Link: Deutsche Telekom buys Orange Netherlands for €1.3 billion - International Herald Tribune

As reported here a couple of weeks ago, T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom have concluded a deal to buy the Dutch operations and network of Orange for €1.3 billion (about $1.8 billion, or £900m).

According to reports, Deutsche Telekom expects the takeover to result in savings of about €1 billion over the next few years - mainly down to network integration and reduced marketing expenses. The European Commission say that the merger will make T-Mobile the second larged operator in terms of subscribers and third largest in terms of revenue in the Dutch market.

Link: T-mobile in Talks with Hutchison 3g over Network Sharing

T-Mobile and 3 are reportedly in discussions over sharing parts of their 3G network, according to the Financial Times (via Cellular News).

There’s also rumours that should this deal go through, the next logical step would be that T-Mobile purchase 3. James Barford, analyst at Enders Analysis, told the FT: “This deal, if concluded, would leave T-Mobile as the most obvious potential buyer of 3.”

Radio sharing agreements are not uncommon, with Vodafone and Orange agreeing a 3G network sharing deal back in February. The benefits for the operators are easy to see - with the amount of money saved in duplicate infrastructure, planning permission, etc, quite worthwhile in the fight to make the huge amount of money they spent on the 3G radio auction worthwhile.

Unsurprisingly, T-Mobile and 3 declined to comment on the FT article - which usually means something’s brewing..

Link: T-Mobile hit by top up scam
IT/Tech website The Inquirer are reporting that T-Mobile are having some slight ‘issues’ to do with pre-paid top-ups and credit card fraud.

Apparently a reader contacted the website after discovering a fraudulent £40 payment on his credit card statement - which was quite impressive as he isn’t even a T-Mobile customer.

Reputedly the agent in T-Mobile’s help centre sounded very familiar with the situation and suggested that the company was currently experiencing problems with fraudulent top ups.

One of the problems with pre-paid is that the networks don’t actually know who the real owner of the handset is. It seems that T-Mobile’s online sign up system for topping up doesn’t even require a postal address.

The article speculates that “the system isn’t checking credit card numbers against a postal address when adding top ups”.

It’s all a bit ironic really that Ewan seems to be having so much trouble giving T-Mobile money from his debit card - yet they’ll quite happily let scammers top up their pre-pay accounts with a stolen card.

Collectively, I think I pay T-Mobile about 300 quid a month via two accounts. I have been really content with their Flext price plans and, of course, their data services — particularly since they lead the market with the Web’N'Walk plans for quite a while.

A while ago, I wrote that all of a sudden, I couldn’t use Agile Mobile, my instant messanger service, on my Nokia E61i. It just stopped working. Nothing would work.

I theorised that this could be due to T-Mobile actually implementing their ban on instant messaging via their standard Web’N'Walk plans. Fair enough. They did give enough notice. IM is meant to be canibalising their text revenues — or so many misguided operators believe. So I upgraded. I upgraded to the £12.50 per month Web’N'Walk that allows you to use instant messaging.

And?

F-All.

It was still screwed. Still didn’t work. So last night I took my 3UK sim from my E65 and installed it into the E61i and tried Agile Mobile. Woosh. It worked right away. No limitations.

That’s when I dumped T-Mobile. I do need a data connection. A proper data connection. I don’t need arsing around. I was happy to pay more — but it DIDN’T work when I did, so screw that, with bells on.

I’ve still got two accounts with them, but I will now decomission them. I’ll pay off the contracts. I’m now 3UK. Just need to figure out my transition strategy.

I tried paying my T-Mobile bill this morning over the phone. It didn’t work with via the automated system. It didn’t work when I spent 10 minutes quoting my card details to the T-Mobile Customer Services agent.

And… guess what, it doesn’t work online. For some STUPID reason the T-Mobile Online system seems to be completely screwed in the late evenings, 10pm to midnight. I do wonder if their IT folk are actually scheduling some large backup or something as this keeps happening.

GAH.

I’ve been singularly unimpressed with T-Mobile of late. I used to be a heavy user of Agile Mobile Messenger - for MSN, GoogleTalk and so on. I often used to conduct business and catch up with friends whilst sat in a taxi going places.

However a little while ago, T-Mobile upgraded their systems to prevent Agile Mobile — or, I imagine, any other instant messaging service — from working via their standard 7.50/month Web ‘N Walk service plan.

