What is it about Aussies and the need for speed? A second Australian mobile operator has come out and promised a 42Mbps in the next couple of years. Hot on the heels of incumbent Telstra, Optus has now promised a super speedy mobile network by the middle of 2010.

However, neither Telstra nor Optus has discussed what new applications, if any, will debut on the super-fast network. Still, after all the slow build up in 3G speeds in Europe, it’s good to see a couple of operators not shy about promising tens of megabits.

Currently, Australia is planning a fixed fibre-to-the-node network that will get 12Mbps to 98 percent of the population in the next five years. Meanwhile, Optus is promising to get 42Mbps (admittedly maximum peak downlink) to the same coverage level in less time. This could make Australia one of the few countries where mobile network are faster than fixed in real terms. Wow.

According to German paper Der Spiegel, Deutsche Telekom is considering going shopping and acquiring US carrier Sprint Nextel, with a view to merging it with its own T-Mobile USA.

It’s a fascinating rumour but I’m not entirely convinced that this isn’t just an idle ‘what if?’ scenario from some Deutsche Telekom exec. Granted, for anyone considering an acquisition of Sprint, it’s a great time - the company’s been struggling of late, its share price is down and it could be snapped up for a bit of a bargain price. It would mean a big step up for T-Mobile in the US, catapulting it into the top tier of operators.

But the major reason to say no to such a deal? The tech. T-Mobile uses GSM, while Sprint Nextel uses CDMA and is trying to get a WiMax network up and running at the same time. The integration problems don’t put any acquisition in a favourable light.

This week, through a haze of man-flu, I’ve been thinking about how mobile services and operators bill for their services and why it’s all a bit backwards.

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In the UK at the moment there is a big fuss about bank charges - the fees you pay to a bank if you exceed an agreed overdraft, bounce a cheque or similar. The law says that whilst it is OK for banks to charge fees on these occasions to cover their expenses, they cannot charge a penalty (apologies to anyone with any actual legal knowledge who will probably be wincing at that over-simplification). Campaigners have now realised that it doesn’t cost £30 to issue a standard letter and so the whole thing has gone to the High Court. A lot of banks are beginning to look unpleasantly greedy and unsympathetic to their customers.

Although clearly not a legal issue, I think other service providers - mobile network operators particularly - would do well to note what is going on at the moment though and realise that quite aside from anything else penalising customers for wanting to consume (this does not relate to the consumer’s ability to pay - it isn’t a credit issue) more of your service isn’t going to win hearts and minds…

Take 3UK’s mobile broadband offer as an example - in all other respects an excellent value service, but a typical case. Additional megabytes over the pre-purchased bundles cost 10 pence:

1GB per month costs £10 - effectively 1 pence per megabyte. The excess use charge is ?10 times that rate.

3GB per month costs £15 - effectively 0.5 pence per megabyte. The excess use charge is ?20 times that rate.

7GB per month costs £25 - effectively 0.3 pence per megabyte. The excess use charge is ?30 times that rate.

So the highest monthly-rate subscribers pay a penalty of a 30-times multiple in price if they exceed the bundled amount and this is typical across all the network operators.

Clearly excess use can’t be free - but there’s not a good reason for this sudden hike. It has been argued to be a capacity issue - the operators want to prevent excess use to ensure quality of service for all - but a consumer can simply buy several connections if they wish… their supply is not limited by network capacity.

Certainly pre-paying for service should make it cheaper and guaranteeing to purchase larger blocks of service should provide a cost saving - even my schoolboy economics can grasp that, but once exhausted why should the best customers - those who provide the most predictable revenue streams - be punished for attempting to purchase even more service? Cynically, I suspect firms build their pricing models to scare consumers away from maximising their use of the bundles, which increases margin (AMPU).

