Photo: Stock.Xchng

What’s better than readily available wi-fi in public spaces? Well, if it’s free, of, course, which is exactly what carrier O2 plans to do with O2 wi-fi. Shake and dance, free internet! Free internet!

Won’t need to be a customer

The free wi-fi hotspots will be available in public spaces and retailers all across the UK, and will be available for all to use. What’s more, you don’t even need to be an O2 customer to take advantage of this opportunity! The carrier plans to bankroll the system by making money from the venues that provide the wi-fi, as opposed to the customers who use it.

Game changing

MD of O2, Gavin Franks, told Techradar that: ‘We’re going to transform the stagnant wi-fi market.’ He continued, insisting the demands of public wi-fi have changed from being always-connected at a coffee shop with your laptop, to just sneaking onto Facebook briefly and updating your status.

‘Our main aim was to make it better than what’s already available; with consistent data speeds and a focus on usability. I genuinely believe it will transform the market and force [competitors] The Cloud and BT Openzone to reassess their services,’ he proclaimed.

Not quite benevolence, though, is it?

Economics students no doubt know the theory that there is ‘no such thing as a free lunch’. TechRadar suspected this, quizzing O2’s Business Development Director, Tim Sefton, on whether the move was to ease strain on O2’s 3G data networks. Obviously, he denied this, saying the ‘network is in a really good position’ and that ‘reducing strain on the network is a secondary benefit to the wi-fi network, and not a primary driver’.

Free wi-fi

Whatever O2’s motives are, quite frankly we couldn’t care less. All that matters is we’re getting free wi-fi! The O2 wi-fi offering, which will no doubt commercially benefit network equipment manufacturers who make routers and set up networks, is set to go live in March in O2’s retail stores, while commercial partners will join the party in Q2.

Photo: Nokia

In embracing online technology – and inadvertently slighting its carrier partners – Nokia announced Skype is available as a free download on their Ovi Store. Now, in the wake of that, it seems the UK carrier O2 might block Skype usage on its network.

On Symbian, too

Nokia and Skype have released a version of Skype that will be available on its ailing Symbian platform, allowing users to connect Skype-to-Skype with mobile data on their packages.

Carrier conflict

Photo: Skype

Whereas Verizon Wireless, a US telecoms company that is partly owned by the Vodafone Group, embraced Skype by announcing availability of the app for users who purchased tailored data plans, O2 in the UK is not so happy about it. In a statement that reeks of marketing speech, Techradar reports the justification 02 gave them for not supporting Skype was in line with their excessive use policy on unlimited data plans.

Boiled down, what O2 is saying without saying it is they don’t want people using Skype exclusively instead of the more expensive voice calling options provided by the carrier that a large portion of the network’s revenue comes from. In stark contrast to O2’s policy, Vodafone in the UK released a statement saying they don’t have a problem with their users using Skype on their network. What’s more, they are readying specific packages to suit VOIP users.

It’s all revenue, ultimately

This touches on a theme that’s been discussed at length but in a different context – switching revenue models from one medium to a web-based medium is proving costly to large entrenched industries around the globe. An unlimited data plan which amounts to more calls (for less money) than voice calls costs will cripple any network if a mass exodus toward this form of communication was observed. The trick for the mobile phone carriers is to plug this hole and come up with creative plans, like Vodafone seems intent on doing. Whether 02 will hold steady against Skype and Nokia with a strategy that seems aloof remains unknown.

Passengers are now allowed to use mobile phones during flights on Ryanair. This Irish airline is one of the first to offer this service to passengers. The service was launched on the 10 AM flight to Dublin from Gatwick Airport. Passengers could receive e-mails and text messages and also receive voice calls.

Ryanair was waiting for authorization from the European regulators though they have been keen on introducing this system for the past year.

The next 18 months will see Ryanair introducing this service to its large fleet of 170 aircraft. According to Micheal O’Leary, the Ryanair Chief Executive, we have put forward our first step with today’s launch and will be offering the mobile phone service on our entire fleet. He went on to say that he expected this service to be in demand with the customers. At present, 02 customers, with phones like the Nokia N95 8GB, will be able to use this service. Ryanair is however confident that more networks will sign up. Calls will be offered from 1.50 pounds to 3 pounds per minute, e-mails at 1 pound to 2 pounds and text messages at 40 pence.

On air technology that will be used to offer consumers this service has already been installed in 20 aircrafts according to Ryanair. Presently, six people can use this service simultaneously. This will be increased to 14 people shortly.

