Mobile Phone Insurance News

Vodafone have rebranded its indoor base station programme as Sue Signal. It has also cut the price of the technology. The new name takes over from its previous name Vodafone Access Gateway.

Tata Teleservices the sixth largest mobile phone operator in India added 3.3 million new users to its base in December alone. The countries largest operator Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million users in the same month.

Alcatel-Lucent the French Telecoms equipment manufacturer have been linked with fundraising during 2010 either via a share issue or raising debt.

Kesa, the electrical retailer, has announced that like-for-like sales at its chain Comet between November 1 and January 8th were down 3.9%. Comet accounts for 30% of the groups revenue. Better news in France where its chain Darty saw like-for-like sales rise 3.6%.

Gartner, the research group, have reported that $4.2 billion was spent on download applications for smartphones in 2009. Not surprisingly Apple took the lion’s share of the market with 99%.

The company have estimated that in 2010 this figure will rise to $6.8 billion.

Talking of Apple, they have sent out invitations to the media for a launch of a new product on 27th January. Thus far Apple have declined to talk about the product in questions but it is widely thought to be the much discussed touchscreen tablet mini computer.

There have been suggestions that it will be called the iSlate. It is thought to have a 25cm screen and to have a retail cost in the region of £500. It is expected to be available in March.

Retailers have reported good figures despite the recession:

HobbyCraft - like for like sales up 10.6% for the 6 weeks to Jan 3rd.

Richemonet - Luxery goods - 2% increase in the third quarter.

Mini Velvet - fashion - is to op n 25 new concessions.

Asos - online fashion - 30% increase in the five weeks to January 3rd.

Insurance2go sales of mobile phone insurance also faired pretty well over the Christmas and New year period.

TalkTalk has reaped the benefit of its sponsorship of ITV’s X factor with a larger net increase in its customer base than predicted.

The company has reported an a net increase of 36,000 new subscribers compared to a forecast of 14,000 figures likely to warm the hearts of share holders.

The company that will be split away from its parent group The Carphone Warehouse by the end of March has 4.5 million customers.

Carphone itself reported that full year earnings would be at the top end of its forecasts. Like for like revenues along with Best Buy for the 3 months to the end of December rose by 5.5%.

Charles Dunstone put the strong performance down to ‘gains in the high end smartphone category’.

There is more news in the MVNO / MVNA sector. Viacloud (a company based in the middle east) has partnered with T-Mobile in a bid to be an ‘alternative operator’ in the UK, and to create a Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator (MVNA).

The deal will allow Viacloud to launch MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) on T-Mobile’s network.

Viacloud CEO, Mr. Mutaz Otaibi said: ‘We are delighted to partner with an industry-leading organization such as T-Mobile, and are looking forward to offering a unique and reliable range of mobile services to customers in the UK.

T-Mobile UK chief marketing officer, Srini Gopalan said: ‘T-Mobile UK is delighted to be supporting Viacloud’s ambitious expansion plans for the UK market. This deal signals our intent to become a major player in the ethnic MVNO arena.

‘With international calling card minutes rapidly migrating to mobile, this is an excellent time to be forging new partnerships in this segment. Viacloud builds on our existing MVNO partnerships and underlines our ambitions to target new growth areas in the wholesale market.’

Viacloud was established in Bahrain in 2004 and since then has grown through acquisitions in the Middle East.

It has been reported that Google has sold just 20,500 of its Nexus One Mobile Phone in the first week. This is according to mobile analysis firm Flurry. They reckon that this compares to one-twelfth of the Motorola Droid’s first week sales and one-eightieth of those of the iPhone 3GS.

However these figures are complicated for 2 reasons - the method of counting and the way the Nexus One is sold by Google. Flurry is counting sales by counters in mobile applications but some apps don’t yet work properly with the new phone and the Nexus One is only available to buy online at www.google.com/phone so many orders have yet to arrive.

Google aren’t making any comment about the reported figures however they have previously said that total sales of just 150,000 would not be disappointing and they have acknowledged that as this is the first time they have sold a physical product to the public the process would not be as smooth as selling from an established retailer.