This was fair enough. They were pretty explicit about instant messaging not being ‘allowed’ on the low Web ‘N Walk tariff. Instead, customers are urged to upgrade to the next tariff — 12.50/month — to be able to use instant messaging.

I duly did so.

Rubbish.

It’s still not working. I figured it would just work.

What’s more, I used T-Mobile’s online account management service to remove T-Mobile WiFi service from one of my accounts. I then enabled WiFi service on another account. Result? F-All. My WiFi service has been deactivated and……….. the other account’s WiFi service hasn’t been activated. I haven’t got my login details so I can go online from the likes of a Starbucks or wherever else T-Mobile have WiFi support.

Useless.

This kind of flakey service winds me right up. Right up. It isn’t difficult to get this to work properly. Gahh. I sometimes do wonder just how much sticky tape is used to keep the T-Mobile systems running.

Which brings me to Blackberry. There is, I reckon, no better mobile instant messaging device level implementation than the Blackberry GoogleTalk service. It’s so tightly integrated — it’s just phenomenally good.

I was in a Vodafone store today lusting after one of the newer Blackberries with their GoogleTalk integration.

I think I’ll need to dump one of my T-Mobile accounts and swap the E61i to work on 3UK. I can’t be without instant messaging, it’s really beginning to annoy me.

Link: EU Clears T-Mobile Netherlands To Buy Orange Netherlands

.. in Holland at least. Deep breaths now, especially if you read the headline on an RSS reader

 The European Commission Monday cleared Dutch mobile phone operator T-Mobile Netherlands Holding to aquire Orange Netherlands.

The commission found that the proposed merger would “not threaten competition on the mobile retail market,” as other operators such as KPN and Vodafone Group, as well as mobile virtual network operators, would continue to compete with the new company.

Following the merger, T-Mobile will become the second-largest operator in terms of subscribers and the third-largest operator in terms of revenue. KPN remains the market leader in both revenues and subscribers, whereas the new entity will be of a similar strength to Vodafone, the commission said.

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)

According to reports T-Mobile have notched up half a million subscribers to it’s Web’N'Walk service in the UK in the past 18 months, and predicts it’ll double that by the end of the year.

You can’t argue with the price - for £7.50 a month you get a flat-rate data tariff (not ‘unlimited’, which is obviously something completely different) and supposed fast access to the interweb wherever you are.

However something I do have a problem with is the quality of service of late. I’ve got Web’N'Walk on my E61, and have had to disable 3G radio and force it to use GSM as the 3G data service is totally unusable here in the wild depths of South London. It’s slow, keeps dropping out, and seems to spend most of it’s time on it’s arse.

Even locked down to GSM with GPRS, the service runs like treacle half the time. If T-Mobile are serious about doubling the amount of subscribers by the end of the year, they’d better buck up their ideas and improve the service. Otherwise they’ll find they’ve got a lot of disgruntled customers - who’ll become ex-customers if it doesn’t improve.

Are you a T-Mobile Web’N'Walk customer? Whereabouts are you based, and how do you find the service?

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 think it’s time for a new handset. My poor E61 is trying to run Jaiku, Good Mobile Messaging, and Truphone - all at the same time. It’s crashing about every two minutes at the moment - which is not so good.

I’m thinking of keeping the E61 for email with Good, and going to an N95 for my general usage. There’s a few issues though, which I’m still yet to figure out.

Firstly, I’m getting a bit peeved with T-Mobile. Web’n'Walk on 3G is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard of late, so I’ve switched it to GSM. It’s slow, constantly breaks, and is generally flakey.

Second, I’d like to try Three, but the N95 isn’t available yet.

Third, I’ve got about another 11 months left on an 18 month contract with my E61 on T-Mobile.

Fourth, the number everyone uses to reach me goes to my E61 via T-Mobile.

Any suggestions on how to fix this pickle appreciated

Link: Truphone press office

Literally just popped into my inbox, is the news that Truphone have won their court injunction against T-Mobile. The judge in the case has instructed T-Mobile to stop blocking calls to Truphone.

An electronic version of the judgement is expected tomorrow - in the meantime you can read the Truphone blog entry for more details.

Congratulations to James Tagg and all at Truphone!

