TELECOMS NEWS

Archive for the ‘Mobile Phones’ Category

Sales of GSM Desk Phones in the UK have risen dramitically over the last 12 months.  A GSM Desk Phone is a mobile phone in the form of a traditional desk phone.  This means you can have a mains powered phone on your desk with a SIM card inside and when you make calls the call goes over the mobile phone network.  This makes them ideal for temporary offices or sales offices where alot of calls are made to mobile phones and users want to save money on lanline to mobile calls by using the competitive cross network mobile phone tariffs offered by the mobile phone companies.

However, this basic use of GSM Desk Phones is not what has driven the demand for these devices.  The most common application for GSM Desk Phones is their use as a Taxi Phone.

Taxi companies can install a GSM Desk Phone as a Taxi Phone in a multitude of locations including pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafes, shops, supermarkets, train stations, bus stations, colleges and universities.  In fact a GSM Taxi Phone can be installed anywhere there is a mains power supply, providing customers a convenient way of booking a taxi.

Some GSM Desk Phones have been tweaked to meet this growing demand for Taxi Phones and include features like Hot Dial that allows the taxi company to configure the phone to dial the Taxi Operator’s telephone number simply by lifting the handset.  A great example of this is the DPH500 Taxi Phone that includes the easy to use Hotdial feature, and also prevents other calls or SMS messages being used on the phone when it is in Hot Dial mode.

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Many Taxi companies and businesses that need customers to contact them from public locations such as retaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, railway stations, bus stations, airports, hospitals and hotels are taking advantage of GSM technology in the form of the GSM Taxi Phone.

This type of Taxi Phone uses a standard mobile phone SIM card to provide an easy way for customers to contact the taxi company and make a booking request.  Many GSM Desk Phone manufacturers have adapted their standard office GSM Desk Phones and made them wall mountable and included features like Hot Dial (a revised version of baby call) so that the user simply has to lift the handset and the taxi phone automatically dials the required number.  These developments, together with the low cost of these Taxi Phones (approx £60.00) and the low cost of GSM mobile phone SIM cards make this an ideal solution to replace expensive landline taxi phone solutions.

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What has Digital TV got to do with 4G Mobile?

Well, it is in fact very closely linked and it’s critical that the Digital TV Switchover we are all hearing so much about these last years goes ahead completely in 2012. The Government and broadcasters have been working hard for the last 10 years on making sure we are all moved off the old analogue delivery method and onto Digital. Most people have a DigiBox or it built into our TV sets and the final furlong is in sight now.

But have you asked why? Sure, it seems obvious that the signal quality will be better with HD channels being broadcast and new transmission techniques and more channels on Freeview but there is much more to it than that.

The radio waves in the UK are very busy and have been for some time. We all watch TV, listen to the radio, use our Mobiles and use a host of other wireless devices from WiFi to remote keys for cars and doors. All of this needs to operate within a known frequency band whether it is a licensed or unlicensed frequency band. Be very afraid if you start to interfere with some other electrical function or critical service – you may have the RA (Radio Agency) to deal with! To do a serious explanation of UK frequency spectrum would take a PhD thesis but the critical factor in all of this movement from Analogue TV to Digital TV is to free up the airwaves to launch 4Generation Mobile Broadband services.

It now transpires that this will not be all smooth running and that there will be some interference at the cross over points in the frequencies, particularly around 800MHz. Practically this is going to mean that whoever wins the licenses to operate 4G services is going to have to find some solution to delivering the broadcast services free from interference. This might involve using filters; it might involve paying for a satellite or cable service to those homes affected.

But why would you do that when you are building a super fast mobile network capable of delivering rich media content particularly video? Surely the technology will allow for a facility to deliver to individual homes; after all it is designed to run up to 1GBit/s to a static location. What remains to be seen is will it be economical to do so if a large number of homes have to be guaranteed a broadcast service above and beyond the other mobile connections that will be demanding rich media services.

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From then to now?

Many many years ago when the yuppie hoard roamed the western world there came a really useful form of communications in the form of a portable phone. Portable was the description but it was more akin to ‘luggable’ and came in the form of a small suitcase or brief case connected to a car battery or similar. At the time they were the rich business man’s toy and remained so for some time with the key advantage being that you could tell your wife that you were on the way home and to put the dinner on! How things have changed over the last 25 years!

