UK telecommunication News

Fraud Alert

Following several recent incidents of telephone fraud, some resulting in thousands of pounds being spent in a very short time frame, Lancashire based telecommunications provider Daisy are reminding customers to be extra vigilant where security or remote access to your phone system is available. Their statement reads:

“Daisy Communications Limited, as a registered Communications Provider, has no control of a customers PABX/Switch configuration, voice mail security or other feature services enabled, except where it is contractually responsible for the management of these services.

How can telephone fraud occur?

Fraud can occur if access can be gained to a voicemail system with either a user defined password or pin code during the greeting message, when calling into a direct dial number with voicemail. By allowing a caller to access the system in this manner, it is then possible to make further calls and diverts, such as premium rate numbers. Under normal circumstances, system installers do not bar outgoing calls from the voicemail ports on telephone systems unless specifically requested to do so.

What can I do to prevent it?

We strongly advise that you verify with your telephone equipment supplier that all necessary steps have been taken to combat fraudulent use. In addition to this Daisy can offer a fraud alert service, c.Secure, which is accessible via our online billing facility, c.View.

With c.Secure you can set up and configure automatic emails to be sent to any number of named contacts when selected call parameters are met, for example calls…

• Costing over a certain amount
• To specific telephone numbers
• To specific call types, e.g. premium rate or international numbers
• Made outside standard business hours
• Over a certain duration

You can even specify a maximum daily invoice and we’ll let you know if it’s exceeded. You set the parameters, so whatever’s important to you, we’ll notify you within 48 hours via email (72 hours in the case of bank holidays).

To register for c.Secure simply call 08707 604 007 and select option 2

For only £2.50 per month, it’s a small price to pay to protect your business.”

SLOW BROADBAND!

Most broadband users receive less than half the advertised speed, according to a study published in the Evening Standard. With 62% of 180,000 lines falling into this category, Computeractive magazine said it was misleading and called on Ofcom to require ISPs to provide clearer information along the same lines as those provided for credit card and loan adverts.

At the moment providers only need to put the words ‘up to’ in their advertising to stay on the right side of the law.

The Computeractive magazine have gone as far as putting a petition on their website at www.computeractive.co.uk/campaign in an effort to get the attention of Prime Minister Gordon Brown

BT ‘U-Turn’?

There are indications that BT may well change its approach to the ‘fibre-to-the-door’ argument. Previously BT claimed it would not be economically viable to lay fibre to established premise. Following a speech give by competitive minister Stephen Timms last week when he voiced a fear that the UK would be economically disadvantaged because it was proposed that BT’s new 21c network would deliver broadband at speeds far less than those offered subscribers in Germany and France, BT have announced that they are not unwilling to discuss a change in their approach at a industry summit conference later this year. At which Mr Timms will be the chair.

UK Likes to Type

A recent survey by Universal McCann shows that the UK mobile users send more texts than anyone else. Each mobile phone user sends on average 100 texts per month whereas their counterparts in Germany send 35 and the average is only 32 in the USA. The UK also prefers texts to talking with an average of only 76 calls per month unlike Russia and Greece who average 137 calls per month.

Irish Go A-Roamin’

Cubic Telecom of Cork Ireland has launched what it calls ‘the only true global mobile phone’ at the Tech Crunch 40 Trade Show in San Francisco.

The phone which uses a ‘MaxRoam’ SIM card will be available form 1st October and is aimed at reducing the cost of International calling for travellers throughout the world by offering favourable Country-to-country phone rates throughout the world.

Also offering full PBX functionality, it allows users to create up to 50 permanent local phone numbers for themselves. Cubic is also offering free Voice over IP (VoIP) calls within its network.

iPhone Launch at a Cost

It is believed that the long awaited iPhone will be launched in the UK as of 9th November against a mixed background of acceptance and derision.

The gadget combines the iPod’s music and video-playing functions with a camera, touchscreen and wireless Internet access it is believed subscribers will have to pay £269 for the phone and sign an 18 month agreement with O2 at around £35 per month. Subscribers would also have free access to some 7,000 Wi-Fi spots in the UK.

Unfortunately some subscribers would carry a heavy cost burden as the more rural areas of the UK whilst paying for ‘unlimited Internet access’, do not enjoy the higher speed network the iPhone uses. Some potential customers said it had put them off the idea of buying an iPhone altogether.

It is understood that the 3G network was not selected for the new iPhone because of the small battery life experienced with that network.

An End to those annoying phone calls?

Ofcom have at last taken action in an attempt to reduce the number of complaints it receives everyday regarding the mis-selling of mobile phones.

