Kevin Spacey to headline Mobile World Congress

The headline speaker - or, at least, one of the headline speakers - at next year's GSM Association Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is Kevin Spacey. Yes, the Academy award-winning actor and director. He'll be talking about mobile entertainment and hosting the MOFILM Mobile Short Film Festival, described as the world’s first global mobile film festival. [Press release]

GSM Association wants mobiles to be NFC-equipped from next year

The GSM Association has said it wants full NFC functionality - the ability to use 'touch payment' systems - built into commercially-available mobile handsets from mid-2009. This would let the phone communicate with contactless readers to provide credit and debit payments, turning it into a 'mobile wallet'. The organisation says delivering mobile payment services efficiently and cost-effectively means device manufacturers need to make sure the vast majority of handsets incorporate Near Field Communications features as standard. [Press release]

50 million mobile broadband users worldwide

The GSM Association says there are now over 50 million mobile broadband users worldwide - and they're expecting the number of users to be growing at more than 4 million a month by the end of the year. This compares with just 11 million users last year. Their figures are based on the number of High Speed Packet Access users who are connecting via 191 compatible mobile networks around the world. Current UK sales of USB Mobile Broadband dongles are said to be over 100,000 per month. [Sources: Press release; Mobile News]

GSM Association responds to EU SMS statement

The GSM Association isn't happy with the European Commission's plans to cap SMS charges when roaming. It says the average price of text roaming fell by 18% last year, with the proposed regulations threatening to choke growth and stifle competition. [Press release]

VoIP company Vyke disagrees with GSMA's roaming statement

Voice-over-IP operator Vyke says the GSM Association's recent roaming figures show mobile networks shouldn't be complaining about potential EC charge caps. In a press release titled "Blind as bats", it also says the networks' shareholders should welcome the threat of regulation. [Press release]

Mobile broadband jeopardised by regulation?

The GSM Association, the trade group that represents over 750 mobile operators worldwide, says the European Commission's regulations are causing networks to cut back on their spending - which could slow down the deployment of new networks. It says the EC claims operators need to have charges capped because of excessive profits, but the European mobile industry's return on capital employed was just 9% in 2006 (compared with more than 20% in other sectors) and was no higher in 2007. It also points out that usage hasn't substantially increased despite the introduction of roaming caps, with roaming call volumes increasing by 11% in the year to July 2008 but roaming revenue from voice calls decreasing by 26%. [Press release]

Data usage growing in Europe

The GSM Association says Europe's mobile data market grew by 40% in 2007, hitting 7 billion Euro, according to recent research from AT Kearney. The number of 3G users in the EU doubled to 112 million in the 12 months to April 2008, which means 22.5% of Europeans are using 3G, compared with 18.4% in North America and 3.7% in the Asia Pacific region. It's estimated that the average retail cost of data roaming fell in the EU by 25% over that period, while 'roamed' data traffic grew by 75%. [Source: press release]

Mobile broadband connections increase ten-fold in 12 months

Global trade body the GSM Association has calculated that there are now more than 32 million mobile broadband connections worldwide - compared with just over 3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2007. They say there are now 166 High Speed Packet Access 3G networks in 73 countries around the world. The GSMA also recorded a 44% increase in the number of mobile broadband-enabled networks and an estimated 265% growth in HSPA devices. [Press release]

GSMA Launches Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse

One of the attention-grabbing stories from this week's Mobile World Congress (and mentioned in this week's podcast) is the GSM Association's launch of Mobile Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Content. As the name suggests, it aims to block child sexual abuse content from the mobile internet. The Alliance has been founded by the GSMA (the mobile industry's international trade association), Hutchison 3G Europe, mobilkom austria, Orange FT Group, Telecom Italia, Telefonica/02, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile Group, Vodafone Group and dotMobi. Members will block access to inappropriate sites, will remove inappropriate content posted on their own pages and will encourage customers to report online child sexual abuse content. [Press release]

Mobile ad success to be measured in UK

The UK's mobile phone networks are testing a ratings system to let advertisers know how well their ads are working. The system - part of the GSMA's Mobile Advertising Programme - will provide information about groups of customers surfing on the mobile internet, what they are looking at and when they're browsing. Information will be collected and checked by an independent third-party organisation in a similar way to the BARB TV viewing figures or the RAJAR radio ratings system. [Sources: The Times, Brand Republic]