The month of March last year saw Emirates, the airline from Dubai, being the first one to introduce the mobile phone service in-flight. This service was launched on the Dubai/Casablanca flight.

Presently, 31 aircraft out of its 128 fleet operate this service offering calls at 2 pounds per minute. A lot of other carriers are considering introducing this ability shortly.

Tags for this article: mobile, service

Giving free laptops to the subscribers of the mobile broadband plans is the most popular way to increase sales and has been followed by various mobile phone network operators. Popular mobile phone UK operators, including Vodafone and some others are offering free portable computing machines to their users. This trend has almost become a norm for the mobile phone operators.

The only mobile phone operator that was not offering such services in UK was O2. But now it has also dipped its toe into such schemes and is looking forward to crack the competition by launching various attractive mobile broadband plans. O2 cannot afford to lag behind the competition and thus it has released some tempting offers starting from £30 per month.

The basic contract will cost £29.38 per month and will offer 3GB data download along with unlimited WiFi Access. The download limit can be extended to 10GB by paying more under the same contract. In addition to this you can also sign up for traditional ADSL broadband for £5 per month to enjoy unlimited downloads, 100 free texts, a wireless router and free security package. The company will give free Samsung NC10 laptop with these packages. The NC10 is a 10.2-inch netbook featuring Dual Core processor, 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD. This makes the netbook great for playing 3D games, watch crystal clear videos and do multi-tasking on the go.

Underground mobile signals are now occupying the Glasgow underground. Glaswegians will now be able to communicate via their mobile phones even when they are at underground stations. They can also surf the Internet on their smartphones while commuting from five stations on Glasgow’s subway system. This service is exclusively available for O2 customers and O2 has teamed up with Arqiva for this purpose. Arqiva will provide its transmission network to connect the O2 phones roaming at the subway to the outside world.

This new innovation will allow commuters to make calls, surf the Web and do other mobile activities at platforms situated at Buchanan Street, St Enoch, Govan, Partick and Hillhead stations. It will undoubtedly open up new lines of communication, as customers can get full use out of their smartphones, like the BlackBerry 8220. However it’s up to consumers whether they welcome it or not. According to a survey last year, 80 percent of commuters in London wish to have such type of service while others just remarked it as a disturbing element.

O2 claims that this is the first time any company has launched such type of services in UK but as per the records the Newcastle’s Tyne and Wear Metro system have already deployed an underground signal since 2004 which let commuters enjoy uninterrupted communication.

Tags for this article: mobile, smartphone, internet

Most all laptop, notebook and netbook users need access to the internet while mobile. There are many carriers offering different mobile broadband plans and hardware. One can easily get confused when exposed to all of them and get down comparing each of them to find the best one. But now O2 has launched a new solution called ‘Pay as you go mobile broadband’ which it claims as the best value mobile offering for laptop users.

O2 has rolled out a 3G broadband USB modem for just £29.99 available immediately for UK customers. This is quite a good deal as most USB HSDPA modems, like the Option GlobeSurfer iCON 225, cost far more on their own without a plan. The O2 USB modem will be backed by the ‘pay as you go tariff plan’ under which users have a variety of options to choose, depending on their needs and budget. The tariff starts at £2 a day which offers download up to 500MB. The £7.50 per week offers 1GB download and if you subscribe for £15 per month plan then you will get data download up to 3GB. Besides this customers will also get unlimited access to over 6,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK via The Cloud, the partner of O2.

All you have to do is buy the modem and plug it in to your PC or Mac to experience mobile Internet at a blazing speed of up to 3.6Mbit/s from anywhere within reach of a cellular network signal. O2 will also provide 24 hour support from its UK call centre in addition to the 50-day money-back guarantee.

Tags for this article: mobile, lenovo thinkpad, netbooks uk

Designed for business users, the O2 XDA Orbit 2 is a sleek and lightweight device. The Windows Mobile smartphone includes WiFi and Bluetooth functions, along with quad-band GSM/GPRS and a three megapixel camera.

The 3G smartphone with total dimensions of 15.5 x 58 x 110mm and a mere 130 gram weight, is easily portable and surprisingly lightweight for its size. Other specifications involve an 8 GB MicroSD slot and an FM radio. The large touch screen display (2.8 inches) is easy to operate with the included stylus and features about 65k colours in high resolution. As a the successor to the original O2 XDA Orbit, the phone works on the professional version of the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system and supports the GPRS data transfer.

