The Phonespot have a fantastic deal on the top selling Samsung E900 phone.
As you would expect, the phone itself is free of charge. You will receive 275 cross network any time minutes with Vodafone.
The best news is that the line rental, normally £35 per month, is free for 12 months on an 18 month contract. So you will only pay for the last 6 months of the contract. That saves you a massive £420. What a bargin and a truely stellar deal.
Customers of Euro1Net have had their broadband connections cut off due to a dispute between BT Wholesale and Euro1Net. BT Wholesale is the whole division of BT Group and leases broadband services to internet providers. BT Wholesale has suspended the service to Euro1Net because Euro1Net has not paid its invoices.
Ofcom, the Governments regulator, is investigating the dispute. Euro1Net customers should be offered a refund and be able to switch to another provider, so soon as the existing broadband service is cleared from their line. In the mean time, Euro1Net customers are forced to use a dialup connection.
According to IDC, mobile penetration has passed 100% in many European countries. Many experts believed the mobile market had reached saturation point and could no grow anymore. This has proved to not be the case, with a 7% year on year increase in mobile shipments in the 2nd quarter of 2006. This is partly due to 3G devices becoming available at affordable prices.
Nokia is still the main player in the market. Shipments of mobile devices in the 2nd quarter:
A report from research group Datamonitor has indicated that the number of European households with Digital TV services will pass that of the UK by the end of this year.
Currently 100 million households in the US and Europe enjoy a Digital TV service. That number will rise to around 187 million by 2010.
The increase is partly helped by the switching off of the analogue signal in many European countries, including the UK. The European Commission would like the analogue signal to be switched off across all of the EU by 2012.
More information on the digital switchover.
The EU has agreed with German regulators that the Deutsche Telekom broadband network must be opened up to competition. Germany suffers from low broadband penetration. Only 12.5% of German households have broadband access. Whilst this is ahead of the EU average of 11.5%, it is well being countries like the UK which has approximately 42% broadband penetration.
The EU has also stated that Deutsche Telekom should open up its new VDSL network. VDSL offers super fast broadband speeds of up to 52Mb (approx double the fast speed possible in the UK). Deutsche Telekom is investing 3 billion Euros in the new network and had hoped that it would be exempt for 3 years so that it can recoup its investment.
For further information, visit EU portal Europa.eu
Ofcom has announched that it will make switching broadband providers easier for consumers. Under the current process, customers must obtain a MAC (Migration Authorisation Code) number from their existing provider and give this number to the provider they want to switch to. This can be more difficult than it sounds because it is not compulsory for broadband providers to issue MAC numbers. Consumers have complained that there are serious delays in getting the MAC number for their existing provider, or they can not get the number at all.
The new rules will make it compulsary for broadband providers to issue a MAC number when it is requested by consumers. Failure to do so will result in action being taken by Ofcom.
Any changes that makes it easier to switch providers is good news for consumers and for healthy competition in the broadband market.
Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator, has removed price controls on BT. Price controls were first placed on BT when it was privatised in 1984. At the time, BT had a total monopoly on the UK market and price controls were in place to prevent BT from over charging. Since then, intense competition has developed in the market. BT’s many competitors were significantly more competitive than BT and BT was powerless to react. The price controls were seen as a way to allow competition to flourish but preventing BT from using its dominant position to undercut the competition. Now that competition is rife, there is no need for Ofcom to control the prices that BT can charge.
As a response to the lifting of price controls, BT has announced the following reductions in its prices:
This news certainly is good news to BT customers. Non-BT customers will also benefits as competitors will be forced to react by dropping their prices.