So what’s the answer? I think it’s the ‘per month’ element that is skewing things here. Back in the ‘bad old days’ it made sense to bill ‘line rental’ by month, but now we also pre-purchase quantities of service within these monthly payments and there’s no need. If bundles of messages / data / international calling were identified separately they could simply be charged as needed…. Used up the 200 text message bundle you purchased before the next billing cycle? Just purchase another at the same price - it lasts a month too, starting today. It could be a manual process or automatic with the usual ‘maximum spend’ controls to protect against unexpectedly large bills. Firms really looking to attract and retain customers could go further - offering to retrospectively upgrade the bundle to a higher one or allowing it to last longer than a month in low-use periods, but now I just want to have my cake and eat it…

What do you think?

Back in February we posted about Fido, one of Canada’s hugely backward mobile networks. They had finally introduced an unlimited data plan. Finally. Good news, because the innovation at Fido — and across the Canadian networks in general is nothing short of caveman.

:: Cut to a picture of a Fido executive banging his aging CDMA Nokia handset on the head of his colleague whilst grunting ‘CAN U HEAR ME?’ repeatedly in a demented fashion ::

Well a reader has just posted this update showing you just how backward the company is:

Oh and did you know that the new unlimited data bundle is limited ONLY to phones bought through Fido?? I have an unlocked Nokia 6110 Navigator and Fido reps refused to let me subscribe to the new bundle They insisted that I had to buy a locked Fido phone first.

Oh dear. Oh dear me.

Most operators you speak to couldn’t give a toss what handset you’re using as long as you’re paying them (ideally more) money each month.

Demanding you buy a Fido handset in order to benefit from the unlimited data bundle is the height of nonsense.

Telstra has finally received the go ahead from the Aussie government to close down its CDMA network, after three months of waiting. The telco had hoped to close it down in January of this year, after its 3G network reached the same coverage levels, but was prevented by the government.

The country’s communications minister said at the time that Telstra had problems with handheld coverage, how customers were informed about the changeover and issues with how its 3G handsets were being sold. Telstra has now satisfied the government that it’s fixed up all the issues and can shut off CDMA.

While the network was still popular with some users, notably farmers, the vast majority of users had already migrated to Telstra’s 3G network, known as Next G, so it was only a matter of time til it bit the dust. That said, the postponement of the network earlier this year threw a sour note into the relationship between the new Rudd government and Telstra - hopefully the closure will go some way to restoring their mutual appreciation.

Virgin Trains has set its sights on tackling dropped calls for passengers and has teamed up with Vodafone to give travelers better in-carriage coverage . Vodafone said it will be putting in “repeater technology” in the trains to boost both 2G and 3G coverage.

The repeaters will be installed on all 52 of Virgin’s Pendolino trains on the London to Glasgow route by November of this year, and Vodafone says it will improve the rate of dropped calls by 60 percent.

Having attempted to use a data card several times on the Eurostar and found a frightening drop out rate, here’s hoping the repeaters find themselves passing through the Channel Tunnel sometime soon.

More news off the back of the 700 MHz spectrum auction - licence buyers were forbidden from talking about their plans for their purchases until last week - with Verizon and AT&T have announced they’re going to use spectrum to launch LTE (long term evolution networks).

“In the future, AT&T’s 700 MHz spectrum holdings will provide the foundation for deployment of next-generation wireless broadband platforms such as HSPA+ and LTE. While standards for emerging technologies such as LTE are still being developed, these technologies could enable peak broadband speeds of 100 Mbps or more,” said AT&T, while Verizon Wireless is heavier on the facts, saying: “Verizon Wireless plans to launch its LTE network in the 700 MHz spectrum in the 2010 timeframe”.

It’s so good to hear some real numbers being put on LTE rollout dates, but the word timeframe makes me a little nervous - sounds like Verizon Wireless is giving itself a little wriggle room for delays, while AT&T is giving itself all the time in the world.

Just a bit on Sprint and what they’ve got going on. They’re launching a new Samsung Instinct handset that’s entirely touchscreen EV-DO. I’m going to go and find it and have a look. They’ve got the new 8330 Curve from Blackberry, the nation’s smallest USB modem (I wonder if it’s smaller than the Vodafone one I have), plus they’re upgrading their Windows Mobile devices to 6.1 later on this year. Good news for my Motorola Q9, then.

