[3g-g]

*Groans*

Look guys. You are service providers, you don't have what it takes to be doing everything averagely, just do "being a network" well and concentrate on that, when other people develop the things to run on it you'll still make loadsa cash from people using your networks. Is it really that difficult to understand?


A consortium of network operators are banding together to back their own mobile internet search, according to The Telegraph.

Vodafone (Vodafone), France Telecom (Orange), Telefonica (O2), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Hutchison Whampoa (Three), Telecom Italia, and Cingular are listed to be involved in secret discussions to take place at 3GSM next week, with the intention of agreeing a combined search strategy.

The idea that everyone would be surfing the web from their mobile phones, if only they had a decent search engine, continues to be widely believed, despite services such as Google PDA, Google WAP, and Google.mobi already providing perfectly adequate search capabilities. Not to mention the search clients built into the Nokia N-Series and Samsung handsets, which offer easy access to internet search engines.

The lack of suitable content is so marked that dotMobi, which manages the .mobi top level domain, is now offering free site-building software to anyone who registers a domain. The software comes from Akmin, and is based on its already-free mobiSiteGalore online service.

The real question mark over the mobile internet is what problem it solves - being able to create sites is a good start, but even now no one is sure what content users want on the move.

While voice revenue remains static, and customers increasingly push for flat-rate data, network operators will be looking for better ways to make money from their data capabilities.

It is possible that this new consortium will do a deal with Google, Yahoo!, or similar to share advertising revenue, but the real question is if the network operators are arrogant enough to think they can do better - and the answer is they probably are.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/07/searching_for_mobile_internet/

[Hands0n]

Good Lord! They really don't get it do they? The reason we don't use mobile Internet is because data tariffs are ridiculously expensive with possibly one exception, T-Mobile Web N Walk.

The simple fact that the mobile operators are very apparently not listening does not fill me with any hope for the immediate future! These ex-PTT dinosaurs are stuck in their own timewarp.

Roll on WiMax or some other savvy mobile data technology and the mobile network ops will disppear up their own orifices!

[Ben]

One big problem we have with data pricing, even on T-Mobile, is that it's too expensive for a user just to pick up their handset and use data without a prior agreement with the operator for a bundle.

Either tariffs need to all include around 10MB of data, 'free', or there needs to be a reasonable cap on daily-use data of about £3 or so, meaning regular users still make massive savings with bundles but the occasional user can dip in once or twice a month knowing that the cost to them is capped.

I know some PAYG plans have data cost caps, and that's a good idea, but they're not being presented to the customer in a clear and coherent way.

[gorilla]

I don't believe that's the real reason they're getting together.
That's like Sony, LG, Samsung etc getting together to make a rival teletext or whatever it's known on digital now.
There's just no logical reason behind developing yet another moible search.

[Ben]

Maybe they're going to talk about data price-fixing, before T-Mobile gives away the store ;)

[Hands0n]

Boing! Point of order Mr Chairman, aren't Cartels illegal in the UK if not most/all of Europe? How the **** are they getting away with this exactly?