It’s all kicking off!

Link: Truphone press office: Truphone vs T-Mobile in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division

Software Cellular Network Limited, which develops and operates the Truphone mobile VoIP service, yesterday applied for an interim injunction against T-Mobile (UK) Limited.

More detail over at the Truphone Press Office site above.

This is quite an interesting one sent in my an SMS Text News reader and T-Mobile USA customer who can’t quite understand why his 160 character text messages are being delivered with wildly inaccurate timestamps.

Any ideas?

I am not sure if you are aware of this, but shortly after the time change in March, those of us in Arizona noticed that all of our incoming text messages were time stamped an hour ahead of local time. I have contacted their ‘customer support’ folks many times by phone since March, and gotten nowhere. I have e-mailed them numerous times.

Reeeeeeally weird!

Yesterday I was told that it is because we are on the Denver network.

What’s that got to do with anything?

You’re on the Denver network therefore you should be expecting messages to phase shift in and out of this universe? Is that it?

IF that is the case, why are my incoming texts time stamped correctly? Why does my phone show the correct time? Anyway, I was able to get an e-mail address for the T-Mobile Senior Vice President of Customer Service (Sue Nokes), so I sent her an e-mail.

Right on! Straight to the top!

I received a call from a guy who works in the office of their President. They say that they are going to get it resolved. Incidentally, I have been with T-Mobile for five years now. This is the first time the text messages have been time stamped incorrectly.

Keep us updated.

If you too are on the phase-shifting T-Mobile Denver network, this is why your 9am text message from your girlfriend appears to have been sent at 6am this morning.

Link: Tech.co.uk | News | Hacked iPhone reveals T-Mobile, Vodafone info

Just when you thought it was all making sense..

As we reported yesterday, hackers have cracked the Apple iPhone activation process. Its firmware was also leaked over the weekend, revealing the Apple iPhone wide open, laid bare.

Four very interesting files were found within in the Apple iPhone system, says Hackintosh . They are:

Default_CARRIER_ATT.png
Default_CARRIER_CINGULAR.png
Default_CARRIER_TMOBILE.png
Default_CARRIER_VODAFONE.png

Rumours are that Apple are chosing carrier partners based on their market share in a particular country. So O2 get the UK, T-Mobile have Germany, which just leaves Vodafone. Ireland anyone? Also there’s another rumour doing the rounds that France Telecom/Orange are going to get the gig in France.

Link: T-Mobile Launches Mobile Jukebox : Digital-Lifestyles (alpha remix)

T-Mobile yesterday launched their new upgraded mobile music service - with a new feature that might just help more people use such a service.

In the past, it’s been a bit of a bugbear to have to download a song to your mobile, then pay for it again to have it on your PC. Although the Mobile Jukebox service isn’t quite PC-compatible yet, it does give you a high quality WMA version (as well as the highly compressed mobile version) of each track you purchase - so you can download both and pop the high quality one on your PC.

According to reports, there’s over half a million tracks on the service - from the likes of Universal, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner, and independents such as V2 and Beggars Banquet. As a sweetener for signing up to the service, T-Mob are offering five free tracks to anyone buying a Mobile Jukebox-compatible handset during July 2007.

Link: Euro iPhone launch will reveal 3G handset for Vodafone, T-Mobile | Reg Hardware

I like rumours and gossip. They keep the industry interesting - although they don’t always come true.

Veteran tech and mobile journo Guy Kewney has reported that Apple are about to announce the launch of the European version of the iPhone. It’ll be 3G, available from the Carphone Warehouse, and hooks into deals with operators T-Mobile and Vodafone.

The announcement is due today, so watch this space.

Right now if you sign-up to some of T-Mobile’s Flext price plans, you’ll get free evening and weekend landline calls thrown in. That looks like a pretty good deal to me.

So good, that I phoned up T-Mobile this weekend to enquire as to whether I could ‘get’ that for my T-Mobile account. You see I (unwittingly) signed up to an 18-month contract when I got my (now phonejacked) Nokia N95. No one actually asked me if I wanted to extend my contract. It just happened. This is really, really, really bad. I only wanted a 12-month commitment.

But then, this sort of idiot thing happening is useful — it means I’m not reporting second, third or fourth hand. It’s nice to be screwed like the rest of the population as then I feel I can give a good, objective perspective when anyone asks.