Kajeet, the cellphone service for kids that gives parents peace of mind, has gone live with their GPS phone locator service. Kajeet are the only pay as you go MVNO that offers GPS phone tracking (”GPS phone locator service”).

I’ve been following Kajeet for a while (see posts) and I remember browsing their pay as you go handsets in Best Buy a few months ago.

I met with Daniel Neal, founder and CEO last night at ShowStoppers. I only met him for about five minutes and loved every moment of it. It’s not often you meet a CEO of an MVNO who actually likes what he’s doing or who can actually SHOW you around the service, demonstrating intimate knowledge and passion.

Daniel is living Kajeet, big time. He and his team have created a brilliant service that offers a wealth of configuration possibilities for parents.

Here’s the main configuration screen:

You can change almost everything about each child’s account from this dashboard. There are so many options it’s unreal. For example, you can specify that your child can’t use his mobile phone during the hours of 9am - 3pm whilst they’re at school. BUT you can specify that they can always call your number and other select phone numbers at all times. I like that option.

If you’ve got the GPS add on pack, you can be alerted if your child’s mobile phone is NOT in the vicinity of the school during class hours. Fantastic. You can set a variety of payment options and restrictions — limiting your child’s use from a financial perspective, or setting auto-bill amounts whenever the balance is used up. You can even opt to charge *your* account for all calls made to mum and dad, so that the child can use their balance for communicating with their friends and so on.

The GPS mapping is as you’d expect:

Here you can set options for text, IM, video and the like:

I really like this level of granularity — particularly when you’re dealing with tween/teenagers. Of course, you can simply give the handset, unrestricted, to the child if you want. Since I’m not a parent, I can’t judge on just how I’ll react but I reckon I would like to make use of a service like Kajeet.

Parents amongst us, could you comment?

Three people recently have talked to me about dotmobile. Every time they’ve referred to the service as ‘the student mobile network’ or words to that effect and I’ve always blurted out ‘Do you mean Blyk?’

Turns out there is a student mobile network — an MVNO — by the name of Dot Mobile. What do I know? I’m getting old.

One reader told me that ‘they’re generally hated in the student community’ — something I found strange. I enquired a little more: “It’s because they have stands in Student Unions and can be very harassing, even after you tell them you’re in a middle of a contract.”

Street teams, eh.

I’m sure they’re not all bad at all. The deals look good. I’m going to put them on my list of people to talk to. Have you come across them?

After a lot of digging, I managed to find the right page to work out the costs of calling abroad from your UK Vodafone.

It’s like having a flash back to 1997.

125 pence a minute to call the States from a standard Vodafone connection. More than a quid a minute!

Buy the 2.50/month international call saver option — something I briefly considered — and you’ll only pay 25p a minute to America.

I reckon that’s far too high a premium nowadays.

It’s 30p a minute to call the States from a 3UK handset. No international caller option required. That’s .. well, it’s better than 125p.

How do you dial internationally from your handset? Or don’t you bother?

It looks like carriers have finally lost the battle to keep control of consumers mobile content - according to ABI Research the average consumer gets their content from a mix of places, including the web, their mobile operator and from their own collections.

Of mobile users who watched video on their mobile, the split was fairly even between using websites like YouTube, their own carrier’s video offering and sideloading the content themselves. With music sideloading was the most popular option, with 48 percent of mobile-music listening respondents ripping content from a CD or other music source, while over one third of music-listening respondents purchased music through their operator. Pre-loaded content meanwhile, put in a strong showing, with around 60 percent of mobile gamers only playing the games that came with the phone.

So it’s not all bad news for operators - sure, they’ve missed the boat on some areas, but others are still firmly in their grip. Add to that there’s still a lot of money to be made off data delivery, not to mention ad-supported content, and it’s not such a grey picture after all.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has referred the question of wholesale mobile termination rates - the fee each operator charges another to connect a call on their network - to the Competition Commission after appeals by BT and 3.

The appeals come after Ofcom changed the controls on mobile termination rates early last year, which it said at the time would save operators £400 to £500 million a year and that saving should be passed on to retail customers.