You just sit down to relax and the phone rings, when you answer you are subject to some high pressure sales talk and sometimes the caller indicates they work for your air time provider. They offer you an attractive upgrade package and it is only later you discover you are locked into a new 18 month agreement which cannot be cancelled. When you complain to the air-time provider they responded with it was a contract offered by an independent operator and is not their responsibility.

No more cried Ofcom. According to Ofcom, such behaviour will no longer be tolerated under the new code and Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and 3 have all agreed to be bound by its terms. Sales people must call at a reasonable time of the day, declare their interest, name of company, etc; and clearly state the terms of the contract under offer.

We wait to see what happens!

Transfer your business line!

It is very easy to increase the savings a business can make on its telecommunication costs by transferring the management of their phone line to an alternative provider such as Daisy telecommunications. Simply this is a paper transaction whereby Daisy or a similar provider takes over the responsibility of billing a business for their line rental instead of it appearing on their BT bill saving 10% on the cost of the rental. That may not be a massive saving on a single line but when you calculate the cost of multiple lines it all adds up and of course goes direct to the bottom line profit of the business.

It is important to note that BT Openreach engineers will still service the line in the event of a breakdown or the need to install a new line.

Tie this with the very significant savings that a business can make on the cost of the calls themselves both to the UK and abroad against the best rates BT can offer then it makes sense to follow it up.

Any business that is interested in receiving no obligation information on this article just need to leave a comment by clicking the ‘comment’ link just under the heading of this entry.

Fibre to your door

BT have announced that to comply with the Government initiative ‘a major increase in housing development’, that putting fibre to the doors of new houses is just as easy a slaying down copper as they have done in the past. However, whereas this would open up a new world of faster communications and TV bundle, but it is reliant on providers joining forces with BT to utilise the technology.

It will not be economically feasible to put fibre into the ground for established property.

TAX Aware

In last year’s Budget, the Chancellor decided to scrap the home computing initiative which allowed employers to give staff up to £2,500 worth of computer equipment tax-free. under the new rules, work computer equipment used for personal reasons will be subject to a tax charge.

Doesn’t effect you?

Anything designed to be used, connected to, or inserted into acomputer will also be liable for tax, including printers, scanners, modems, MP3 players. Blackberrys and other personal digital assistants (PDAs) had been exempt because they were used mainly as mobile telephones, but their increasing sophistication has brought them into the Taxman’s orbit because they have additional features more typically associated with a computer.

The only answer is to have a written company policy to show that the device is made available to carry out your duties of employment.

iPhone potential users be aware!

O2 and The iPhone

It is widely accepted that there will be an announcement very soon that O2 will announce the launch of the Apple iPhone in the UK for later this year. O2 it is believed clinched the deal at the last minute by offering a large share of the revenues generated by users back to Apple.

Despite being the largest mobile operator in the UK and having taken over the Link distribution chain last year, Carphone Warehouse has acquired rights to be the sole independent retailer.

Pipex Bought by Tiscali

Tiscali have bought out the broadband and voice division of Pipex Communication plc.

Executive Toys or Vital Business Equipment

The debate over how vital mobile email is to a business continues. Are they vital to the smooth running of businesses regardless of size, can the initial cost to the business be justified, or are the majority just executive toys that get and airing and then spend more time tucked away somewhere.

There is no doubt that the ROI for a company can be shown very quickly for the devices deployed correctly to a sales force, even an independent consultant can justify the costs simply by answering a query or clinching a sale, but many email devices such as Blackberries are underused. The other negative is the number of emails that are transmitted containing spam or jokes and all take time to read. However, the main concern of any organization is that these devices that can contain sensitive information are outside and away from corporate firewalls, etc.

Just like the initial arguments over mobile phones in the early 90’s the argument over mobile communications will go on for some while. What cannot be denied is that investing in mobile devices to make a workforce more proficient and flexible is not just keeping up with the Jones’s.

It is not just a method of getting employees to work every single minute of every day but simply by having these devices available can give a positive ROI by the user gaining between 20 and 40 minutes per month extra productivity.

SECURITY SOFTWARE SALES ON THE UP

Around £1.6bn has been spent this year on security software, antivirus software being once again the dominant product taking an estimated 50% of the total spends.

It is becoming difficult for one company to satisfy the security demands of an organization as they require solutions that integrate with their security architecture instead of the stand alone solutions of a the past.

Brussels –v- Mobile Phone Operators

Having successfully caused the mobile phone operators to reduce their roaming charges this year, European communications commissioner Viviane Reding is now looking at a new set of rules which could harmonise charges levied by mobile operators for connecting calls to their networks.