Here at insurance2go we are looking forward to insuring the Nexus One when it goes on sale in the UK.

The O2 arena in London was the most visited arena in the world last year and this was despite the cancellation of 50 Michael Jackson concerts. Over 2.3 million people attended an event at the Arena, which has a capacity of 20,000.

Top names who played the Arena in 2009 included Britney Spears, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston, Rod Stewart and Beyonce.

The next most visited venue in the world was the Manchester Evening News Arena which welcomed a cool 1.3 million concert goers through its door.

Only the top three venues sold over a million tickets, Madison Square gardens in New York was place fourth on the list with 977,000 tickets sold.

O2 did well in Ireland aswell with its venue in Dublin coming fifth.

The O2 will be hoping for another good year. Already booked in for June are Bon Jovi for 10 nights.

Vodafone launched the iPhone  on their network yesterday and reported sales in the region of 50,000 to customers who had pre-ordered their iPhone.

Vodafone joins O2, Tesco and Orange as the fourth network who have an agreement to offer the handset.

O2 are to enter the fixed line telecoms market offering fixed line phone and broadband services. The move is of particular interest because O2 will now be competing head on against BT the parent of O2 that emerged from the of BT Cellnet mobile company.

O2 currently offer fixed line services in Spain and the Czech Republic as part of the Telefonica Business. O2 has been extremely successful over recent years and is now the largest Telecoms company in the UK.

It’s a crazy idea but could soon become a reality after Daizi Zheng produced a concept mobile phone powered by sugary fizzy drinks.

She came up with the idea as part of her graduation project at Central St Martins college in London.

The design has a screw top end where you pour in the fizzy drink. The sugary drink generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out. Bio battery has the potential to last 3 or 4 times longer than conventional lithium batteries.

The device hasn’t as yet been tested on a working model but Zheng thinks there could be a mobile phone powered by fizzy drinks on the market in five years.

In terms of mobile phone insurance here at www.insurance2go.co.uk we have concerns about water damage but we are sure Daizi Zheng has already thought about that.

It is understood that Orange sold approx 90,000 iPhones in the UK during December 2009.

A big number you might think but France Telecom (part of the Orange group) sold over 200,000 in the same period with 20,000 being sold on one day (the 19th December).

The information from France was revealed in an interview with the chief executive , Stephane Richard on Europe 1 radio on the 11th January. He also hinted that the French group could be changing its name in 2010. ‘The group is destined to be called Orange one day, maybe this year’ he said.

iPhones can be insured with www.insurance2go.co.uk of course. Mobile phone insurance can be set up from as little as £4.49 a month with 3 months free insurance in the first 12 months. Please visit our web site for further info and all the Ts and Cs.

Tesco have said its ‘party phone’ with a price tag of less than £20 was a big seller at Christmas. Tesco sold 10,000 of the handsets in the last 2 weeks before Christmas alone.

It is thought that the phone sold well with women who wanted a phone but didn’t necessarily want to carry a handbag around at all times.

There have been a few moans from customers with question on how to use the Nexus One in the states. As it is being sold Online the only support for the handset is by e-mail. Some customers are a little unhappy that it can take up to two days to get an answer.

Bell Labs have launched an initiative that it hopes will develop networks which are far more efficient. The research is being carried out alongside Telecoms companies and academic institutions.

Brightpoint have won the distribution rights to the Nexus One worldwide. This is obviously a bit of a feather in their cap although it is not an exclusive distribution deal and more companies will be named as distributors over the coming weeks.

Orange have relaunched their Business Tariffs. Martin Lyne, director for small and medium business at Orange UK, said: ‘In 2010 it will be important that we help our customers be in the best position possible to make the most of the possible economic upturn.

‘By continuing to offer great value for money across many of our business tariffs, we want to ensure we can provide our customers with the flexibility they need to build a plan that meets and suits their needs. Whether it is through lowering the cost of tariffs or increasing data allowance, we want to make sure all of our business customers are catered for.’

Music lovers will be pointed in the right direction by Nokia’s new ‘Gig Finder’ application that helps users find information on concerts. The application can be used to find out when and where their favourite band will be playing.