The UK Mobile Report

Church bans mobile 'porn' mast

Holy Moses!

A church has succeeded in getting a ban on the installation of a mobile phone mast because it claimed that there was no way of ensuring that the mast would not be used to transmit pornography.

This extraordinary story has appeared in the Bucks Free Press. It will no doubt raise concerns in the mobile industry over future siting of masts on churches or other places of worship. But if the notion that mobile masts are transmitters of porn gathers momentum, surely the claim could even affect planned or present installations on council or government buildings.

Yahoo quietly moves in on MySpace

Yahoo has done a soft launch of a social networking service for mobile users. Called Mixt, it has a web address, but its content is being hidden as Yahoo tests the service on US college students - who else? The service will encourage sharing of texts, pictures and videos created on mobiles. Come on Yahoo, lets have it in the UK, we'll tell you if its any good.

Hospital mobile scandal unravels

Ever tried using a mobile phone in a hospital?

The staff do it, but angry looking signs on the wall tell patients and visitors its Verboten! Now it seems these signs are put there for commercial reasons only.

According to a story in the The Daily Mail it appears that the ban on the use of mobile phones in hospitals is only based on commercial factors, not health risks, as many hospitals maintain. The Mail refers to a leaked Department of Health report which confirms there are no safety reasons why mobile phones cannot be used.

Effectively you are being treated like a schoolchild and being forced to leave your mobile at the door, just because the hospital has signed an exclusive deal with a landline supplier that charges a hefty premium for calls - a business model already well established for hospital car parking.

What kind of a government do we have when it is only opposition MPs who seem to care about this?

Microsoft demo tanks

Microsoft's recent voice recognition demo will not be repeated. Pity really, it looked a lot more entertaining that the usual fait a compli that is corporate demo chic.

Location services to boom?

The number of North American subscribers to personal locator services on mobile phones equipped with GPS will rise from 500,000 today to over 20 million by 2011, according to ABI Research.

It says most favourite uses are currently 'family finder' (parents locating kids) and 'buddy finder' (find which of your friends are in the same area as you) services.

Here's the full report summary.

Verdict: Location services are hot with the US market suggesting that 'family finder' services will sell well. Despite privacy concerns it makes a lot of sense for operators to offer opt-in services as soon as possible. They look set to revolutionise our social lives in the near future while also giving parents far greater peace of mind when their kids are out and about.

Headsup: Road Pricing

Think tank IPPR will issue a new report on road pricing next week, raising the temperature in the whole debate about this impending 'tax on distance'. A driving force behind road pricing, IPPR has gone public urging the government not to loose faith despite public opposition. On Monday it will deliver its research findings on 'public attitudes' to road pricing. Critics will be looking closely at the methodology of the research, partly because of recent concern over efficacy of government-related research (last week GPs raised concerns over the type of questions used in the massive  research project of public satisfaction with GP services).

Pardon the pun, but we have been down this road before. I first wrote about road pricing for The Guardian in 2003. At that time IBM had commissioned a MORI report that suggested the public were warming to the idea or pricing. A close look at the type of questions used suggested that most of us will 'warm' to ideas if they are put to us in certain 'creative' ways.

Verdict: First  it was ID cards. Now it's road pricing. Everyone knows that toll systems are much cheaper and fairer to implement (as is clear in France) but with a government that has fallen in love with systems that deliver 24 hour surveillance as a side benefit, it seems that road pricing, like ID cards will get pushed through the legislative process regardless of the wider  debate. Road pricing, like any tax will deliver winners and losers - that's not the point. The problem is it is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, when all range of other measures would produce the same effect. These include 1) 2 pence on the price of petrol but hold pricing for commercial vehicles 2) More toll roads 3) More city-based congestion schemes. It is also a fact that a much cheaper system has been totally overlooked. I used to roam on the underground with a one day travelcard. The same card system could be implemented for cars, with drivers placing their cards in their windows, be thay day, week or monthly cards. OK, non-compliance would only be detected by random checks but that works fine for raising £200m+ per year in parking fines - it would work fine for charging for car usage by area covered too - and it would only cost about £200m to implement compared to the billions that road pricing will cost - not to mention the £250 or so each driver will have to spend to install devices in their car.

YouTube signs exclusive deal

YouTube has signed an exclusive deal with Verizon to distribute YouTube content in the US for a 'limited time'. The move suggests similar deals will be done with other carriers globally. I reported earlier this month that YouTube is rumoured to be in talks with O2. On Monday Vodafone told me that the firm had 'probably' talked to YouTube.

Patrick Parodi, Sales Director, Amobee says the deal is worth watching: "User Generated Content (UGC) is one of the most exciting trends on mobiles. But to be honest I didn't think that the likes of YouTube, MSN, Google, and Yahoo would be jumping on the mobile bandwaggon this year. The big question now is how advertising is handled and to what extent it is contextual. I wonder if Verizon realises how key its role in providing that kind of advertising is now that it has done the YouTube deal."

Verdict: YouTube and Verizon are staying mum on how this deal cuts. As more such deals roll out we are likely to learn more and will be able to evaluate whether UGC players are taking the upper hand on the management of ads on their services.

T-Mobile unveils Samsung Z560

T-Mobile has announced availability of the Samsung Z560. The handset is  the first HSDPA consumer handset in the UK, offering mobile broadband at up to 1.8Mbps, around four times faster than 3G.