Anyway, I’m on the biggest of T-Mobile’s Flext price plans which routinely affords me 400 quid’s worth of credit to blow each month. I usually get down to about 100 quid’s worth of credit left.

I’d like to have the free evening and weekend calls too. That’s not possible, because this wasn’t a valid offer when I got my N95. It’s for… brand new customers only.

On the phone, the polite chap from T-Mobile explained that shortly, I too would be able to benefit from this deal. July 6th. After July 6th, I can phone up and get my price-plan modified accordingly.

Nice.

So if you’re on T-Mobile Flext and you don’t currently have free evening and weekend calls, make sure to call T-Mobile at the end of the week.

The best thing about Flext? I, unlike you, don’t have to pay 35-40p a minute to speak to someone on another network.

I’m confidently asserting that you — that is you, dear reader, are being nailed to the wall by your operator whenever you call someone on a different network. The chances are that your price plan is just silly. By default, for example, Vodafone generally knocks you for 35p a minute to call any other network. It really is just ridiculous to pay that amount of money. Obviously you don’t start paying until you’ve fragged your existing minutes. But still. Stupid. So I really do like Flext.

Link: T-Mobile Hotspot @Home Service Available Nationwide (MobileBurn)

Following a trial in Seattle last October, T-Mobile have today rolled out their Hotspot @ Home service across the US.

The service, which relies on a handful of branded Wi-Fi compatible phones from Nokia and Samsung, allows customers to seamlessly roam between their home wireless network and the T-Mobile GSM network - and also gives unlimited free nationwide phone calls when in range of a compatible hotspot.

The handsets currently retail for $49.99 on a two year contract, and come bundled with a modified Linksys or D-Link wireless router. There’s a monthly charge of $19.99 for users on a standard plan, or $29.99 for family plans.

What’s not quite clear is whether T-Mobile are planning to launch a similar service here in the UK. Considering their current stand-off with mobile VOIP providers Truphone, it could be interesting times ahead.

Link: Vodafone slashes mobile internet charges by half - Independent Online Edition > Business News

This interesting news appeared on UK newspaper The Independent website today. Vodafone have apparently kicked off a ‘price war’ by introducing a flat-rate mobile broadband tariff of £25/month. Although the article says that the ‘fair use’ limit has been raised, it doesn’t say exactly what the new limit is.

There’s also news on a new tariff for roaming data users.

In order to capture more roaming revenue, the company has also introduced a tariff that charges contract customers £8.50 for a 24-hour session to use data cards abroad. It has also doubled the amount of data that subscribers to its £95-a-month Mobile Broadband Travel tariff can use, while increasing the number of networks on to which those customers can roam.

Will be interesting to see the response in the coming weeks from the other mobile operators, especially T-Mobile and Three.

Link: GigaOM CellCarriers fear mobile VoIP planet

Something interesting is afoot in the world of Truphone. We got the same press statement as Om Malik at Gigaom who wrote this article, and as Om did such a good job writing about it I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. However, here’s something interesting.

In a nutshell, Truphone are claiming T-Mobile is refusing to interconnect with them, nor route their 07978 UK number range. This effectively means that T-Mobile customers calling those Truphone numbers will get number unobtainable. The same statement says “T-Mobile refuses to interconnect with operators offering VoIP as a matter of policy.”

Further down, James Tagg - Truphone’s CEO - is quoted as saying: “T-Mobile will argue that it is not ‘blocking’ Truphone but is merely negotiating on price. T-Mobile receives 35p per minute from its customers but is offering only 0.21p per minute to Truphone even when Truphone’s costs are 9p per minute to terminate the call. T-Mobile is blocking our numbers unless we accept this loss-making offer and, since T-Mobile is the only company that can route calls from its customers it has a complete veto on the Truphone service.”

So, questions questions. Are T-Mobile bluntly refusing to interconnect with Truphone and route its number block as ‘a matter of policy’, or is it down to the cost? Why do Truphone have termination costs of 9p per minute? From April 1st 2007, Ofcom lowered the termination costs for Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, and O2 to 5.1p, with Three set to 5.9p. With Truphone not having to pay for a national GSM, 3G or WiFi network, why are their ‘costs’ so high?