Analogue technology was very quickly replaced by Digital at the beginning of the 90’s and GSM was born. This was a natural evolution from a specification that was developed in the Nordic countries called NMT (Nordic Mobile Telecommunications). It was such a good fit that it became the major template for the new standard although the operating frequencies necessarily had to change. Operating frequencies and their availability remains a major theme of all development discussion in this space to this day and is likely to always remain so. Incidentally, this left two major telecoms vendors in a remarkably good position to supply the world with mobile terminals and Nokia and Ericsson started to clean up with one company becoming almost preeminent for the whole of the 90’s and even into the 00’s. But, as Nokia now know, nothing can ever be taken for granted.

What grew up behind this development was a battle between Europe /Asia and the USA and Japan. The major market developed in Europe and Asia and the USA lagged behind. Japan managed to maintain a considerable growth and innovation with their standards approach but it had little to do with the rest of the world and just made it a difficult market to enter for western suppliers. This is a whole historical piece on its own but is really just an interesting subject conversation and considered opinions as to how this period became so complicated.

Things are much clearer now however, or are they? Now we are heading through the 3G period, with 2G almost forgotten, (although used by us all on a daily basis) and with many improvements being layered on top of the old standard. Now we see HSPA in its two main varieties HSDPA and HSUPA, the D and the U in both cases standing for Download and Upload. These services provide High Speed access to mobile at and around fixed broadband speeds where network is available.

We are now moving slowly towards 4G and LTE services and these are expected in the UK in 2013 if all goes to plan. Briefly, LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and is a subset of the overall 4G standard. As usual, there are standards, and there are standards; which leaves some confusion. The major hardware vendors are all rushing to get their interpretation of the ‘standard’ out there and working to prove a point and accelerate growth. Certain parts of Scandinavia, USA and Arabia are already starting to offer trial services although the terminals are not in the mass market yet.  The consideration of these standards and services requires considerable explanation but for now, let’s have a look at the quantum jump in speeds we can expect in the future if all works out perfectly – which it won’t!

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A new GSM Doorbell will call your mobile phone when the visitor presses the doorbell. The GSM Doorbell will also establish a video call so you can see who is calling.

The GSM Doorbell is just like a door phone but enables you to answer callers to your door from the convenience of your mobile phone or smart phone.

The GSM Doorbell uses a SIM card to provide low cost GSM connectivity and convenience for this low cost GSM doorphone solution.

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Business and consumer demand for high speed mobile broadband has spiked a demand for 4G Routers and LTE Routers in the UK.  Popular products such as the Option Globesurfer 3+ and the Zalip CDG561WE 4G Routers thats provide higher download speeds than traditional HSPA Routers have seen a dramatic increase in sales.  The Option Globesurfer III+ is a HSPA+ Router with a maximum download speed of 14.4Mbps and the Zalip CDG561WE is a 4G Router with maximum download speeds of up to 21Mbps.

Many users of these high speed mobile broadband routers aare using them on the new 3 mobile HSPA+ Network and in our own tests we got 11Mbps download speed which is pretty impressive.

With the new wave of wireless network technologies around the corner with the auction of the old analogue television spectrum later this year there are exciting times ahead in the UK for high speed mobile broadband access for both 4G mobile phone users as well as home and office mobile broadband solutions using the next generation of 4G Router, LTE Router, WiMAX Router and HSPA+ Routers.

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New devices and international expansion boost Mobile Fun’s Christmas trading figures

Record orders for the festive period and the company has its first “million month” with sales of over £1.1m in December

Birmingham, 16 January 2012 – Mobile Fun, (www.MobileFun.co.uk) the leading online retailer of accessories for mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices, has reported another strong Christmas trading period with orders for the quarter up by 21% and sales up by 13% compared with the same period in 2010.

The company, with UK, German, French, Dutch and Spanish websites, received a record 122,861 orders over the final quarter of 2011. December was a particularly strong month, with sales of over £1.1 million and orders up by 32% on December 2010, offsetting a slight weakness in UK trading in the build up to Christmas.

Strong growth at Mobile Fun’s European websites, MobileFun.de, MobileFun.fr and the more recently launched MobileFun.es and MobileFun.nl, increased orders placed on these websites by 93% and sales by 86%.

