In recent news, telecommunications major, BT has announced that it would be bring about certain changes in its products and services which would become effective from April 1, 2010.
One of the biggest changes would be experienced by customers who are enjoying the free evening calls services. This service is bundled along with the packages that they have opted for and allows them to make and receive free calls to anyone between 6 pm in the evening till 6 am in the morning. According to the notification that BT has sent out to its 10 million customers the timing of this package would change and they would now be able to use the service between 7 pm in the evening till 7 am of the following morning.
The BT spokesperson added that the change would be beneficial to the end-users as most personal calls were made between 8 pm and 9 pm and normally only short business calls were made between 6 pm and 7 pm. BT said that there were various other changes with regards to pricing and their terms and conditions which would all come into effect in April. They confirmed that daytime calling charges would increase from the current 5.4p per minute charge to 5.9p per minute.
BT reassured its existing customers who were on the Light User Scheme, BT Basic and In-Contact Plus packages that their daytime calling charges would not be affected. Clarifying the new announcement BT said that the customers who were on the Anytime packages would not be affected by any of the above-mentioned changes.
In order to make sure that its customers are well informed and educated about the changes that would be coming into effect, BT has urged its customers to look out for a mailer that has been sent across to them which has details about all the changes. BT is concerned that the notification sent across to its customers might get buried in all the letters and mail that they receive.
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In a recent case of corporate theft, employees at T-Mobile have been found guilty of breaching the personal data protection law. This has been revealed by the Information Commissioner’s Office - the authority that protects the use and distribution of personal data of customers who make them available via public domains.
According to initial reports, investigations were going on to determine the source of such activity. However, after Vodafone, Virgin and O2 denied any complicity in the matter, T-Mobile came up with an admission that some of its employees were engaged in this illegal act. Nevertheless, the company denied any prior awareness about the personal data breach.
Further investigations by the Information Commissioner’s Office revealed that staff at T-Mobile have been passing out sensitive and confidential data like the expiry dates of customers’ contracts to outsiders through information brokers. This data helps competitors to poach customers by approaching them as their contract ends. This is being declared the biggest breach of personal data laws ever.
Mr Christopher Graham, the current information commissioner, stated that existing legislation only provides for a £5,000 penalty for breach of data protection laws. This, according to Mr Graham, is a very small and mild punishment for a crime that can have grave repercussions for the victim. In order to end such bartering of personal data effectively, much more stringent regulations including prison incarceration must be brought into force, believes Mr Graham.
The commissioner assured that every care would be taken to procure equitable and justifiable punishment for the accused, and affirmed that a case for prosecution is being readied now.
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A recent survey by American Airlines and HP has shown that businessmen are extremely dependant on internet connectivity while they are travelling. In fact many people consider internet access to be the most important facility during travel.
90% of the survey respondents reported to having a laptop or phone at a hand’s distance at all times. 85% said that they utilized airport waiting areas for working. These businessmen were so addicted to their laptop that as many as 53% said that they can be found busy with their systems even on the flight. Sound like a familiar scenario? - then unlimited mobile broadband might be of some interest.
The internet bug has caught on very strongly with frequent travellers, replacing other more important requirements like food. About half of the respondents said that getting online was a higher priority than having access to basic amenities like food on a business tour. Hess-Nickels, director of marketing for HP’s notebook arm, said in response to these surprising findings that internet was no longer a luxury; instead, it had become a necessity and a critical aspect of our lifestyle.
Irrespective of the fact that working on flights is not very comfortable, the demand for in flight internet has drove many airlines to start providing this service. A study published by In-Stat, which is a reputed market research company, reveals that by the end of 2009, more than 800 planes will be equipped with mobile broadband service. This will, to a certain extent, fulfil the increasing need and expectation of 70% of the business population, who have been asking for this facility desperately.
A summit is going to be held at the British library in London, which will see participation of leading figures from several communications related industries, along with key government figures including PM Gordon Brown, the culture secretary Andy Burnham and the trade secretary Lord Mandelson.
The objective of the summit is to create a strategy for the future of Britain’s communication sector with inputs from people connected with the sector itself. Another important issue up for discussion is the possibility of broadband being able to save Britain from the adverse effects of recession.
The summit is expected to attract more attention and to be more productive than the Digital Britain report with which it shares its name. Lord Carter, who is going to be present at the summit, has himself expressed this hope. He said that by bringing the views of all the leading thinkers in the digital economy together, the summit would help in turning the Digital Britain project into reality. He expects that the participants will also give their opinions on how to improve the infrastructure and the content and creative industries, and how to win over international competition. With best minds in the sector at its disposal, the government would try to come up with a conclusive strategy in the next two months.
The Digital Britain report did not yield satisfactory results, an example being progress on its promise of 2Mb broadband coverage for the whole of Britain by 2012. The government has not even started working towards achieving of this goal and Ofcom is still struggling over the spectrum allocation issue.
O2 has launched a very competitive pay-as-you-go service and getting O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go started couldn’t be simpler. All you need to do is slot the USB memory stick, costing a smidgen under £30, into the USB port of your computer and it sets itself up in a matter of a few minutes, give or take a bit of prompting.
O2 mobile broadband Pay & Go offers users a fast and easy way to access the internet at home and on the move, without the need for long-term contracts. It’s available in a range of options starting at just £2 a day for 500MB, £7.50 a week for 1GB or £15 a month for 3GB all with unlimited Wi-Fi access. Depending on your needs, there’s something there for most types of user and customers will also benefit from the confidence inspired by O2’s new 50-day Happiness Guarantee.