I’ve spoken to some sources - who wish to remain anonymous and therefore can’t be quoted - and there’s more than meets the eye to this issue. However, this one has the potential to run on for a while, it seems.. and when things of this nature inevitably turn legal, the only people that’re guaranteed to win are the lawyers.

Link: D.Telekom CEO says T-Mobile USA is core asset | News | Mergers/Acquisitions | Reuters

T-Mobile CEO René Obermann says there are no plans to sell their US network, despite the rumour mill going into overdrive in the past few weeks, and apparent pressure from investors.

“The U.S. business is a core business of the mobile communications business and therefore of Deutsche Telekom,” Obermann said on Tuesday at an industry conference.

“We have defined the U.S. as a core business for Deutsche Telekom in the future as well,” he added, echoing Chief Financial Officer Karl-Gerhard Eick, who told Reuters in May that Deutsche Telekom was not considering a sale.

So there you go. Of course things might change - it wouldn’t be the first time a denial is issued a few weeks (or months) before the rumours come true.

After my post the other day about, amongst other things, T-Mobile restricting my web access via web’n'walk, I finally snapped. I did something about it.

 Logging on to the T-Mobile mobile homepage last night, I noticed they’d added Facebook on the front page. Wicked. Perhaps they’ve added it to the whitelisted sites and I could access it?

Alas no, it was still locked this morning. So off to the T-Mobile store I went, ID and handset in hand.

“Hello, can I unlock my handset please?”

“Certainly sir, you want to access adult sites?”

“No, just Myspace, Facebook, and MSN. I don’t want dodgy stuff”

At this point the rather charming sales assistant gives me a dirty look. I then go into the total denial that I’m accessing p*rn on my mobile mode, trying to persuade her it’s for proper things. Uhuh. Right. She’s looking at me like I’m a fully paid up member of the dirty raincoat brigade, and my newspaper of choice is the Daily Smut.

Anyway couple of minutes later, and an hour of waiting for it to update, I can now access a service that T-Mobile are advertising on their homepage. Fantastic. But what a palava.. She even gave me a lecture in the shop, reminding me if I lend my handset to anyone under 18 I’d have to call up and put the lock back on. Yes of course, Facebook and Myspace are a hot bed of sordidness and nudity. Then again, maybe I’ve lead a sheltered life

As I (Alex) mentioned in a post a few days ago, I’ve been moving house. Been out on the road a lot the past few days, which has given me a chance to really hammer my T-Mobile Web’n'Walk/Flext account.

It’s been utter shite. No really, totally crap. My E61 seems to spend most of its time flipping between 3G and GSM, and promptly breaking the data connection everytime. I’ve had full reception but got a text saying there’ve been a load of missed calls from people. Calls have dropped out and then refused to reconnect for at least five minutes.

In the past four or so days I’ve had duplicate texts both received by me and people I’ve texted, some 2-3 hours apart - but exactly the same message.

I’m currently posting this blog in my new abode via an apparently 3G connection - whilst I sort out a broadband hookup. Alas, it’s not 3G speed. To be honest I’ve seen 56K dialup faster. Network congestion? Get outta here, it’s gone midnight on a Friday night/Saturday morning. Reckon many people are using data in the area? I doubt it.

And finally.. I can’t use MSN/Windows Live Messenger, or even the official Web Messenger or clones, as T-Mobile have decided I’m under 18 and shouldn’t be allowed to use such terribly lewd ’adult’ services - which it reckons they are. Myspace is on that list too, as is Facebook. I wouldn’t mind so much but it’s a business account registered to a limited company and I have asked at least twice for it to be sorted.

Head, bang, wall. Might go check out what Three have to offer over the weekend.

Link: BBC NEWS | Business | Deutsche Telekom backs VoIP firm

Deutsche Telekom is backing the internet telephone company Jajah, becoming the first major phone company to support such technology.

T-Online Venture Fund chairman Andreas Kindt said in a company statement: “By investing in companies like Jajah, we will be able to continue to bring users around the world the innovative solutions they are looking for.”

Curious and curiouser. So on one hand you’ve got Vodafone and Orange, in the ‘VOIP is bad for business as people won’t use our network to make voice calls, so let’s block it every way we can’ camp - and on the other T-Mobile’s parent company who’ve just pumped a load of cash into a VOIP related company.

This one will be interesting to watch…