Mohammed Hussain, Managing Director of Mobile Fun, comments: “Our teams across Europe have delivered a strong performance over the festive period – and we’re thrilled that sales exceeded £1 million in December.  The continued growth of the smartphone and tablet markets has made this an incredible Christmas for Mobile Fun. Our customers especially appreciated fast delivery for last-minute shopping – this year, we were able to ship orders placed up to 7pm on 23rd December for pre-Christmas delivery.”

“Despite a weak retail environment in the UK, our outlook for 2012 is positive: we believe that our strong product proposition, combined with our successful international expansion strategy will enable us to continue to capitalise on the opportunity offered by the growth of the smartphone and tablet markets. We are particularly excited about the opportunity presented by forthcoming new devices from major manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and Nokia – as these will ensure strong demand for our products,” concluded Hussain.

About Mobile Fun

Mobile Fun is the UK’s leading Internet retailer offering a market leading range of accessories for mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices from its growing portfolio of websites in the UK and in Europe.

With a product range of over 8,000 globally-sourced mobile accessories and tens of thousands of mobile downloads available on its websites, Mobile Fun has successfully established a market-leading position within the competitive mobile, smartphone and tablet sectors.

Mobile Fun has offices in the UK, Germany and France and delivers products to over 50 countries worldwide.

Mobile Fun was ranked as the UK’s 7th ‘Fastest Growing Technology Based Company’ in the Sunday Times 2006 Microsoft Tech Track 100, was awarded the ‘Online Retailer of the Year’ title at the Mobile News Awards 2011 and won the Online Retail Awards 2011 ‘Computers and Telecommunications’ category.

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We received several calls today from what appeared to be an international call centre on behalf of XLN Telecom.  After searching on google for XLN Telecom Cold Calling we found many pages on forums and websites advising of the problems that customers have with XLN Telecom and their cold calling and sales tactics.

An example of what we found is shown on Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert website and the link is as follows :-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=30760093

If you have a Telecoms, Mobile or Broadband Cold Calling nightmare story to tell then please comment below.

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The TekView IRPS1363 is a revolutionary new remote power switch that enables you to control the power to a device simply by sending an SMS message.

Simply insert a SIM card into the SMS Power Switch (can be contract or PAYG) and set up the power switch using SMS commands from another phone.  You can now turn the power on or off simply by sending a simple SMS command from anywhere in the world.  The Tekview GSM Power Switch will send a reply SMS message confirming the action and if you have attached the thermal sensor then the unit will also display the temperature.

The TekView IRPS1363 SMS Remote Power Switch will also notify you by SMS if the unit is powered on or off and the unit can be configured to control the connected device based upon ambient temperature.

The SMS Power Switch is ideal for remote rebooting of Servers or for control of devices such as 3G routers that may require a manual power recycle to re-establish a 3G connection for routers that do not have this feature built-in.

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Early stage London based specialist mobile network operator Cycell Limited has closed a £600k round which included a £135k investment from a LBA angel syndicate. The company offers a full range of specialist white label easy-to-use handsets, for which it owns all intellectual property, and airtime contracts to its clients.

Cycell’s network is powered by Vodafone and will be launched this year. The investment will enable the company to complete product develop, secure GSM certification and set up a production facility to customise and brand handsets.

Thomas Sunderland, CyCell CEO, notes, “We now have a group of highly experienced and committed shareholders, whose expertise and contacts will be invaluable to the business. The LBA gave CyCell the support and confidence to raise investment in a competitive environment where fund raising experience is essential. Thank you to Anthony Clarke and Dale Murray for their personal support and leadership over the last few months“

Dale Murray, Chairman CyCell, notes, “There is a clear gap – globally – for a simple, easily understood mobile phone. CyCell’s transformative design will fill this gap quickly, as they already have overwhelming support from mobile networks, suppliers and customer groups.”

Anthony Clarke, Managing Director of London Business Angels, comments:

“LBA assembled a syndicate of 6 angels here led by Dale Murray the new Chair of the Company who has extensive experience and contacts in telecoms and the mobile sector. Dale is also the BBAA’s angel investor of the year. Cycell is a great example of the power of angel investing in an early stage company where smart money is now helping to build a potentially high growth business.”

For further information please visit www.cycell.com and www.lbangels.co.uk

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