According to The Guardian, the operators are now hoping to get termination rates down to nothing in order to be able to offer all-you-can-eat call plans of the type that have become common in the US. If that’s the case, great. If it saves the operators money, that’s great too - as long as the operators remember to send a bit of those savings our way, as Ofcom asked for.

After it warned the mobile industry last year that mandatory regulation could be on the way if it didn’t clean up its act, Ofcom is hoping to introduce new rules to clamp down on mobile misselling. The mobile watchdog said it was pressed to do so after “some mobile phone companies and third party sales agents are still engaging in unacceptable practices that are against the consumer interest” and receiving around 700 complaints a month.

The regulator is particularly riled about two practices: where customers are given false or inaccurate information when they want to buy a mobile contract; and some “cash back” promotions offered by sales agents where they fail to reimburse the consumer.

If the rules are adopted, it will mean mobile operators will be bound:
• not to engage in dishonest, misleading or deceptive conduct and to ensure that those selling their products and services similarly do not mis-sell;
• to make sure the customer intends and is authorised to enter into a contract;
• to make sure consumers get the information they need at the point of sale;
• to ensure that the terms and conditions of cash back deals offered by their retailers are fair; and
• to carry out due diligence and a number of checks in respect of their retailers.

Anything that adds to consumer protection and confidence in the mobile industry can only be a good thing. Applause for Ofcom.

If Virgin boss Richard Branson weren’t so rich, he might a bit disheartened right now. According to The Times, the drop in Virgin Mobile USA’s share price have caused Branson a personal loss of over $250 million, with the stock falling by 85 percent since the company floated on the stock exchange.

The share price has fallen by over half in recent trading prompted by worse-than-expected forecase from the MVNO which analysts are putting down to a tough economic climate and fierce competition from rivals in the pre-paid market.

However, it’s not all bad news. The company increased its customer base to 5.1 million, net service revenues were up 20 percent and it cut its quarterly losses. It remains to be seen if this is a blip or the first sign of a mobile industry slowdown. Watch this space…

Always one for pushing the boundaries, Helio Mobile have done a deal with Isabella Rossellini to offer her 8-part Green Porno adventure series on their ‘Give A Damn’ channel.

Green Porno is not Jenna Jameson with a reduced carbon footprint. No. It’s a ‘comical but insightful study of the curious ways certain creatures (insects, mainly) make love’.

So there will definitely be a bit about the female spider killing the male. Count on that.

“I’ve always been interested in animals and animal behavior,” said Rossellini. “I wanted people to laugh, but then to leave and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know about that.’ That was my green intervention. It was to make people aware of animal life.”

The Green Porno minisite, sundancechannel.com/greenporno, will feature all 8 films and exclusive web only interviews with Isabella Rossellini and the cast and crew, exclusive photo galleries of behind the scenes shots, making of footage and samples of Isabella Rossellini’s hand drawn storyboards. The exclusive web content also explores the challenges and opportunities associated with creating short films for ’small screens’ — namely the internet and mobile devices.

What does Helio think of it?

“Green Porno has the right balance of entertainment and education for our members,” said Rob Gelick, Vice President of Media and Community Services at Helio. “The series will be available across all of Helio’s devices and featured in the ‘Give A Damn’ channel which offers the best mobile content themed around socially conscious issues.”

More details here.

Link: Taliban pressures Afghan cell networks into 5PM curfew - Engadget

After a series of attacks on mobile phone towers, it appears life in Afghanistan has gotten even harder: the four privately-owned Afghan cell companies have all cowed to the Taliban’s demands and begun shutting off their networks between 5PM and 7AM every night.

There’s a lot of responses one could make…

Rumour mills are great fun. And there’s been some great rumours coming out of the US mobile industry in the last couple of days, both concerning Sprint Nextel and what might be its next move in the face of some ongoing financial troubles.

