Better enjoy the last remnant of civility left on airlines (i.e. no mobile phones) because Ofcom, the UK regulator, has just said they’re fine with mobile calls on UK-registered aircraft.
Read more on Rose Cantine.
Sphere: Related ContentWalt Mossberg says that the amount of control that US cellular operators have over handsets and applications is terrible for innovation:
So it’s intolerable that the same country that produced all this has trapped its citizens in a backward, stifling system when it comes to the next great technology platform, the cellphone. A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer . . . That’s why I refer to the big cellphone carriers as the “Soviet ministries.” Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between the producers of goods and services and the people who use them. To some extent, they try to replace the market system, and, like the real Soviet ministries, they are a lousy substitute.
Read the rest of his post about “freeing the phone”.
Sphere: Related Content
Blyk has finally launched in the UK, with service coming to other European countries in 2008. I’ve been waiting for Blyk to begin its service because the model is totally different from that of other operators:
Read more on Muniwireless.
This is a much more acceptable way of advertising that Pudding Media.
Sphere: Related Content(1) UK telecom company Noodle pays you when you use your phone (from the Times UK):
“Some customers are already making up to £100 a week, more than enough to cover a phone’s running costs, according to Noodle, the telecom firm providing the service. Noodle customers make 2p a minute if they make or receive a call during peak hours and 1p at other times. You can also make money by signing up a friend. You earn money each time you receive a call on your Noodle number, which is obtained by texting “Noodle” to 81025. Calls made by dialling the Noodle number first also earn money. There is no contract or monthly fee and you can keep your mobile number and any free bundled minutes you have with your existing provider.”
(2) Share an office, desks, Wi-Fi, coffee, everything: this is a trend I’m seeing in Amsterdam too, where you can rent a large desk in an office with other entrepreneurs for 300 EUR a month. It’s definitely for people who can’t work from home (because of kids, noise) or those who crave company. See this post on GigaOm about co-working spaces.
France: www.bureauxapartager.com
Boston-Cambridge, Massachusetts: www.betahouse.org
Sphere: Related Content
Recent Comments