For the record 8 December

08-12-2006

by Jonathan Farrelly

Labour calls for more action on mobile roaming charges | Samsung planning to sell cut-price mobiles

Labour's communications spokesperson Tommy Broughan has spoken out against exorbitant roaming charges consumers pay whilst travelling abroad. EU telecoms ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Monday, and Broughan has urged Ireland's Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey to support EU-wide proposals to cut mobile phone roaming costs. European Information Society Commisioner Viviane Reding had previously moved to reduce the roaming costs by 50 percent in July, a move that was not backed by all EU member states at the time. Broughan also called on the Minister to bring forward his "long-promised legislation to strengthen the communications regulator, ComReg, which will allow it to act effectively against any uncompetitive activity by Irish mobile operators that is forcing Irish mobile users to pay unjustifiably high prices".

South Korean mobile phone giant Samsung has announced it will soon launch handsets priced from just USD50. The move comes as it seeks to overtake Motorola as the world's second largest distributor of mobile phones. Samsung had previously concentrated on the affluent Western and Asian markets with expensive handsets, but it is now creating basic devices for the developing world. A Samsung staff member was quoted by The Register: "We seek to attack the USD50-100 markets in some developing nations, we plan to ship the low-priced models to just a handful of potential-laden nations to pre-empt the markets".

The European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of AOL's internet access business in Britain by the Carphone Warehouse Group. AOL provides online interactive and internet access in Britain, the US and Europe. CPW has 1,500 stores across Europe that specialise in the retailing of mobile handsets and connections while also providing fixed line telecommunications services to both business and residential customers.

Yoomedia has signed an agreement to provide interactive games for BT's new internet TV service, BT Vision. British firm Yoomedia delivers interactive services over Digital TV, the web and mobile phones. Financial details of the agreement were not released. BT expects Vision will be available in Ireland in the Spring of 2007.

Hotmail is ten years old on Friday. Since starting out in 1996 when an initial 56,041 people signed up for accounts, it's user base has grown to 270 million over the last decade. On average, 80 million e-mails are sent every day by Hotmail users, and 1 billion e-mails are delivered to Hotmail boxes daily. This figure equates to 11,000 per second.

Espion Research's new comparative survey of Irish Wi-Fi services has ranked Bitbuzz above its competitors BT Openzone and Eircom. Espion used a sample of 10 hotspots from each service provider, randomly chosen and examined using a pre-determined set of criteria: availability of service; download speeds; staff knowledge; and quality and costs of technical support. Bitbuzz was established in 2003 and is based in Dublin. The company currently employs 12 staff and claims more than 40,000 registered users.