Comreg key survey points include

• 99.3% of the respondents own a mobile phone with 99% using it regularly
• 74% of respondents are Pre pay customers and 26% are bill pay customers
• 44% of the respondents own a smart phone
• Of these 40% of smartphone users were on Pre pay and 57% on Bill pay
• More than 50% of smartphone users use email, social networks or web browsing every day
• Only 3% of all mobile users use VOIP
• Only 20% of smart phone users use VOIP services
• 27% of mobile users dont use voicemail

Mobile Share of the customers surveyed

• Vodafone: 43%
• O2: 31%
• Eircom Group: 22%
• 3Ireland: 3%
• Other: 1%

% of smart phones on each network

• Vodafone 41%
• O2 42%
• Eircom 48%
• 3 Ireland 83% (which makes sense since it’s primarily a 3G network just roaming on Vodafone 2G)
• Tesco 40%

95% of Population have only one sim card (mobile number)

61% have a fixed line and 39% have no fixed line
And the main reason for not having one was to Save money (53%)

Fixed line market share:

• Eircom 67%
• UPC 10%
• Vodafone at home 16%
• Imagine 2%
• Digiweb 9%
• Other 6%

% of Bill and Pre pay customers on each network

• Vodafone 73% Pre pay, 27% Bill pay
• O2 74% Pre pay, 26% Bill pay
• Eicom 80% Pre pay, 20% Bill pay
• 3 Ireland 37% Pre pay, 63% Bill pay ( a significant difference between 3 and the other networks who have more pre then bill pay customers)
• Other 100% Pre pay (Tesco, 48 months and the other MVNO’s)

5% have their bills paid by a family member

On average Bill pay customers pay 102euro for their phone and Pre pay customers pay 86euro

On average Bill pay customers pay €53.68 (average package cost was €46.68) and Pre pay customers pay €32.15per month

Somewhat worryingly 71% and 69% of pre and bill pay customers respectively do not know the costs of call or texts

73% of customers are with their mobile operator 3 or more years (75% of pre and 67% of bill pay)

Only 33% of mobile consumers have said that they’ve “EVER” switched mobile networks proving the maxim “it’s easier and cheaper to keep a customer then to gain one” and one reason why networks seem to loose customers slowly.

Comments and questions welcome below.

The largest examiner ship in the history of the state will see the €4billion in debt being reduced to €2.35billion through debt and organisational restructuring as well as the company’s senior lenders becoming shareholders. This will mean job losses through 1000 voluntary redundancies but it should secure the future of the company (although we have been here before).

Eircom is still a strategic asset to the state as it controls most of the physical communications network and is still the dominant player out side the major centres. Hopefully there will be now room for investment in the network so sorely missed since the company went public in 1999. Eircom sold their eircell mobile network to Vodafone in 2000 but then they bought Meteor in 2005 and then setup emobile (operating on the infrastructure of the Meteor network) in 2010.

• Average revenue per user fell 3.4pc to €31.20
• 66% of it’s customer base is pre pay
• Over one third of it’s customers use smartphones, a rise of almost 60% over last years figures
• Customer numbers rose 1.7 per cent, to 2.46 million
• Vodafone invested over €120million in it’s network in the past year (probably one of the only networks in the country to do to be able to do this).

Like everything else we’ve seen recently, Vodafone reported that data is driving revenue when compared with calls and sms services.

Access to ITV, BBC and US box sets as well as the On Demand content from MGM, True Movies, Food
Network, History and Discovery Channel will be available with further new programmes and content
being added in the weeks ahead. Additionally, there are complete box sets of award winning US TV,
such as Blue Bloods, The Good Wife and Dexter among others – available free of charge to
UPC Select and Max customers through their UPC digital remote.

UPC has negotiated with the top Hollywood studios to allow customers to rent from hundreds of
movies, including the latest box office hits, directly through their TV at the touch of a button. UPC
will provide the latest release movies at the same time as they are available on DVD.

 

 

 

http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/meps-vote-to-cut-cost-of-mobile-roaming/

iOS 5.1.1

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

As we had seen in the invitations to the event the Phone comes in two colours at launch, White and Pebble Blue, with more promised in the future.

The phone itself continues with the same design cues as the previous Galaxy models and at first glance looks like a cross between a Galaxy Nexus and an SGSII. In many’s eyes a good combination.

As we have got spoilt of late with new phones releasing with ever increasing spec sheets, the SGSIII’s specs are pretty much as we expected. It really is a mark of how far we have come when Quad Core processors and HD screens on a phone doesn’t have us jumping up and down with excitement!