The handset facilitates your business transactions with a ability to make conference calls and support for MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Additionally, there is a handwriting recognition feature, which can identify what the user writes. You can store voice reminders and record memos with the O2 XDA Orbit 2. The memory card slot offers you the liberty of extending the memory, in case the built-in 256 MB ROM and 128 RAM does not suffice to meet your needs.

The smartphone can be appropriately termed a business phone with interesting and entertaining features to please any consumer looking for a little bit more.

Here’s a brand with its latest sensation in the smartphone arena, incorporating an array of advanced features and spectacular classy appearance. The brand is none other than O2 upholding its recently released 2008 rendition of the HTC Diamond, the O2 XDA Ignito.

Obviously as a modern smartphone it includes 3G technology. This spectacular product also incorporates several of the latest technological features, which are rarely found, with elements like TouchFLO 3D finger swipe navigation, an Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, Touch-sensitive navigation controls and handwriting recognition. As far as performance is concerned, the Ignito, O2’s version of the HTC P3700 Touch Diamond, is stocked pretty heavily. It includes up to 4GB of expandable memory, 192 MB DDR SDRAM, 256 MB Read Only Memory and above all a Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 MHz processor. Its great companionship is reflected by the long battery time that offers up 285 hours in standby and 5 hours and 30 minutes of talking time.

Now let’s talk about a few of the mobile’s fun and entertaining features. The device is equipped with a 3.15 megapixel camera (Resolution: 2048×1536 pixels) along with an auto-focus. So now clicking wonderful pictures is as easy as with a digital camera, and of the nearly the same quality. Of course, we wonder how good the pictures, and navigational interface will look on the Ignito’s screen. Fortunately the O2 XDA Ignito is blessed with a decently sized and high quality 2.8 inch TFT touch screen. O2’s smartphone clearly lives up to current standards and actually exceeds them on many levels.

Smart attributes, amazing appearance, inevitable style and a tough body are all signature aspects of any smartphones. Amongst several manufacturers, O2 is recognised for its reliable mobile phone products, and especially smartphones. An O2 product is also a style and status symbol, which is why the company is so successful. Another success story which has fired up the market and stolen hearts is the O2 XDA mini S.

The gadget’s eye catching appearance won’t let you blink even once, with its super duper style and smooth slider. The smartphone supports the 2G (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) network. Almost 90% of its surface is occupied by its integrated 2.8 inch mega display with an impressive picture clarity of 240 x 320 pixels. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard with its soft and bold keys, lend the mobile a business feel. It is also compatible with 40 channels polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, in addition to downloadable ones as well. Its 1.3 megapixel camera is great for taking snapshots, though the resolution obviously leaves something to be desired; especially when considering slider mobiles like the Sony-Ericsson C905 offer an integrated 8 megapixel camera. The list of its smart and sensuous characteristics also includes a miniSD memory card slots, up to 2 GB of expandable memory, 64 MB RAM, 128 MB Read Only Memory and above all a TI OMP 850 running with a speed of up to 200 MHz.

The best part of the gadget is its communicative components such as GPRS (Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps) support, v2.0 Bluetooth, an infrared port, a mini USB and a wireless local area network (Wi-Fi 802.11b/g). Its operations are intelligently managed by Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC (Operating system), along with all the accompanying Microsoft applications. Ultimately, it’s an alluring product that will compliment your style.

The O2 XDA Exec is an excellent and innovative XDA and one of the latest editions to come from O2. Though it is slightly larger in size than the typical PDA, it does almost everything you would expect of a high end smartphone. You will find it is worth every penny.

The large size is due to the large size of the keyboard. The screen can be effectively turned around in a manner that resembles tablet laptops with rotating displays. You even have the option of laying the screen flat when you are not using the keyboard.

The display measures 3.6 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. One fantastic feature is that the screen automatically orients itself from landscape to portrait format as it rotates.

The extensive features compensate for the size and weight of the O2 XDA Exec. This interesting PDA from O2 supports the 3G format. With the help of a camera situated near the screen, you can effectively make video calls. There is another camera at the back which helps you shoot still shots with a resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels. This camera also captures video.

With the help of the built-in Bluetooth and 802.11b, you can make voice calls with Bluetooth headsets. This is of course possible only when you are within the wireless network range. The O2 XDA Exec works with Windows Mobile 5, and allows the user to take advantage of its various included software applications, such as Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, Pocket Word and Pocket Excel.

The smartphone also comes with a memory size of 128 MB and 64 MB of RAM. The Exec is really a one of a kind mobile computer and makes the perfect assistant for any business executive.