UK customer gets unexpected £27,322 mobile bill

Following a similar story from Canada (mentioned in our recent podcast and also on the BBC), we now hear in the Northern Echo that a factory worker from Darlington has run up a mobile phone bill in excess of £27,000. Ian Simpson has a mobile phone with Vodafone's "unlimited" internet browsing deal, but apparently he didn't realise that the contract only inclued browsing the web on his phone - not using his phone as a modem for his laptop.

O2 talks about 3G iPhone

FT.com has an article (also on MSNBC) about O2, the Apple iPhone and Matthew Key - O2's new CEO. He's quoted as "confident that O2 will also have an exclusive deal" for the 3G iPhone and "insists Vodafone could not muscle in and take the 3G iPhone in the UK".

Air France offers mobile usage on international flights

Air France has launched the world's first in-flight mobile phone service on an international flight. It's equipped its Airbus A318 aircraft with a system from OnAir, enabling customers to send and receive texts messages, picture messages and emails during a six-month test period. Calls will be permitted during the second half of the test. [Press release]

More SMS records forecast for New Year's Eve

Airwide Solutions, the company that worked with Vodafone to send the world's first text message, has forecast the number of SMS messages expected on 31st December 2007 and 1st January 2008. It expects the USA to send almost 730 million messages and the UK to send 280 million messages. However, China - which doesn't celebrate its New Year until February - will send more messages than both countries. An average day in China sees 1.6 billion texts sent. [Source: Cellular-News.com]

Drivers could be jailed for holding mobiles

New guidelines from the Crown Prosecution Service say that drivers could face jail if they've been driving dangerously while using a mobile phone. [Source: BBC News]

3 and T-Mobile joining forces on 3G

T-Mobile and 3 have signed an agreement to combine their individual 3G networks, creating Britain's largest 3G (and HSDPA) network. The combined network is expected to provide almost complete population coverage for 3G services across Britain by the end of 2008. [Source: Press release]

2.3 trillion texts predicted for 2008

Researchers at Gartner reckon that 2.3 trillion messages will be sent worldwide in 2008, almost a 20% increase from this year's total of 1.9 trillion messages. Revenue from these messages will grow by 15.7% in 2008 to $60.2 billion (£30.4 billion). Western Europe is expected to send 215 billion of those messages - up from 202 billion in 2007.

Campaign to remove VAT from charity text donations

Giving to charity is usually VAT-free... but not if you donate by text message. That's why Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten is calling on the Government to allow charity-based texts to become VAT-free.

New edition of The Fonecast now online

This week it's the last podcast of 2007 from TheFonecast.com. As well as our regular look at industry news from the last seven days, the team looks back at its predictions from 2006... and makes some new ones for 2008. In addition, we've reviewed the Samsung F210 music-playing handset. . Each weekly edition of 'The Fonecast' can be downloaded automatically by including us in your RSS reader or by using iTunes.

Zumobi launches free 'mobile widget' browser

In last week's podcast we mentioned a news story that suggested alternatives to traditional web browsers. This week Zumobi has launched a beta version of its mobile widget platform, which offers a simple way for people to check bite-sized pieces of information on the screen of their phone. The idea is rather like the on-screen ‘widgets’ that are part of the new Windows Vista platform. Zumobi is currently only available for Windows Mobile devices but is free to download from www.zumobi.com

Top mobile searches of 2007

Internet service provider AOL has published this year's most common searches from its mobile portal. Iraq was the most popular mobile search term of the year, followed by MySpace, iPhone, Games, Mail, Chat. Music, Facebook, Ringtones and eBay. [Sources: RCRnews.com, Cellular-News.com]

Mobile gaming to hit $6 billion by 2011

The analysts at Understanding & Solutions say revenues from mobile games will rise from $3.6 billion this year to $6 billion (£3 million) by 2011, showing stronger growth (although admittedly a smaller market share) than console games and dedicated handheld devices.

And, on a similar subject, Nokia is officially relaunching its N-Gage mobile gaming platform this week. Instead of only being available on a dedicated handheld device, the new N-Gage service will be accessible on a range of compatible Nokia phones - starting with the new N81 handsets. [Sources: UandS.com, Nokia blog]

Palm could lose hundreds of employees

A report from Palminfocenter.com (and confirmed by CNET.com) says PDA and phone manufacturer Palm is planning job cuts to its work force of around 1,200. It's not disclosed how many staff may go, but there are suggestions it could be in the hundreds.

Lambeth uses Bluetooth to promote anti-gun campaign

The London borough of Lambeth has launched a new anti-gun campaign that’s sending its message to Bluetooth-enabled phones. The 60-second film can be received by any compatible mobile phone when it passes one of the borough’s special Bluetooth masts. [Source: icSouthLondon.co.uk]

Go-ahead for Sony Ericsson/Motorola and Nokia/Navteq deals

The European Commission has cleared the way for Sony Ericsson to sell 50% of its stake in UI Holdings - the company behind the UIQ interface - to Motorola. And, elsewhere in the world, NAVTEQ's shareholders have voted in favour of Nokia's takeover, with over 99% of votes at the special meeting in favour of the merger agreement. [EC PDF document, Navteq press release]

Mobile video messaging worth $10 billion in 5 years' time

The money made from mobile video messaging services is expected to rise by an average of 60% per year between now and 2012, according to ABI Research, hitting $10 billion (£4.9 billion) in 5 years' time. It says mobile video messaging is is in the right place to take advantage of increased mobile device capabilities and consumers’ desire to stay in touch using more than just voice. [Press release]

New edition of 'The Fonecast' podcast now online

This week the podcast team of Iain Graham, Mark Bridge and James Rosewell takes its regular look at news from the last seven days. Iain interviews Tom Erskine about the new "Nokia Comes With Music" service and Mark takes a look at the Giorgio Armani–Samsung luxury mobile phone. Each weekly broadcast can be downloaded automatically by including us in your RSS reader or by using iTunes - or simply click here to listen online. We're also available on the Mobile News web site, sponsored by 20:20 Logistics in association with the Nokia N95.

Changes at the top for O2 and 20:20

Telefonica, O2's parent company, has promoted its UK Chief Financial Officer Ronan Dunne to become CEO of the UK business. This follows Matthew Key's recent upward move from UK CEO to Chairman and Chief Executive of Telefónica O2 Europe.

Elsewhere, the 20:20 Group has appointed Meinie Oldersma as its new chief executive. He joins from technology distributor Ingram Micro and will replace Mark Ryan who left in October.

[Sources: O2 press release, Mobile News]

MAXroam universal SIM launches in UK

The MAXroam 'universal' SIM card has (finally) been launched. It's being sold via Maplin electronics stores as well as online. The service gives customers a national number in their home country and another number for the country they are traveling to. They can either forward their calls to their 'foreign' number or can record a voicemail message telling callers to call the new number. MAXroam can currently be used in over 160 countries around the world. [Press release]

Orange reveals mobile data growth

UK mobile network Orange has just released its second Digital Media Index, comparing digital mobile usage with its first survey from May 2007. The Orange Digital Media Index shows that:

• Picture messaging has increased by 37%, with over 1 million photos uploaded from mobiles to online photo albums in August (although arguably this second statistic isn't "picture messaging"). So-called 'active' MMS users send an average 4.3 picture messages per month.
• Text messaging has increased by 25% to a billion text messages sent per month, which is an average 71 per customer
• Music downloads have increased by 15%
• Games downloads have increased by 3.4%

Overall, the company says mobile data services account for nearly 22% of network revenue in the last nine months.