These charges carry greatly across the European providers and Reding wants to bring them in line and to take a common approach to charges.

Wholesale termination charges represent around 15% of the UK’s operator’s revenues producing around £2.5bn per year so we can expect a long drawn out battle over the move.

OrangeCuts Back on Resellers

As a follow on from our report on 10^th September it has emerged that Orange possibly through their investigation into data leaking from the Orange extranet have decided to terminate around 150 resellers.

A number of new clients who tried to register their SIM last week have been unable to do so with one source saying that he had already printed stationery showing his new number, etc, and now Orange are saying his SIM and telephone number do not exist on their records and need to be changed.

One large reseller in Leicestershire has been forced to lay off staff and put his company into administration as Orange are withholding commissions due to the company.

Companies can Eavesdrop

Corporations who want to record every call made by an employee on a land line or mobile can do so by using a new voice recording application from Compliant Voice.

The software, which runs on Symbian, Windows Mobile and Blackberry-based handsets, routes all outgoing calls through a voice-proxy, which does the recording. Incoming calls are made to a new number connected to the proxy, which forwards the call. Alternatively, the software on the handset can bounce incoming calls to the proxy, which connects back, while listening in.

Whether this will prove to be the downfall for Insider Trading or leaking sensitive information is doubtful as there is no way of intercepting calls made on cheap pay-as-you go mobile bought from the local supermarket.

More Call Centre Redundancies

Following on from our comment on 12^th September regarding the IBM Virgin Media call centre in Liverpool laying of 90 staff it is reported that a further 64 have now been lain off from the Swansea call centre due to falling call volumes

Blackberries for the MOD

The Ministry of Defence in a drive to make its workforce more productive and flexible are issuing any MOD worker who has a business need with a BlackBerry.

An MOD spokesperson said the MOD believed that this action would encourage flexible working and allow staff to utilize unproductive time such as when travelling.

A Bigger Slice of iphone Pie for O2

In an effort to defend Apple’s revenue sharing deal over the iphone, O2 believe that they will become more common as technology truly converges. A spokesperson said that if Apple brought a bigger share of the pie to the table of course O2 would be interested to share it.

The losers in a converged world would be the operators who failed to offer their customers true value.

The September edition of Which magazine berates iphone as it is not true 3G compatible plus the batteries need to be returned to Apple to be replaced.

Ofcom Predict Boom in Mobile Market

In a report issued late last month Ofcom the phone regulator reported that they expected the mobile web market to explode due to the increasing convergence of data and voice services plus the rise in broadband penetration.

A surprise was the belief that there will also be a strong growth in mobile internet uptake. A significant factor has been the increase in the uptake of 3G taking it up to 7.8 million subscribers although it is also buoyed by the fact that most network operators now offer all you can eat data tariffs for around £5 per month.

Content providers are making great strides in offering consumers an experience approaching that available to users of fixed-line Internet.

Orange Move Customers

Orange has decided to remove all it’s users from the unmetered dial-up service onto broadband, and it looks like the customer will have no choice.

December has been set as the closing date of the dial-up service with customers being offered a Broadband package of 2Mbs for a low price of £11.99 which is actually £3 less than they were paying for the dial-up service.

However, consumers feel that Orange have not given them enough notice of the change as they have only 14 days to accept the offer. The feeling is that it smacks of the same bully boy tactics of last August when Orange terminated inactive accounts of the old Freeserve/Wanadoo service, which left some clients that had emails, stored on the servers no access to their emails. Orange did increase the period a user could contact the website to activate their dormant account from 90 days to 260 days earlier this year, but they failed to mention that once an account was deactivated it could never be re-activated again.

It is not known how many users this will effect or indeed, why anyone would want to be paying £15 per month for a dial-up connection if they could get broadband. However, there is still many areas where broadband is not available and the bad news for those people is that this could be the start of the end for dial-up unmetered connections.

AHHHHHHHHH! Daisy

Giving a new meaning to the phrase so well known for a famous gravy maker Daisy Communications staff took a brown dip to promote the inaugural World Gravy Wrestling Championships held this weekend.

The owner of the gastro-pub the Fenwick Arms in Lancaster and the man behind the Campaign for Real Gravy provided the gravy at the offices of Daisy Communications in Colne; Lancashire.

The award winning company were striving for another award that of World Gravy Wrestling Champions. Filmed by an ITV crew 4 members of staff got into the swing of things but agreed that they needed some practice if they were to challenge for the honours next year.

