth giving it a go.

Relax…
Breath deeply……..
WOOOOOOOOOOOOSAAAAAAAAAAAAH…..
WOOOOOOOSAAAAAAAAAAH!

Now phone’em!

Paul caught this one and forwarded it over.

Have a read of this article..

I’ve quote some points for you:

Michael Schaefer, 46, an IT specialist from Ealing, west London, was charged £950 in just four days by O2 after using his 3G (third generation) phone to view TV for just two hours.

3G phones offer high-speed access to the internet, allowing users to download TV, films and music to their phones while on the move. Firms have spent billions rolling out the technology across their networks and drumming up interest in the devices.

Schaefer connected his O2 mobile to his home TV with a device called a Slingbox, which uses a broadband link to allow programmes to be “streamed” directly to a high-speed mobile without having to wait for it to download. Slingboxes are available from Currys for £140.

He watched the US mid-term elections on CNBC on his mobile for about 45 minutes, costing him £285. On another occasion he watched CNN for 20 minutes, which cost him £188.

Had he used T-Mobile, he would have been charged no more than £27.50 a month, or £35 a month with the 3 network.

However, Schaefer was on an O2 tariff, which allows for only 100 kilobytes (kb) of free downloads, after which £3 is charged per megabyte (mb). However, his 3G phone is capable of downloading 385kb per second, suggesting he used up all his inclusive data allowance in the first second.

.
I trust Michael will swap to T-Mobile or Three at his earliest possible convenience.

However it’s a little inappropriate to disclaim liability when o2’s ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS mobile data charges are totally clear.

Deary me.

Ok, right, look at this:

After a lengthy letter to the operator, complaining that he was not aware of the charge and arguing that he was simply taking advantage of 3G technology, O2 eventually waived his fee.

Right, if you’re on o2, knock yourself up a letter to o2 and complain that you weren’t aware of the charges.

Michael, you were really, really, really lucky to get away with not paying the grand bill.

“What’s the real point of offering us faster download speeds with 3G if you can’t then use the technology?” he asked.

You CAN use the technology Michael, as you’ve proved. You just selected a mobile operator that’s extremely adept at keeping its pricing structures static so it can make as much cash as possible before it’s forced, by market conditions, to change.

Now, look at this.

Look at this.

This is one of the BEST POSSIBLE…

… hold on…

You know what, this is definitely going in my book.

Right.

Calm down, calm down and relax.

Breathe deeply.

Serene, calm thoughts. Wooooooooooossssaaaahhhh. Wooooosaaaaaah.

Ok.

Read this — and don’t you dare laugh, yet:

O2 admitted that its technology was moving faster than its pricing structure, adding that a committee had been set up to investigate the issue. “Our technology has run away from our tariffs and we are taking action,” it said

That is the quote of the year. The absolute quote of the year.

O2’s PR = total genius.

A ‘committee’ has been set up?

You what?

To ‘investigate’ the issue?

You mean, “Oh shit.. look gents, we’re probably going to have to think about going flat rate at some point…, but you know, let’s talk about it and hope the Times doesn’t run any more nastygrams for the time being, we’re making stupid amounts from all our STUPID users paying 3 quid a meg.”

Our technology has run away from our tariffs?

Well then. You’re either extremely STUPID or, more likely — more accurately — you’re extremely smart. It hasn’t ‘run away’. It’s deliberate.

I was there. I bought one of the first XDAs. I knew how much the data plans cost. They evolved their price plans to work with the XDA. We got a bit of inclusive data too Just a few meg. But their tariffs evolved.

Only so much though. Their head-of-price-plans chap or chappess at o2 knew exactly what they were doing.

‘We are taking action.’

Ok.

Well I hope for the sake of your investors, the ‘action’ you refer to is to setup a committee and hang around eating the odd croissant and pouring glasses of sparkling mineral water. You’re making too much money from your idiot subscribers to bother changing short term.

The people that are really bothered — people like me — have already changed to T-Mobile — or possibly Three.

The other 30 odd million will quite happilly pay your 3 quid a meg for a while yet. That is, unless the media really starts nailing o2, Orange and T-Mobile.