Posts Tagged ‘Internet, phones & broadband’
Bulldog’s broadband is lacking in spirit
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on September 18th, 2009
A reader is exasperated by Bulldog and BT, who pass the buck while she goes without an internet connection
Caroline Loncq's adventure began when she tried to send an email. She discovered her broadband service had died and that, although her phone still had a dialling tone, an unfamiliar number registered when she used it to ring her mobile. Loncq spent the rest of the week reporting this mystery to her internet service provider Bulldog, now part of the Tiscali empire.
Technical support told her breezily that her line had been "seized" and she should call customer care; customer care insisted a fault was to blame and she should call technical support, and so she went back and forth, since neither department appeared to communicate with the other.
It was Loncq who worked out that her upstairs neighbours had ordered a BT broadband package which had been due to start the day she lost her connection. And it did not take much sleuthing to establish she now possessed the telephone number intended for them (although not for long – the line was soon disconnected leaving her without a working telephone).
Bulldog were not in the least bit interested by this information, and declared she would have to sort it out with BT. Loncq pointed out that she was not a BT customer and that every call she made was on an expensive mobile phone rate since she had been deprived of her landline. She also said that since her contract was with Bulldog they might like to help her retrieve the service for which she was still paying. But that was all in vain. Two months passed and she had to pay for a dongle to enable her to access the internet. Moreover, BT asked for a hefty reconnection charge to regain her stolen number.
I contacted Bulldog's press office and asked if they would like to comment. "Isn't it amazing what a bit of fear can do," Loncq says. "Suddenly I have a charming 'high level complaints executive' from Tiscali talking to me. BT had already refunded me the connection fee and now Pipex/Tiscali are going to pay for the mobile dongle and the phone calls I made on my mobile, plus chuck me £50."
Bulldog blames the delay on the "complicated process" of trying to restore her line, even though it appears to have left all the legwork to Loncq until the Guardian intervened. Its punishment is one lost customer, for Loncq has decided to remain with BT who have reinstated her old number and given her a £40 apology. The winner here is BT who, through its own errors and inefficiency, has gained a new source of income.
Meanwhile, Loncq is awed by the fearless moral grit of the British newspaper industry: "I saw for myself how easily the human spirit is crushed by corporate indifference, and how quickly that indifference turns to, well, something that sounds like customer love (but isn't) when the possibility of bad publicity looms."
You decide: how much is broadband worth in a property?
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on September 10th, 2009
Our next modern dilemma asks whether slow connectivity is a dealbreaker when you're house-hunting
You're looking for a new place to live, and you've found a marvellous place - beautiful location, surprisingly good transport when you consider the lovely views, and it's got electricity, gas and water. Compared to other places you've looked at with similar qualities, it's pretty cheap.
In fact, it's really desirable, and you've got very little time before you have to move out of where you are.
But wait a minute - what about the internet? You ask the owner, who explains that while it does have broadband, in common with pretty much everywhere in Britain, due to a peculiarity of the phone lines you'll never get more than 1 megabit per second. It's not enough for iPlayer or online gaming.
What do you do - accept it, abandon it, beat them down on price, pray for a better connection... what?
You decide: how much is broadband worth in a property?
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on September 10th, 2009
Our next modern dilemma asks whether slow connectivity is a dealbreaker when you're house-hunting
You're looking for a new place to live, and you've found a marvellous place - beautiful location, surprisingly good transport when you consider the lovely views, and it's got electricity, gas and water. Compared to other places you've looked at with similar qualities, it's pretty cheap.
In fact, it's really desirable, and you've got very little time before you have to move out of where you are.
But wait a minute - what about the internet? You ask the owner, who explains that while it does have broadband, in common with pretty much everywhere in Britain, due to a peculiarity of the phone lines you'll never get more than 1 megabit per second. It's not enough for iPlayer or online gaming.
What do you do - accept it, abandon it, beat them down on price, pray for a better connection... what?
Orange and T-Mobile to create UK’s largest phone company
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on September 8th, 2009
• Deal expected to lead to significant job losses
• Venture will operate under one name by 2012
• 5,000 fewer mobile phone masts needed
Orange and T-Mobile are merging their UK operations to create the country's largest mobile phone operator, with 28.4 million customers or 37% of the market, leapfrogging rivals O2 and Vodafone.