The sleek-looking device  has embedded dual speakers for 3D stereo sound and plays multiple music formats. It has a 2 Megapixel camera and T-Mobile says it can capture up to an hour of video. Meanwhile a second camera located above the screen allows for video telephony.  It can also be connected to a laptop as a modem.

Emin Gurdenli, Network Director, T-Mobile UK, said: “T-Mobile is the only network to offer broadband Internet speeds. This is all thanks to HSDPA technology – it’s the next step beyond what we all know as 3G, and it opens up endless possibilities for our customers.”

The Samsung Z560 costs from free on a T-Mobile pay monthly price plan. It’s available in shops, via telesales (0845 412 2401) and online www.t-mobile.co.uk.

• web’n’walk unlimited web browsing - £7.50 per month
• web’n’walk Plus unlimited Internet on your laptop with Instant Messenger at £12.50 per month
• web’n’walk Max unlimited Internet on your laptop with VoIP at  £22.50 per month

Verdict: Other operators must be biting their fists. This great-looking phone will go straight into the hot prospects list for any power user. Let's see if it delivers on the promise.

 

Content providers stalling, says SafeNet

Mobile content providers are stalling when it comes to online content provision such as live streaming or mobile TV, according to research carried out by encryption specialists SafeNet. Three-fifths of the 160 content providers questioned said they were wary of delivering content online, with piracy cited as the main security fear.

The company believes that content providers should use existing Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to counter piracy fears and enable mobile distribution and content protection.

Dr Simon Blake-Wilson, MD, DRM Products, at SafeNet said: “Analyst house Ovum predicts that 30 million customers will be using mobile TV by 2010. That should be enough of a wake-up call for content providers to look into how to deliver content online safely.”

“Security fears shouldn’t stand in the way of this trend as the technology exists to enable secure delivery of online and mobile content. Using Digital Rights Management solutions, such as BT Movio, consumers have access to content, while providers ensure the content is secure from illegal copying. This will minimise potential damage through lost revenue and enable content providers to keep up with consumer demand."
But Yankee senior analyst Matthew Hatton disagrees: "With the advance of new media delivery, the restrictive and cumbersome machine that is DRM would not be my ideal solution, indeed, it would only be my last resort.

"Fragmented media laws and archane industry conventions add to the confusion that is likely to cause confusion as more online content is distributed.

 

"DRM is a safeguard, but also a straitjacket that could tie up content that would likely be a restriction for the end-user. Ask anyone with an Apple Ipod or Sony Jukebox about portability.

 

"Sadly, the huge distribution companies just don't get it. The end user is the ultimate customer, and the customer is king. Tying down distribution in DRM is likely to strangle dissemination - isn't that the whole ironic point?

 

"With the huge popularity of podcasting, videocasting, proliferation of media viaYou Tube, MySpace and freedom through Creative Commons licensing, big industry needs to wake up before it finally falls into terminal deep sleep. The customer is still king - and is more tech savvy than DRM would ever wish it to be."

Interview: Marty Beard, Sybase365

What's the big story?

Sybase has just completed the acquisition of mobile messaging and content delivery firm Mobile365. As a result it is being renamed Sybase365 and comes under a new mobile services division within Sybase that will also include AvantGo and mFolio.

Is this a big deal for Sybase?

Certainly because it allows us to offer a much more complete offering beyond our core of data management and enterprise mobile software. We saw the increasing role of carriers and we wanted to get closer to the carrier business. Sybase365 sells directly to carriers and to enterprises. So now if a customer wants more than messaging we can do that.

What's the revenue model?

Currently 60 per cent of the revenue comes from direct business with operators. Delivering and accounting for messaging betweeen operators. The remaining 40 per cent is with enterprise customers like Nike and Sony. We're not going to change that, just augment it - particularly with AvantGo and mFolio. AvantGo provides content to high-end devices and mFolio is our embedded software that drives content to mobiles.

AvantGo gives you experience of mobile advertising?

Yes. AvantGo users tend to be high income individuals who are interested in advertising from the likes of BMW and other luxury brands, but we have worked with Yahoo and Google too, so we are not often in direct competition with the newer entrants to mobile advertising.

What about banking?

Yes, we work closely with Citibank and many others. Banks are early adoptors. They are using messaging to reduce churn and give customers more timely information . It will get really interesting when we start to have 'two-way' banking - by that I mean where you can buy things with your phone, for example an alert that allows you to buy stock based on a share move.

What are the key trends in messaging?

Surveys show that people that are familiar with messaging want their suppliers to interact with them on their mobile. Yet less than 5 per cent of suppliers do that. We are starting to find that enterprises get that and want to work out how to move in that direction now. Security is also becoming a key part of the business.

What about MMS?

I think it will move beyond pictures. It will be a way for enterprises to get out more information. It could be a graphic or a video clip. Yes price has to come down as does file size, but you can see what is happening on the internet - its all going that way.

Do operators have to wake up to a more open approach?

Yes, they do, and we are already seeing carriers more willing to let users access the world outside the walled-garden. mFolio does that and initially carriers said they didn't want to do that. But the world is moving that way, there's no doubt.

Verdict: Sybase has a huge customer footprint. Bringing Sybase365 into the fold will undoubtedly expose a whole new tier of enterprise customers to the benefits of messaging in its many forms. The move also gets Sybase closer to carriers at a time when it needs to be more closely integrated to all the players in this sector.