Hasta La Gadget!

UK carriers Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone are unsurprisingly smug today, after the EC approved their collective mobile commerce plan despite objections from Google and others. The joint venture was announced back in June 2011, a partnership which would build the underlying infrastructure for sales, delivery and payment, but became the subject of a regulatory probe after Google and rival carrier Three objected.

However, regulators obviously found no aspect of the plans to be worrying, and so the three networks are free to push ahead with the JV. The goal is to not only put together a payments system, allowing subscribers to charge items to their handsets instead of using cards or cash, but to “provide a single contact point for media agencies, retailers and brands, enabling them to create campaigns that will reach millions of opted-in mobile users.”

The service will be cross-platform and cross-operator, though each will be building its own user-facing mobile payments brand on top of the shared underlying technology. “For consumers, this means they will be able to receive the discounts and offers that they want to receive from the brands that are relevant to them” the trio says.

As for Three’s complaints that it had not been invited to join the joint venture, Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone UK claim their rival is very welcome to get involved. “The shareholders remain committed to making the JV services open to all,” the three said in a statement, “including all operators and MVNOs, 3rd party publishers, banks, advertising agencies, retailers and any company that wants to engage in this space.”

There’s no indication of when the mobile commerce platform will launch in the UK.

EC approves UK mobile wallet scheme despite Google complaints is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve been speaking to the big five UK mobile networks, finding out where British phablet fans can get their Galaxy Note II fix. So far, only ThreeUK (after the break) and O2 have confirmed they’ll be carrying the device when it arrives later in the year, while T-Mobile and Orange said they didn’t have any details for us yet. Most cryptically, Vodafone’s response was that it “isn’t involved in this,” so we figure we’ll have to sit tight for more concrete news. If anything changes. we’ll let you know.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note II coming to ThreeUK and O2 later in the year

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note II coming to ThreeUK and O2 later in the year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thought LG didn’t have any more to add to the L-Style series to offer the world? Behold the L9. Announced yesterday, the device made an appearance on the IFA show room floor this week, boasting a big and bright 4.7-inch IPS display that makes its brethren look downright shrimpy by comparison. In spite of the display size, the phone feels light, with an 8.9-millimeter profile.

It’s important to note here that, in spite of being the king of the L-Series, it’s still part of a budget lineup, and as such, the phone’s body feels a bit plasticky, and the textured rear had a bit of trouble staying snapped in place in the two models (black and white) that we played with. Specwise, we’re talking a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM inside, 4GB of storage (expandable via a microSD slot) and a 2,150mAh battery. The handset’s rocking Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4, to be precise).

The handset’s got a fairly nice bezel, with the front-facing camera on the top and a home button on the bottom, flanked by illuminating back and menu touch buttons. A larger, 5MP camera is located on the rear of the device, above the flash. Vodafone has the handset priced at €50.90 subsidized and €340 unsubsidized. Peep a video of the handset, after the break.

Continue reading LG Optimus L9 hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

LG Optimus L9 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MasterCard has switched up its NFC and Mobile Payments deal with T-Mobile and Orange to include corporate parent / sibling Everything Everywhere. The pairing will leverage the existing Orange Cash standard to get users onto the service, building out a person-to-person payment system similar to Pingit as they go. It’s reportedly angered rival networks Vodafone and O2, still smarting from last week’s 4G news, who were co-operating on a unified mobile payments service called “Project Oscar” that would have standardized the system nationwide. Given that Vodafone has partnered with Visa and O2 is trying things out on its own, perhaps the next time you choose a phone, you’ll have to side with your card-provider of choice, too.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Everything Everywhere signs 5-year deal with MasterCard for mobile payments originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has this week made a ruling that will allow the group Everything Everywhere to begin offering up 4G services ahead of a scheduled 4G spectrum auction next year, this against the wishes of several of their rivals. Everything Everywhere is the company that runs T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, and with this decision letting them start up their 4G services before a collection of competitors, their September 11th, 2012 start date may lead to a major change in the mobile market.

The “4G” spectrum that Everything Everywhere already owns runs along 1800MHz, and outside their own camp, Ofcom’s decision to give them the go-ahead has been met with some unsurprising dissent. An O2 spokesman made it clear this morning that they were amongst those groups that are not really happy about the decision.

“We are hugely disappointed with today’s announcement, which will mean the majority of consumers will be excluded from the first wave of digital services. This decision undermines the competitive environment for 4G in the UK” – O2

Similarly, the folks at Vodafone have been quite vocal about the situation.

“The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market” – Vodafone UK

The upcoming auction of 4G spectrum will be bringing on both 800MHz and 2.6GHz to the party, while each of the groups mentioned above already own at least two different kinds of spectrum in the 2G/3G/4G universe. Vodafone and O2 are the proud owners of 900MHz, 1800Mhz, and 2.1GHz spectrum while Everything Everywhere also owns the two higher spectrums 2.1GHz and 1800Mhz. It’s not entirely clear why the other two companies have not yet been granted the ability to offer up their own 1800MHz spectrum.

[via ZDnet]

Everything Everywhere gains early rights to 4G in the UK is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.