Hasta La Gadget!

With the formal creation of Orange and T-Mobile’s LTE network lovechild, Everything Everywhere, the UK finally joined the horserace for 4G. Now, it looks like rival domestic operators could get a chance to play catch-up sooner than expected, according to a report from The Telegraph. It appears the mobile companies, having recently put to rest concerns over any potential “first mover advantage” that would see each party entering into litigation, have been freed up to bid in a spectrum auction set to take place in early January. And further speeding this next-gen rollout along, is Ofcom’s admission that those precious frequencies could be ready for use as soon as this coming May, allowing carriers to prep service for public consumption by mid-summer 2013 at the latest. All told, it’s good news for denizens of the British isles hankering for blazing wireless speeds and the LTE devices that love them. But as with all things commercial, we’d caution you to expect some regulatory bumps in the road to this rollout.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

UK carrier cooperation could see 4G LTE rollout ramp up by summer 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Apple had its preorders primed since 8am BST, British carriers have only just unveiled their monthly prices for the newest iPhone. Vodafone will offer it on contracts from £25 per month — with an initial £249 outlay) or free on £47 per month for two years. That free deal will net you a 16GB iPhone 5, with 2GB of data, unlimited texts and voice minutes. On Orange, a 24-month contract at £46 will nab you the same 16GB model for free, with 3GB of data and unlimited calls and texts. If you drop down to the £20 rate, you’ll have to pay £320 upfront and pick up a lightweight bundle of 100MB of data, 50 texts and 50 minutes. EE stablemate T-Mobile isn’t offering any free iPhones on its carrier plans, but you’ll be able to glean unlimited internet (alongside 2000 voice minutes) on a 16GB iPhone 5 for £109 and £36 per month on contract.

Confusingly, anyone looking to grab the UK’s first LTE network on the iPhone 5 will have to sign up to a “4GEE from EE” plan — which still hasn’t revealed its pricing. We’re checking with EE whether customers that decide to grab a new contract with Orange or T-Mobile will still be able to migrate across — we’d hold off on that pre-order until we hear back from the new 4G network. (Edit: See update below for clarification.) Meanwhile, Three UK currently has the 16GB iPhone on its unlimited data One Plan at £79 upfront, on a £36 per month deal. We’ll update again once we hear O2’s plans.

Update: EE has been in touch to clarify matters:

“Customers can either wait for EE to launch (we will be announcing the date in the coming weeks) or they can sign up to a contract with T-Mobile or Orange and upgrade to EE free of charge once it has launched, as long as they move to an equivalent priced and length plan
on EE.”

Update 2: Phones4U is taking its own pre-orders for those who want to enlist with Orange, T-Mobile or Vodafone. O2 has also chipped in with its details and is offering the iPhone 5 on plans starting from £26 per month; like Orange, you’ll have to opt for at least a £46 monthly outlay to get one for free. The O2 plans offer the same unlimited voice and texts, but just 1GB of data. Lastly, Carphone Warehouse has chipped in with its own advance order campaign, although it’s only taking online orders for the 16GB black iPhone at this stage: you’ll need to call in for everything else.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

iPhone 5 contract prices for UK phone networks revealed (updated with O2, Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everything Everywhere has rebranded, launching EE, its new 4G combo-carrier harnessing T-Mobile UK and Orange and throwing in a fiber option for the UK too. Revealed in London today, with commercial availability in the coming weeks, EE will be broadly available in the UK by Christmas, delivering high-speed internet access across a range of devices.

EE will be the first commercial 4G network available in the UK, and the EE fiber network will be the company’s first such fixed internet service. There will be both consumer and business options, and EE promises more offerings to be revealed in the weeks ahead of the launch.

Described as “new propositions for a digital generation,” EE will sit alongside Orange and T-Mobile, with Orange positioned as a mainstream option with 3G coverage; T-Mobile UK, meanwhile, will be targeted at price-conscious customers, again topping out at 3G.

We’ll have more pricing details and information on devices very soon.

EE 4G: Everything Everywhere launches LTE & Fiber “in coming weeks” is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia is reportedly planning an exclusive 4G deal with UK carrier Everything Everywhere for the Lumia 920,  a potential distraction from its second mea culpa over the faked camera sample goof. The UK exclusive would see Everything Everywhere – including T-Mobile UK and Orange – snap up the Windows Phone 8 device for a November launch, the Financial Times‘ sources say, echoing Nokia’s sole-carrier deal with AT&T in the US on previous handsets. However, the new Lumia is still being overshadowed by Nokia’s faking of the initial photography samples, something the company now says will be handled with an internal inquiry.

“Nokia recently apologized when it became clear that a video, which had been produced to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization, failed to make clear that it was a simulation only and not shot using the new PureView camera on the Nokia Lumia 920. This video was produced when the Nokia Lumia 920 was in preproduction. While there was no intention to mislead, the failure to add a disclaimer to the video was obviously a mistake, and we apologize for the misunderstanding it did cause” Nokia

Nokia had already apologized once for the camera mistake, where the company was caught using footage shot with a DSLR to demonstrate the potential effect of its PureView optical image stabilization. ”We are dealing with the situation swiftly, fairly and privately” a spokesperson told the WSJ; a second video demo, this time filmed with the Lumia 920 itself, had already been released.

Whispers of a November European release had begun shortly after the new Lumia launch last week, amid speculation that Nokia’s sales plans would be more focused than for its Windows Phone 7 range. CEO Stephen Elop said several months back that Nokia intended to mimic its strategy from the US for new European launches; for the US Lumia 900, that meant putting all of its eggs into AT&T’s basket rather than spreading the device across multiple operators.

Although Nokia declined to comment on any potential negotiations with specific carriers, the company did confirm that the LTE version of the Lumia 920 would be compatible with the 1800MHz 4G bands Everything Everywhere intends to use for its new network. The handset will also support four other LTE bands, though it’s not clear at this stage whether that means the same Lumia 920 will operate on both UK and US LTE.

Everything Everywhere is holding a “next-gen network” event on Tuesday this week, noted initially for being staged the day before the expected launch of the iPhone 5, itself believed to use LTE. It’s possible that a deal with Nokia could be announced at that event.

Nokia LTE Everything Everywhere Lumia 920 deal tipped; Apologizes again for PureView goof is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The notion of contactless payments with the help of a mobile has been around for quite some time. However, we didn’t see any large-scale use of such a feature so far. This may change as the Samsung Galaxy S3 gets a contactless payment service, thanks to Orange and Barclaycard.

With this, the Galaxy S3 has effectively become the first ever Android phone to make use of a contactless payment service – that’s what Orange and Barclays claim, although we remember seeing some tests done with the Galaxy Nexus… Now Galaxy S3 users will simply have to tap their smartphone against the NFC pad and that will automatically make payments to the tune of £20. Of course the feature works only on limited retail outlets. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Galaxy S3 confirmed no-show at MWC 2012, AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note to feature NFC?,