3G phones bad value - Which?
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Which?, formerly known as the Consumer Association, warns against buying 3G handsets in the UK due to a limited network.
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It&#39;s easy to be wowed by Japan&#39;s mobile communications infrastructure. &quot;Next-generation&quot; 3G coverage is now so ubiquitous that carriers have already stopped launching 2G phones; an impressive array of attractive handsets offer free digital TV; phones can be used to pay for goods and train rides, thanks to embedded contactless smart cards; and on the mobile information superhighway data whizzes along at 3.6Mbps. But watch out for the off-ramps.While Japan has led the world with many of the services offered to consumers, in some ways the mobile ecosystem here is downright backward as I found out last weekend when I tried to buy a new phone. A broken handset necessitated a new model and this is where my story begins.In Japan, phones are sold by carriers and not the phone makers. Companies like Fujitsu, NEC, Sony Ericsson, and a few foreign vendors including Nokia, Samsung, and LG sell their phones in the thousands to carriers. This gives carriers the ability to pretty much dictate to the phone maker what software needs to be installed.This model is one of the reasons that mobile Internet services like I-mode took off here so quickly. There was no chicken-and-egg situation with phone makers and users waiting for each other to take the plunge. NTT DoCoMo decided I-mode would be in new phones and so it was.But this model has a downside. Phones are so tightly customized to each carrier that it&#39;s not practical to keep the same handset when switching carriers, and if you see a phone you like you can only buy it if it&#39;s offered by your carrier.Back to my story. The new phone was looking quite expensive so I decided to switch carriers and take advantage of a free phone on a competitor network. Japan launched number portability a year ago, so I could make the jump without losing my cell-phone number. I&#39;d still have the hassle of a new e-mail address, but it appeared a small price to pay.Before long I had a new phone in my hands, but my phone numbers remained locked in the old handset. The new carrier didn&#39;t have a cable to hook up to my old phone so they couldn&#39;t transfer the address book and it wasn&#39;t possible to beam it between the phones. While my old carrier was gung-ho on Bluetooth, my new carrier wasn&#39;t so enthusiastic, so the new phone had no support. Similarly, while the new phone offered infrared, the old phone didn&#39;t. Heavy customization strikes again.Back home I fired up my PC and managed to get my address book from the old phone into the computer. Getting it to the new phone via a memory card seemed like an easy task ... but no! The VCard file wasn&#39;t being properly read by the new phone. Carriers, it was explained to me when I called the help line, often used custom fields in their VCards so there were sometimes problems. So much for a common standard.I won&#39;t bore you with the technicalities of how I eventually got my address book into my new phone, but suffice to say this story has a happy ending. I&#39;m now back in cruise control, enjoying all the attractions the mobile superhighway has to offer.The number portability system that enabled me to keep my phone number is coincidentally one-year-old this week. About 3 percent of users in Japan -- roughly 3.7 million people -- have made use of the system during its first year -- far less than the industry predicted, or feared.One thing that&#39;s said to be stopping users from switching is the inability to keep their e-mail addresses. While carriers fussed over the details of keeping numbers, they forgot, or perhaps ignored, the need to carry e-mail addresses between carriers. In other countries this wouldn&#39;t be a big deal because most messaging is done via SMS, which relies on phone numbers, but in Japan the advanced stage of the market has again caused hassle for consumers.
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Millions of pounds will be spent in the coming months trying to persuade people to upgrade to 3G phones. What do two users of the services which have been launched already think about what their fancy phone can do?
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Ofcom promises to think about it The GSM Association, trade body of the mobile phone industry, is calling for regulators around the world to allow the use of 3G technology in the 900MHz band.â¦
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Vodafone Group Plc  said on  Thursday it was concerned that the current model of iPhone  mobile phones -- Apple Inc's  latest "killer" gadget --  did not operate on fast 3G networks.
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Vodafone Group Plc  said on  Thursday it was concerned that the current model of iPhone  mobile phones -- Apple Inc&#39;s  latest &quot;killer&quot; gadget --  did not operate on fast 3G networks.
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InfoWorld - A group of mobile phone operators and handset vendors is developing a 3G (third-generation) mobile phone platform that combines many standard hardware and software components in an effort to reduce phone development time and costs.
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Turn on, tune in, turn off again 3GSM It's not just the slow uptake of video services that should worry network operators, it seems that more than half of European users who've tried TV on the move decided it wasn't worth the effort.â¦
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I'm getting a new mobile phone :) In the whole spectrum of digital opportunities, mobile is where the next big battle lies and I'll be rejoining the fray. It's eight years since Western Mail & Echo bought my first mobile. Four phones later my new one will bear no resemblance to the first.
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InfoWorld - The U.K. is considering letting mobile phone operators run 3G (third-generation) services on frequencies reserved for 2G services, a change that could mean better 3G coverage and lower costs for the public, the government&#39;s telecommunications regulator said Thursday.
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How badly do you want an iPhone? Would you pay US$1,500 to buy one? How about $300 for someone to wait on line for you?
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Blog: With full leasing ownership of the 700MHz spectrum, Google will try to effectively cripple the cell phone industry.  Before you scoff and say this is a bunch of garbage, consider this: Google will only offer the $4.6 billion if the government agrees to th
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Smart Phones &#038; Mobile Local (Mo-Lo) Search The WSJ (sub req&#8217;d) reports that Palm announced it wouldn&#8217;t hit its numbers &#8220;amid lower-than-expected retail sales of its Treo smartphones.&#8221; Hmmm . . . I wonder why? The %$#@ phones are so expensive &#8212; that&#8217;s why. By contrast the &#8220;Q&#8221; is being offered at a breakthrough price point by [...]
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Smell of vapourware 3GSM It must be a little galling if you go all the way to Barcelona to present a shiny new range of phones, many with music players, only to be asked questions about a competitor who has yet to show anyone an actual product.â¦
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By ROB WAUGH  Surfing the web on the move?   Super 3G makes your mobile phone as fast as a home broadband connection. In fact, if you're in a major city it's odds on you'll outpace your own home wireless network using T-Mobile's Samsung Z560.
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I see no ships 3GSM Mobile VoIP (voice over internet protocol) will not hit mobile telephony revenues, but will have more of an impact on fixed line services, according to T-Mobile International AG chief executive Hamid Akhavan.â¦
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One lousy wireless service provider buys another. It might not be all bad, though.