O2 Marketing Director, Peter Rampling says: “Our O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go will appeal to those customers who want to snack on the internet without the need to commit to a long term contract. Our younger customers want to live online and can do so with Pay & Go at affordable prices”.Well that’s certainly given me food for thought.
VoIP undoubtedly has altered the way many people use their phone icluding how long they spend on it. It would also be true to say the emergence of VoIP technology also got some of the Telecoms giants feeling the heat. So is VoIP the future? Will fixed landlines become a thing of the past?. It appears that there are several hurdles which when looked at together, may possible prove insurmountable. For this reason I will suggest that far from being an unstoppable force, perhaps VoIP is on its last legs.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that something being hugely popular and used my millions of people doesn’t necessarily mean that it will make any money. This has been illustrated with both Skype and Facebook as they struggle to find a way of successfully monetizing themselves. The problem with Skype as with other VoIP operators is the strange nature of the relationship with the incumbent telecoms operators. Much in the same way as a parasite is dependent on its host for survival, so too VoIP operators find themselves at the behest of the Telecoms giants whose networks they need for survival.
Lack of any tangible infrastructure poses a big hurdle for VoIP operators, where the competitive nature of the market has also meant prices are tending towards zero. To attract any outside capital or investment, any potential investor needs something more to invest in than the purely the brand. As is the case with some mobile VoIP operators such as the UK start-up Truphone having some proprietary technology of their own has meant they have been able to secure funding. However without being able to generate a sizeable income the likelihood they will be able to build their own network is a distant prospect.
It was only recently that T-Mobile took action against Truphone illustrating VoIP operators’ vulnerability. In this instance the courts took action to prevent T-Mobile from blocking calls to numbers which had been attributed to Truphone which perhaps can be interpreted as a glimmer of hope for the future of flexing of the muscles of Hutchison Wampoa, which owns the 3 networks has been more successful, effectively removing the possibility of widely available Wi-Fi, arguably signalling the end for Skype.
How things will develop remains to be seen but it certainly doesn’t look like the long established operators have had their day just yet.
You may have heard the term Voip used a lot in the media, but are not sure what everyone is so excited about. Here you will find the answers to your most sought after Voip technology questions.
What is Voip technology?
Technically, VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol, or voices traveling over internet lines and wires like other information would. So, what does this mean to you? A lot. Even if you don’t have a clue what Voip technology is, you may still be utilizing it everyday if you have a digital phone line or if you use a microphone hooked into your computer to speck to others while you are connected to the internet.
What is Voip technology going to do for me?
Digital phone and services like it keep costs down for the company, which is passed on to the
consumer. It is usually much cheaper then a traditional land phone line, especially if you want extras such as caller ID and call forwarding.
What is Voip technology going to lack?
As great as Voip technology may be, there are some drawbacks that one using it for your phone service should realize. First, most digital phone companies do not provide access to emergency assistance numbers, such as 911 for those in the US. This may leave your household vulnerable if you use digital phone. Some consumers overcome this by keeping a basic plan with there traditional phone company provider or have a cell phone available in case of an emergency.
Another drawback to Voip technology in the form of digital phone is that if your power goes out, so does your phone. When you have a service through a traditional phone company, you can still access your line even during power outages as long as you do not need a second power source to run it (ex: cordless phones need a second power source to run, so when the power goes out so does your phone). This is not so with digital phone. However, once again having a basic plan with your traditional phone company or having a cell phone on hand may remedy this problem.
What is Voip technology overall?
Voip technology can be an asset to anyone. It keeps the cost of having a land phone line cheap while still allowing us to communicate verbally without having to rely solely on cell phones. The next time you are taking a look at your high-price phone bill from your phone company, take another look at digital phone and Voip technology in general. You may rack up savings that you never even knew existed.
S. Stammberger is the owner of http://www.voip-2006.com - Your Resource Center for everything related to Internet Telephony.
The i450 is not the finest example of a handset Samsung have ever built, but it is still worthy of investigation. Compared to alternative mobile handsets for the price the i450 is quite fairly well featured. The Samsung i450 is a good generic handset that would be suitable for a very wide range of users.
The Samsung i450 weighs only 114 g. In terms of colours this mobile handset is only available in Dark Blue. The i450 is very compact easily fitting into ones pocket. The i450 has Polyphonic, MP3 ring tones enabled as well as a vibrating alert. In terms of battery duration the Samsung i450 has 5:00 talk time and 500 hours reserve time. A Li-Ion battery is supplied with the Samsung i450. Regarding the the display the mobile handset is supplied with a 2.4 inch screen, which is an average display considering the alternatives for the cost of this phone. The display type on this phone is a TFT, 256K colors. The Samsung i450 has support for 2G GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 and 3G HSDPA 2100. This phone has a 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, video, flash; secondary VGA videocall camera. For those that need access to the Internet on the move a WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML browser is included.To allow mobile Internet access a WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML browser is included. The Samsung i450 is has bluetooth, meaning it will work with with a range of accessories. There are also a number of additional features included with the Samsung i450 such as, 3.5 mm audio jack, WMA/MP3/AAC/AAC+/OGG/ASF player, Java MIDP 2.0, Document viewer (MS Word, Excel, PPT, PDF), FM radio with RDS, Organiser, Flash player, WMV/3GP/H.263/MPEG4 player and Built-in handsfree.
Regardless of being quite a recent model, the Samsung i450 faces many rival products. This means it is relatively easy to get some great deals on this phone. Because of the Internet it has never been simpler or as cost competitive to purchase a mobile phone. Shopping online can allow you to take advantage of significant cost savings, amazingly it is possible to get free line rental for 12 months , which, if you are clever will not cost a cent.