But the deal is expected to lead to significant job losses among the combined workforce of 19,000 as the two companies rationalise their networks, axe call centre staff and close high street retail stores in pursuit of £3.5bn worth of cost savings. T-Mobile UK employs 6,400 and Orange 12,000.
It should, however, lead to a reduction in mobile phone masts, as the new venture will need at least 5,000 fewer than the two companies operate today.
By 2012, the venture will also be operating under a single name with either Orange, owned by France Telecom, or T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, resigned to the dustbin of British brand history. No decision will be taken on which brand is jettisoned until the merger gets clearance from European regulators, which is likely to take several months. The venture also has about a million residential broadband customers.
France Telecom's chief financial officer Gervais Pellissier said the deal would "on the one hand fundamentally change our respective positions in the UK and on the other hand bring substantial benefits to consumers in the UK". His opposite number at Deutsche Telekom, Timotheus Höttges, added that the merger was "the first step towards creating the new mobile champion in the UK".
Tough decisions
Analysts, however, remain to be convinced that the structure of the deal – in which both parents will have a 50% share – will not leave the company unable to make tough decisions if its board is split down Orange and T-Mobile lines. The two parent companies have picked board members, with Orange UK boss Tom Alexander taking the chief executive's post and new T-Mobile UK head Richard Moat becoming chief operating officer. Deutsche Telekom will pick a finance chief and a chairman – who does not get a casting vote in meetings – with France Telecom picking the venture's human resources director. Both parent companies are locked into the joint venture for at least three years.
The deal gives Deutsche Telekom a solution to its problems in the UK, where T-Mobile lags in fourth place and has consistently underperformed its rivals. It also allows Orange to improve its margins by pooling its wireless network assets with T-Mobile, having been jilted by its original network partner Vodafone in favour of O2 in March.
The deal should also cut the number of mobile phone masts in the country. Orange has 13,000 current generation – or 2G - masts and 7,000 that carry mobile-broadband – or 3G – signals. T-Mobile has 10,000 2G masts and 7,000 3G. After the deal the combined group expects to have 14,000 to 16,000 of both sorts of mast, giving it up to 32,000, or at least 5,000 fewer than today.
T-Mobile is currently sharing its 3G network with the UK's fifth-placed mobile operator 3, and that deal will be included in the joint venture. Orange, meanwhile, already provides coverage for 3's basic 2G service and Alexander explained "we are very excited about the [deal] because the specific synergies with T-Mobile and 3 are very strong". However a deal still needs to be struck with 3's owner, Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
T-Mobile also carries traffic for Virgin Mobile, which has 4.8 million customers and used to be run by Alexander, and Moat said "we have their support" for the merger. Including the Virgin Mobile customers in the figures for the merged group would give it more than 33 million customers or more than 40% of the market.
Overtures
Orange has made several overtures to Deutsche Telekom about merging with T-Mobile over the past year, all of which were rebuffed. But more recently Deutsche Telekom's management has been looking at all options for its UK operation. Last week it received highly conditional cash offers from O2 and Vodafone but the price – at about £3.5bn – was lower than chief executive Rene Obermann had hoped.
Höttges said: "We have to think about what is the best solution for the difficult UK market that we are in … we came to the conclusion that the best value for our shareholders in the short term and the long term is going to be created by this joint venture."
Some analysts wondered whether either O2 or Vodafone might return with a sweetened offer. Vodafone, however, is understood to have ruled out making a new bid and its shares rose in the morning on relief that it was not going spend its cash bailing out T-Mobile.
To create the new joint venture, Deutsche Telekom will contribute T-Mobile UK on a cash-free, debt-free basis, including T-Mobile UK's 50% holding in its 3G network joint venture with Hutchison and gross tax losses carried forward of at least £1.5bn. France Telecom will contribute the whole of Orange UK, including £1.25bn of intra-group net debt. After the deal is done, Deutsche Telekom will grant a £625m shareholder loan to the joint venture, which will be used to simultaneously reimburse £625m to France Telecom. As a result, the joint venture will have indebtedness of £1.25bn, represented by two shareholder loans of £625m. The two shareholders will receive 90% of the cash created by the venture.