What you are getting is a very slim and sleek looking phone. Even though we have seen these specs phones on other phones already, make no mistake this is one powerful phone.

The processor is an Exonys  1.4Ghz Quad Core which Samsung is promising to be 50% more powerful than a dual core equivalent while using 20% less energy. The GPU is said to be 65% more powerful that the Mali 400 that came in the SGSII.

The next stand out feature is of course the screen. Samsung have gone for a 4.8″ screen at a stunning 720p resolution. Unfortunately we are missing that all important “Plus” in its moniker like we had in the SGSII so this is basically a slightly larger version of the Pentile unit that comes in the Galaxy Nexus. Samsung has gone with physical buttons again. There is a home button in the middle flanked by capacitive Menu and Back buttons. With the Galaxy Nexus the last 10mm or so of the screen is taken up by on screen buttons rather than traditional buttons which makes the effective screen size very similar to a 4.3″ screen. With the SGSIII all of the 4.8 inches will be screen so this is going to seem like a big jump in size for someone coming from a smaller phone.

Software wise you are going to be getting the latest version of Android, 4.0.4, with Samsung’s Touchwiz running on top of it. There is no great differences here to previous versions but one nice feature they have added is the ability to play videos in a pop up window allowing you to watch a video while still using the phone in the background.

Also included is a feature that tracks your eyes using the front facing camera so when you are looking directly at the screen it will not dim or lock. There are several new features like this and while some are nice, they do feel like a bit of a gimmick and certainly aren’t game changing.

The cameras remain an 8MP rear, 1.9MP front combo with the rear having an LED flash.  To keep up with HTC’s One series, Samsung have added many of the camera features seen on the One X & S, to their own camera. Fast wake times and the ability to shoot just over 3 shots per second with “zero” shutter lag are present, while a burst mode that takes 8 pictures and automatically chooses the best picture is one of the additional features on offer. Full HD capture and play back is of course available.

Going against the trend of non user replaceable batteries, Samsung has added a 2100mAh unit that is easily accessible once the back cover is removed. Also under that cover is a micro SD card slot which will accept card up to 64GBs. The phone itself will come in 16/ 32/ 64 GB variants which will mean you could have up to a staggering 128GBs of storage on your phone!

Even after belittling Apple’s Siri, Samsung have gone ahead and added a feature which is pretty much identical. Being able to talk to your phone in “natural language” is Samsung’s aim with all of the key features being able to be controlled by voice such as changing the music playing or turning the volume up and down. As we have seen with Siri though, continued use of these features seems rare after the initial honeymoon period is over. People still don’t seem to be ready to have conversations with their phones!

Here’s a brief run down on the rest of the specs:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; 4G (regional))
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133 g
• Display: 4.8″ 16M-color HD (720 x 1280 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass
• CPU: Quad-core 32nm ARM Cortex A9 1.4 GHz processor, Exynos 4212 Quad chipset
• GPU: Mali-400MP
• RAM: 1GB
• OS: Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Memory: 16/32/64GB storage, microSD card slot
• Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, 1.9MP front facing camera, video-calls
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, standard microUSB port, GLONASS/GPS SatNav receiver, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, TV-out, USB-on-the-go, NFC
• Battery: 2100 mAh
• Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, barometer, Swype text input, RGB light senso

We’ll have a summary later of what was shown. Check out the live webcast here: http://www.blackberryworld.com/content/webcast

Something I’ve noticed too. Throughout the webcast everyone referred to the company as BlackBerry rather than RIM. Will we see a name change coming?

Vodafone has today agreed to pay ComReg €951,000 following an investigation by ComReg into a discrepancy between prices published by Vodafone for calls to numbers in the 1520, 1580 and 1590 number ranges and the actual charges applied to customers. ComReg concluded that the charges applied to Vodafone’s prepay mobile customers for calls to 1520, 1580 and 1590 numbers had been 10 cents, 30 cents and 30 cents per minute higher than the published rates of €0.25, €2.99 and €3.69 per minute respectively during the period from December 2008 through to December 2011.

 

Vodafone has been able to identify the customers affected by this incident between December 2010 and December 2011 but the customer data for the two years prior to December 2010 is not available. The customers identified by Vodafone will receive a refund either by cheque or directly through phone credit, together with an additional payment or credit by way of compensation. The amount that will be rebated to those customers that made calls during the period for which detailed records are available is approximately €800,000, including compensation for inconvenience caused. The majority of these payments will be automatic by way of credit applied to the customer’s phone and will be made over the next few days.

Do you know if you were affected? Let us know in the comments below and whether or not you get any refunds from Vodafone. Full report below.

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1234.pdf