The first rumour comes from suggestions by analysts that T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom might be interesting in buying Sprint to stave off pressuring resulting from the US price cutting frenzy. It doesn’t sound an altogether likely scenario to me. There’s the question of all the incompatible technologies - T-Mobile’s GSM, and Sprint’s CDMA and WiMax. Granted, T-Mobile would get some more customers, but Sprint it losing those at a rate of knots and would land itself in a technological and regulatory minefield.

The other rumour, courtesy of Seeking Alpha is that Sprint has hired Morgan Stanley with a view to spinning off Nextel, with an announcement due shortly. While this would seem equally daft at first glance - Sprint would lose all the investment it put into Nextel not long after acquiring it - there could be some sense here. After the massive writedown Nextel generated in the last set of Sprint’s results, why not admit it didn’t work out, give up trying to merge the two companies and their networks and just focus on CDMA and WiMax?

Japan will get itself a new mobile operator next month and it doesn’t look like the more established players have any intention of sharing their toys. The new operator, EMobile, is the brainchild of KDDI founder Sachio Semmoto and will change no monthly subscription fee. Instead, customers will pay a per half-minute price for all calls, according to the FT, or a one-off payment per month for unlimited calls.

DoCoMo, which will initially provide the network for EMobile, has hit back with some new plans in an effort to stop its users’ heads being turned. One of the offers will see domestic voice calls between family members become completely free from the start of April - mimicking an offer announced recently by KDDI - while others give corporate customers subscribing to two services free voice and 60 percent off videophone charges for domestic calls to lines within the same group.

This looks like the start of a price war in Japan - and while that might be excellent news for mobile users, I wonder if the big operators will be quite so pleased if they’re forced to continue cutting prices for a long period.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has decided to go after a new target: mobile phone companies. The Associated Press is reporting that militants have threatened to blow up mobile phone base stations unless operators switch off mobile phone signals every night between 5pm and 3 am.

A spokesman for the Taliban told AP that it was making the demands to stop the American military gathering intelligence on its whereabouts and gave the mobile phone companies a three day window before the Taliban “will target their towers and offices”. Apparently, none of the countries mobile operators have agreed to their demand for a shutdown.

Is this a tacit admission not only that the US military is using cell signals to track down insurgents, but also that the Taliban uses mobiles?

Wow. It seems China Mobile is not content with adding 7.3 million new customers in its latest set of quarterly results - a record gain - it’s got its eyes on European expansion too. The Financial Times says the operator has opened a London office and its now planning to sell services to Chinese users overseas.

The paper goes on to say China Mobile may well open an MVNO, but gives no hint on whose network it may use, or in which geographies the virtual operation might appear in. The article also says that the operator plans to put more effort into “the short-term visiting market” - travelling business customers and the growing number of Chinese tourists.

In retrospect, given the strength - or at least the sheer size - of China Mobile, it’s a surprise it hasn’t considered investing in EMEA before. It will be fascinating to see how this one plays out, and how the entrenched operators like Vodafone react.

Bit of quick news about Orange and Vodafone. They’re about to start sharing mobile mast locations. The benefits are obvious — greater coverage and greater efficiencies. I often wonder why the networks didn’t all club together a while back and start non-profit company that they each jointly own to oversee the management and maintenance of mobile phone masts across the UK.

Then I quickly recognise that commercial imperative is a very, very strong incentive.

Here’s the gossip on the news:

The two companies announced their intention to work together last year and are aiming to deliver customer, environmental and business benefits by establishing joint network efficiencies. The first stage of implementation will see Orange UK and Vodafone UK share existing 2G and 3G mast sites, with one site housing the equipment of both companies where previously two would have been used. Implementation will begin this year and will mean that half of the UK population – the combined customer base of both companies – will be able to make calls and use the mobile internet in more places than ever before.

As well as improving the quality of coverage across the country, the two companies will also have a smaller environmental footprint due to the fewer number of mast-sites needed. It is expected that the initiative will lead to a 15% reduction in the number of mast sites - almost 3,000 sites in total – in the first two years alone.

In a nod to the previously cited commercial imperatives, Orange and Vodafone will continue to maintain separate networks and full responsibility for quality of service. So to all the Orange customers out there hoping to experience a bit of Voda’s famous reliability… it’s not happening soon!