The combined business would have made revenues of €9.4bn (£7.7bn) last year and profits before financial charges of €2.1bn. The merger should create annual operating cost savings of more than £445m from 2014 as a result of network and IT cuts, store closures and job cuts.
"Of course, realising the synergies there are going to be some job losses," admitted Alexander, while Moat added: "We believe there are opportunities to optimise our current workforce."
The programme of store closures and job reductions, however, will cost £600m to £800m between next year and 2014. The company will also be able to reduce its capital expenditure, not least because the two firms will need fewer new mast sites. The two companies reckon they can save £620m between 2010 and 2014, and £100m a year from 2015 onwards. Some of the cost cuts could also come from reduced need for new wireless spectrum.
Digital vision
But the deal will present some problems for the government's vision of creating a Digital Britain. That plan, released in June by then communications minister Lord Carter, included giving mobile broadband an important part to play in getting broadband services to everyone in the country by 2012. To do that, however, required the mobile phone companies to share some of their existing spectrum ahead of the sale of the old analogue TV signal and some new spectrum that is perfect for super-fast broadband over the next two years. The five networks have been locked in talks for months and the government had demanded a deal by the end of the month. Those negotiations, however, were based on their being five networks, not four, and the combined Orange/T-Mobile would break the caps on the amount of spectrum any one network can hold that were being proposed.
The deal, however, may give Orange and T-Mobile an advantage as they try to wrest Apple's iconic iPhone away from its exclusive UK network O2. Both companies have been trying to persuade Apple to expand the number of operators that can stock the phone, when O2's deal reaches its second anniversary in November.
France Telecom's chief financial officer Gervais Pellissier said "we are both very good partners of Apple in our domestic markets and [the merger means] we have a very good chance to be a strong partner here in the UK".
Mandelson web cutoff plan ‘potentially illegal’
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on August 25th, 2009
• U-turn on disconnecting filesharers surprises many
• Claims minister swayed by film and music industry
Lord Mandelson's plans to cut off the broadband connections of internet users who illegally download copyrighted music and films were attacked by privacy campaigners, internet service providers and Labour MPs yesterday as unworkable, unnecessary and potentially illegal.
The surprise decision to reintroduce the disconnection idea, which was ruled out in the government's own Digital Britain report in June, also sparked accusations that the business secretary has been swayed by secret meetings with senior figures from the music and film industry.
Tom Watson, the former cabinet minister who until recently was in charge of the government's internet policy, said the plan "will lead to accusations that the government has been captured by the big lobby operations of powerful rightsholders."
TalkTalk, Britain's largest consumer broadband provider, warned that innocent web users could be disconnected after having their connections hijacked by pirates looking to circumvent the new rules. It added that the move "will likely breach fundamental human rights".
A spokesman said: "Barely two months after the publication of largely sensible and pragmatic measures to tackle the problem Lord Mandelson has, it seems, caved in under pressure from powerful lobbyists in the content industry."
Earlier this month it emerged that the business secretary dined with Hollywood mogul David Geffen at a Corfu holiday villa owned by the Rothschild banking dynasty. Mandelson's advisers deny that this meeting included talk about how to stem the industry's losses caused by illegal filesharing. But Whitehall insiders believe the U-turn is more likely to have been caused by a prior meeting with one of the most powerful figures in the British music business, Lucian Grainge, the chairman of Universal Music, home to Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
Grainge is a fierce opponent of illegal file-sharing and is one of the government's chief industry advisers and part of the so-called C&binet – a group of executives who advise ministerial departments on fostering the creative industries in the UK.
He was consulted during the compilation of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report as part of an ad hoc "gang of five'' that included BSkyB's Jeremy Darroch, Channel 4's Andy Duncan and the Premier League's Richard Scudamore. Before the report was published he told an audience at the British Library, which included representatives of Mandelson's department: "The creators and the investors [in music] cannot exist with illegal filesharing, period. It will decimate the industry."
But the report stopped short of disconnecting the pirates, instead recommending that illegal filesharers should receive letters warning them their activities could leave them open to prosecution.