Teams that entered  all did so to help support and raise money for the East Lancashire Hospice.

Kingston Communications Lack of Competition

The only remaining UK independent local phone company ahs denied allegations that it holds local business and consumers to ransom by not allowing competitive ISP’s facilities to offer their broadband packages.

The Independent carried a story that the Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire and Humberside Diana Wallis had tried to push for an investigation into the broadband market in Hull.

Kingston is the sole Broadband ISP in the area and she felt her constituents were being deprived of competition to Kingston.

Kingston Communications, the UK’s only remaining independent local phone company, has hit back at suggestions from an MEP that Hull’s businesses and consumers are “held to ransom” by lack of competition in broadband.

Kingston have denied the allegation by stating that it does offer wholesale packages to other ISP’s but as yet there have been no takers. Simply put in a statement Kingston said that they are obliged under Ofcom rulings to offer wholesale packages to other ISP’s without limit. Whether alternative providers take up the offer is entirely based on commercial decision by those providers and their view of the attractiveness of the market.

As no fibre network has ever been put down in Hull, Virgin Media cannot be a prospective player in the marketplace.

BT Expands City Wi-Fi

Manchester Belfast and Waltham Forest are the latest areas to be covered in BT’s ‘Wireless Cities’ project. The other areas that are covered or are about to be covered include:

Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Sheffield, Bristol and the City of Westminster.

Anyone with a Wi-Fi equipped computer or laptop can access BT’s network from £25 per month or £6 per hour. The pressure presented by rival 3G could drive these prices lower in the ensuing months. The Cloud still offers a very competitive package at £9.99 per month and it is certainly worth finding out if it covers an area where you live or work. Created in 2003 The Cloud now is one of Europe’s top Wi-Fi providers.

Virgin Media Cut Calls to Help Desk

In June Virgin media in an effort to cut the number of technical support calls that were unrelated to broadband being made announced that callers would be paying 25p per minute. It certainly appears to have worked as they have announced that they now need to reappraise the staffing levels of the outsourced IBM controlled call centre in Liverpool, around 90 staff were told that they would no longer be required at the centre.

Skype attacked by another worm.

VoIP provider Skype has again seen a Malware worm released through its instant messaging service. The worm known as Ramex; Skipi or Pykspa arrives as an innocent looking message inviting the recipient to download and run an image file which carries the malware.

The worm can disable ant-malware packages on the PC and it can also disable the security update function, it then propagates itself by sending a message to all in the contact database of the infected PC.

Typical subject headings include – ‘This really funny’; ‘Look what crazy photo Tiffany sent to me….’

With company securities getting to be a hot potato many organizations are looking to control the use of VoIP in their companies with some 62% saying that blocking was essential.

BT Tops up Tradespace

Following the launch of Tradespace earlier this year which is an online community that brings SNE’s and Individual Sellers together with potential customers. BT has announced the launch of a set of free business management tools – BT Business Builder.

BT Business Builder offers functions such as bookkeeping, invoicing, sales, planning, and payroll. HR and Health & Safety plus a 24 hr Legal Helpline.

BT also feature another service known as BT Workspace a web-based, easy to use hosted software that helps groups of people share information, manage projects, and improve customer relationships.

Basic packages are Free but as an alternative, there is a fee based service that offers additional features.

(All entries on this Blog are based on snippets of information drawn from a variety of sources and are accurate to the best knowledge of the collator featured for information purposes only

BT in dispute with Cable & Wireless

BT is under an obligation to Ofcom to provide local loop unbundling services as soon as reasonably practicable and on fair and reasonable terms, conditions and charges as Ofcom may direct from time to time.

It would appear that there is a dispute between BT and CWA over this matter as Cable and Wireless allege that BT overcharged for local loop unbundling by sometimes charging customers for new lines when it could have offered existing ones selling itself inputs for the wholesale access market at more favourable terms than it offered C&W. The allegations cover a period between late 2004 and mid 2006. This allegation had been previously been made to Ofcom which was subsequently withdrawn.

There is a condition which requires BT not to unduly discriminate against particular persons or against a particular description of persons, in relation to matters connected with Network Access.

BT does not accept C&WA’s claims. Ofcom recognises that on the face of the referral, there appears to be a dispute between the parties that commercial negotiations have failed to resolve.

In resolving disputes Ofcom must act in accordance with the six Community requirements that give effect to Article 8 of the Framework Directive.

Apple Looking at Wirelss Spectrum up for Auction

US regulator FCC is auctioning 700Mhz of wireless spectrum in January which has attracted the attention of Apple who could be interested in controlling its own wireless network.