Julia posted a point today about Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile (and, actually, Sprint and Helio) all beginning to offer unlimited voice calls for a fixed monthly fee. Call it $100 a month — or thereabouts.

I’ve been waiting for this sort of reality-check consolidation for quite a while. For years, actually. I’ve been getting wound up no end by ‘greedy’ mobile operators charging silly amounts of money for voice calls. Whenever I describe an operator as ‘greedy’, I get an avalanche of emails (and a few comment replies) citing factors like ‘having to pay to keep the lights on’ and so on.

I’m not advocating free unlimited calls. Not at all. But I think $100 a month — or £50 pounds a month is a reasonable fee to pay per month for unlimited voice calls form your mobile phone.

I have little time at all for Vodafone UK’s 40 pence per minute out-of-plan charges to call another UK landline. It’s these sort of stupid, stupid price points that wind up consumers continually. But good on Vodafone for continuing to stick to its pricing guns. If customers are stupid enough to pay…

We’ve had unlimited price creep in the UK for some time. For example on T-Mobile UK’s Flext price plan, you can generally get a variety of unlimited landline calls thrown in (sometimes off-peak). But we’ve not good sensible unlimited offerings as yet because there’s substantial pain — perceived or real (depending on your viewpoint) — in offering ‘unlimited’ cross network minutes here in the UK. Big pain. Still.

Verizon’s offering — $99 — includes all voice calls, local, national, landline or mobile. They just don’t mind. Pile it high, sell it (resonably) cheap. The US mantra. Commit to paying them at leat $99, together with data, email and other up-sell services and you’re boosting ARPU to $150 per month. I like it.

I like it for the operator, I like it for the consumer. It’s going to be quite a while before we see anything like this in the UK, right?

You never know, 3UK might surprise us all..

T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon appear to be locked into an “anything you can do, I can do better” battle, with all three announcing different flavours of ‘unlimited’ packages.

AT&T’s will see users able to make unlimited voice calls for $99.99 a month with no domestic roaming or long distance charges. Verizon Wireless also announced it will be offering a similar all you can eat voice plan for $99.99 per month, while T-Mobile went one better with an unlimited voice and messaging plan, which includes both SMS and MMS messaging.

It’s good to see all-you-can-eat pricing making more of an appearance, although I can’t imagine a huge number of users will save themselves a great deal of money by switching. Still, it’s the type of plan that resounds with users due to its sheer simplicity. I’m hoping to see this type of unlimited thinking move to data plans, which all too often claim to be just that but in reality come bogged down with technical restrictions and fair use caveats.

I’m honestly floored that this happened so quickly. Officially today, Verizon Wireless announced that it was offering a new unlimited plan, and was immediately flanked by T-Mobile and AT&T with similar plans. Sprint Nextel has had theirs for a short while now, and this was all started by MetroPCS and other MVNOs offering similar unlimited offerings.

The exact details of each monthly package aren’t really relevant, but if you’d like to read them, you can check out Verizon’s, AT&Ts, Sprint’s, and T-Mobile’s. The important and relevant part of all this is that the four major carriers in the United States have now officially become dumb pipes. Sure, the plans are slightly pricey, most hovering around $120 for minutes and messaging of some sort. However, it’s only a matter of time before data is added to these and the prices begin to drop. Back to School season is coming in 6 months, followed by the Christmas phone shopping season, if you don’t believe me.

You now have your phone, you pay monthly for the privilege of it being ‘active’, and that’s it. No more counting minutes, messages, or data. Mobile service in the U.S. is no longer a luxury, with more well-to-do customers getting more abilities, functionality, and features than someone else. It’s unlimited. Everyone has the same.

The doors have now been opened for the carriers to *finally* compete where they should have been all along - network quality (not advertising, but actually DELIVERING), innovative features such as Spinvox messaging and the like, and other quality of service (and not quantity of service) offerings.

I, for one, am thoroughly excited to see how this pans out in the market.