Believing that the government should have gone further, Grainge is understood to have had further meetings with Mandelson to push for tougher measures.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the business secretary had met many representatives of the creative industries and the government's change of stance was not the result of any single conversation.
But the music and film industry has been lobbying hard for tougher measures and Stephen Timms, who replaced Lord Carter's replacement as communications minister said: "It's become clear there are widespread concerns that the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly on rights holders."
As a result, Timms proposed that persistent illegal sharers of copyrighted material should have their broadband connections temporarily disconnected and the power to introduce this measure, if warning letters failed to have an impact on levels of piracy, should rest with the government, not Ofcom. The government hopes to have its plans for dealing with online piracy included in the autumn's digital economy bill.
But privacy campaigners say the government's new proposals could fall foul of the law — as they did in France earlier this year. Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, warned: "This proposal fundamentally reverses the onus of proof. It establishes systemic accusation. It is fraught with technical impossibility, it invites circumvention and creates a major online conflict between rights holders and users. And these are fundamental rights that are being violated.""Cutting people off the internet for allegedly infringing copyright is disproportionate," added Larry Whitty, chairman of Consumer Focus. "And to do so without giving consumers the right to challenge the evidence against them undermines fundamental rights to a fair trial."
John Petter, head of BT's consumer business, meanwhile, expressed his disappointment at the government's change of direction. "We were broadly supportive of the original plans but these changes run the risk of penalising customers unfairly."
A spokesperson for Virgin Media, meanwhile, added "persuasion not coercion is the key to changing consumer behaviour as a heavy-handed, punitive regime will simply alienate mainstream consumers. The government should be ensuring a balance of action against repeat infringers and the rapid development of new legitimate services that provide a compelling alternative to illegal filesharing."
BT dismisses O2 call fee warning
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on August 10th, 2009
• Mobile phone company charged with scaremongering over Ofcom submission
• 'Sky won't fall' if termination rates are scrapped
BT has attacked as scaremongering a warning from O2, the UK's largest mobile phone company and formerly part of the telecommunications operator, that proposed cuts to the cost of calling a mobile phone could price users from low-income households out of the market.
In its submission to regulator Ofcom, which is examining the thorny issue of mobile termination rates – the charge levied by the networks on each other and fixed-line operators, such as BT, to connect calls – O2 warned that the mobile phone companies would have to raise prices and potentially introduce "use by" dates on top-up credit. This would be particularly painful for low-income households and younger consumers as many rely solely on pre-pay mobile phones and do not have a BT line.
In a letter to the Guardian, however, John Petter, managing director of BT's consumer division, said "we have been here before".
"In 2002 when Ofcom first proposed to impose controls on mobile termination rates O2 warned that this would 'severely damage or even put to an end the prepaid customer sector on which many vulnerable customers, particularly less well-off customers, relied... potentially resulting in the loss of many millions of existing and potential mobile subscribers'."
"In the end the sky did not fall in and mobile penetration and usage continued to rise. O2's predictions are no better a guide to the future now than they were in 2002."
"When mobile termination rates were first controlled BT made a voluntary undertaking that it would pass on the value of the reduction to its customers in lower prices and we demonstrated to Ofcom's satisfaction that we did do so. For the future we would like to offer our customers lower-priced calling plans in which the cost of calling mobile phones was capped or included in unmetered bundles, but the current level of mobile termination rates makes this impossible."
BT and the UK's newest mobile phone network 3 have joined forces to call for a scrapping of mobile termination rates through their "terminate the rate" campaign. More than 70,000 people have already signed their petition and 198 MPs have expressed their support for an early day motion calling for rates to be axed.
"They know that excessive mobile termination rates are unfair, distort competition and prevent us and other fixed phone companies from offering low-priced calls to mobile," Petter said in his letter. "It's no wonder that O2 and the other mobile operators want to hang on to the current regime and are resisting change. But the sky won't fall."
O2 warns Ofcom on mobile rates
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on August 10th, 2009
O2 has warned regulators that a reduction in the charges levied by networks to connect calls will harm consumers
Mobile phone users from low-income households could be priced out of the market if the regulator presses ahead with plans to drastically slash the cost of calls, the UK's largest mobile phone company, O2, has warned.