One piece of good news offered by Apple this week is the announcement that it has sold over 1 million iphones. This helps to dispel some of the fears that had gathered around the sales of the iphone, Apple said they reached this figure 3 weeks ahead of the target date, although sales had been helped by the recent price cut.

It is hoped that the iphone will help users to see mobile phones as mini-PC’s rather than just texting and calling devices.

This may be held up as it is believed some 88% of companies had no means for tracking corporate data on employees mobile devices. The number of mobile devices that are lost or stolen, reported to be some 60,000 in the UK alone every month, does not just mean a loss of data for the individual it can result in damaging an organizations reputation.

BROADBAND REVS UP………..

Following its purchase of Be Broadband O2 have announced a high speed product of up to 24 Mps to be offered to around half the population of the UK. At first it is envisage it will only be offered to O2 customers and not to the public at large as the company see it as a tool for retaining customers rather than developing a new customer base.

NEW HIGHS FOR UNBUNDLED LINES

Just under 3m telephone lines have now been unbundled according to the office of Telecommunications Adjudicator up from 2.73 the previous month.

Rod Smith has been reported to have been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the OTA.

Rod’s most recent post was as Managing Director of telecoms solutions provider, Marconi plc from 1990 to 2006. He brings with him a wealth of experience having worked with many of the telecommunications operators in the UK. In addition to being responsible for the direct business partnerships with Marconi’s UK customers, Rod oversaw several major product development programmes and managed field operations in the UK. Rod was a member of the Marconi executive board and served on several operational boards within the group.

FIRST RED BOXES DISAPPEARED MAYBE ALL CALL BOXES ARE SET TO FOLLOW

Following plans to review a raft of telecommunication services BT is set to announce that it will scrap thousands of pay phone call boxes.

At present BT is governed by a Universal Service Obligation (USO) to solely maintain services to all call boxes regardless of profitability. There are some 60,000 payphone call boxes of which around nearly 12,000 take less than £100 per year.

The sharp rise in the use of mobile phones has heralded the sharp decline in payphone usage and BT for some time now has argued that the mobile phone operators should share the cost of funding this service.

The USO was brought in to ensure that all citizens had equal access to reasonably priced phone services, now the European Commission is arguing that the whole basis of USO needs to be addressed and changed if not removed altogether.

In other European countries these services are jointly funded by all the carriers of that country while here in the UK in 1984 at the time of its privatisation BT were obliged to carry the full cost of the USO in the UK.

Britain’s 60,000 public payphones are under threat because of plans by Brussels to review the law under which BT funds and maintains them.

Under an historic agreement put in place at the time of its 1984 privatisation, BT is responsible for providing and maintaining call boxes around the country — even where it does not make money out of them.

The commitment is one of several so-called universal service obligations (USOs) that fall on the group as the country’s main telecoms provider.

Now the European Commission has announced plans to review the system amid lobbying that provision of services such as payphones is no longer relevant in the age of mobile phones and other new technologies.

Ofcom has been in conversation with BT to allow them the right for a trial of variable pricing to try to save the call boxes already in situ. The idea would be to run a 26 week trial in cities where preferential International rates could be offered to attract a greater usage of call boxes. It is understood that pricing would have to return to the standard level on completion of the trial period.

A spokesman for Ofcom stated that the view was that “ It will benefit all consumers over the long term for BT to be allowed to experiment with pricing.” However Ofcom would reserve the right to discontinue or change a trial at any time.

In another effort to try to save the payphone call box BT has extended the agreement it has in place with Barclays to HSBC to put their cash machines in modern type call boxes. BT has already built up a number of cash machine payphones with private ATM operators Cardpoint and Bank Machine. BT could earn up to £6,000 per year from each payphone that has a cash machine installed. It is believed that the success of these outlets will be there high visibility and opportunity to be serviced 24 hrs a day.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN – ORANGE WON’T SAY

It started at the beginning of the week but by Wednesday evening it culminated in a breakdown of the Orange network especially between 7pm and 9pm when all aspects of the network started failing. The operator has said that everything is now fixed and working Ok but would not be pressed into saying what went wrong only that investigations are ongoing.

Skype was ridiculed when their service failed a short while ago with many derogatory remarks being made such as – ‘Cheap calls Cheap network’. But we expect a better services from the established networks of the main airtime providers.

WE WILL WAIT UNTIL IT IS 3G

Vodafone has announced that it will not now carry the iphone while it is 2G they will only be interested in a 3G model, according to chief executive Aurin Sarin