The mobile networks could respond to regulatory pressure by trying to recoup their losses through increasing prices elsewhere, the mobile operator said. Free handsets could also be axed and users of smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, could see charges rise, O2 has told Ofcom.
Earlier this year, the regulator proposed dramatic reductions to mobile termination rates – the charge levied by the networks on each other and fixed-line operators, such as BT, to connect calls – when the current price cap regime expires in 2011.
BT and the UK's smallest network 3 have lobbied for them to be scrapped altogether with their "terminate the rate" campaign. Their petition has already garnered over 70,000 signatures and almost 200 MPs have signed an early day motion to have the charges scrapped. They believe ending the charges would allow mobile users to start enjoying the unlimited call packages seen in other countries ,while the cost of calling a mobile from a fixed-line phone would also fall.
But in its submission to the regulator as part of the consultation process on its plans, O2 accuses the two companies of being "driven ... by self-interest" and warns "sudden and dramatic changes to termination rates introduce a risk that the retail markets would be affected in a way that could harm, and not benefit, consumers".
O2 reckons monthly contract charges, handset prices and the cost of calls could all go up. Pre-pay customers, who tend to receive more calls than they make, will be hard hit as mobile phone companies would have to slap "use by" dates on top-up credit. This would be particularly painful for low-income households and younger consumers as many rely solely on pre-pay mobile phones and do not have a BT line.
Cutting mobile termination rates could also have a serious effect on the UK's mobile virtual network operators – companies that offer phone services but lease airtime from the five networks – according to O2. Some of these MVNOs are aimed at migrant workers and the UK's large ethnic communities while others, such as Tesco Mobile which uses O2's network, are aimed at people who want a cheap pre-pay phone with few bells and whistles.
The last time that Ofcom proposed cutting mobile termination rates, the issue ended up with the Competition Appeal Tribunal and O2's submission suggests the lawyers could be called in again, saying some of its proposals are "inconsistent with European and domestic law".
O2 also questions whether a reduction in mobile termination rates would lower call charges from fixed-line phones. "In 2007, when mobile termination charges fell significantly, both BT's and Virgin Media's [cable] average retail prices actually rose. Mobile termination charges fell again, significantly, from April 2009, but this has had no effect on BT's and Virgin Media's standard retail charges; they remain stubbornly high. If there is a problem in fixed retail markets, it is not one that lower mobile termination rates would solve."
Ofcom criticises broadband providers for advertising misleading ‘up-to’ speeds
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on July 28th, 2009
Broadband customers are being sold super-fast connections that their providers are unable to achieve, according to research that shows internet users are struggling with speeds of less than half the rate they signed up to.
The media and telecoms watchdog, Ofcom, examined the most popular broadband product advertised as offering speeds of "up to" 8 megabits per second and used by 57% of homes. The report, published today, says, on average, users are getting speeds of just 3.9Mb. That means a DVD-quality film would take more than two hours to download – longer than it takes to watch it – compared to just over an hour at the faster speed.
Fewer than one in 10 households on an up to 8Mb service get over 6Mb and no one can ever receive the full speed because of the way the internet service providers (ISPs) run their networks, the report said. The average speed for all broadband connections in the UK, according to Ofcom, is just 4.1Mb. That doubles the time it takes to download a music track – 10 seconds as opposed to 5 seconds at the fast rate.
The lower speeds have led to a flurry of complaints from consumers. More than one in five of those surveyed by Ofcom expressed dissatisfaction with the speed they are getting while 26% said they did not get the speed they expected to receive when they signed up.
The research comes after Gordon Brown recently said broadband internet access was as important to British homes as gas and electricity. It also shows a wide disparity in the service from individual service providers: Tiscali and AOL, both owned by Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk, scored lowest on speed while Virgin Media's comparable up to 10Mb service was the fastest, not least because it uses different technology and its network only reaches half the country.
The survey, compiled by technology experts SamKnows and market research firm GfK, tracked the internet connections of more than 1,600 users over six months in a process that involved 60m readings. It also proves what many consumers have been complaining about for some time: during peak times internet connections are being slowed down. Between 8pm and 10pm when many people are using video services such as the BBC's iPlayer, the average speed of a top-of-the-range service slows by more than half.
Consumer groups have called for widespread changes to the advertising of broadband connections. "There are some real questions to ask around the transparency of advertising in this industry," said Matt Bath, technology editor at Which?.
The Communications Consumer Panel, which advises Ofcom on consumer issues, has been pushing for advertising using claims of up-to speeds to be scrapped in favour of average speed, but has been frustrated by the lack of reliable data. Its chair, Anna Bradley, believes the new Ofcom research could provide a fresh benchmark that will give consumers a much better idea of what they can expect before they sign on the dotted line.
"The Ofcom work is incredibly helpful because it exposes just how little the up- to speeds mean and exposes how variable the service level is from one provider to another," she said. "The fact that they are still advertised with 'up-to' speeds is deeply problematic."
But Ofcom's Peter Phillips, said ISPs "are not lying to consumers. If you are very close to the exchange you can get those speeds."
Late last year the industry agreed a voluntary code of practice with Ofcom which has been signed by 50 of the UK's biggest ISPs, accounting for 95% of all internet connections.
It requires them to tell customers the maximum speed they can expect from their line, as speed is affected by distance from the local telephone exchange, and allow them to trade down if they cannot get the service they want. Ofcom is currently undertaking a so-called "mystery shopper" exercise to ensure the code is working, but if consumers are being mis-sold, Ofcom could introduce a mandatory code of practice which the whole industry would be required to abide by and would include penalties.
BT has already attacked the report as "unreliable" because it used too few people, and as out of date because the company is migrating to new broadband technology. TalkTalk, meanwhile, has pointed out that it is moving Tiscali customers on to its own network, which should improve their service. A Virgin Media spokesman said: "It's what customers get, not what their ISP claims, that counts."
BT: mobile users should share the pain of broadband tax
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on July 10th, 2009
BT has called for the government's proposed £6-a-year broadband tax to be extended to mobile phone users in a move that could reduce the size of the tax.
In his Digital Britain report last month, the communications minister, Lord Carter, proposed a 50p-a-month levy on every fixed-line phone to meet the bill for getting the next generation of super-fast broadband networks to 90% of UK households by 2017.
But it is not only fixed-line companies that would be able to bid for some of the estimated £1.5bn that would be raised by the tax. Mobile phone operators would also be able to use the money. As a result, BT's director of industry policy and regulation, Emma Gilthorpe, said yesterday that if mobile, wireless-based operators did go through that bid process then "the government should consider the opportunity to widen the base for the tax and possibly reduce the amount that each individual household pays".
BT reckons it is incongruous that the levy only applies to fixed-line phones even though mobile phone companies and other businesses that want to use wireless solutions can bid for the cash for next-generation networks.
Carter proposed the new broadband tax because there is little chance of the market being able to make an economic case for pushing fibre-optic networks and other super-fast broadband services beyond about 60% of the population. With the Treasury unwilling to make any money available from general taxation, the telephone levy aims to plug the funding gap.
BT has already announced plans to invest £1.5bn over the next three years on a super-fast network but it will only reach four of every 10 homes. Virgin Media, meanwhile, is already offering broadband at 50Mb a second – the sort of speed expected from next-generation networks – but it covers only about half of the country.
Gilthorpe's comments, at a Westminster Media Forum debate on Digital Britain, came as BT announced that it is speeding up the rollout of its next-generation network.
Having originally planned to have about half a million homes connected by next March, it yesterday said it would have 1.5m homes connected by next summer. By the end of this summer Virgin Media will have completed its next-generation network plan, putting its 50Mb a second service within reach of 12.5m homes.
But there are fears within the industry that Carter's broadband tax could fail as it would require a new finance bill, which is unlikely to appear before next March. By then the government will be focused on a forthcoming general election and a new tax on consumers is unlikely to be a vote-winner.
Nokia turns to Android in phone wars
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on July 5th, 2009
Finnish mobile phone giant changes strategy to increase share in the only growing market
Nokia is understood to be developing a mobile phone that runs on Google's Android software platform in a strategic U-turn for the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer.
The new touchscreen device will be unveiled at the Nokia World conference in September, say industry insiders, as the Finnish handset giant tries to revive its fortunes in the smartphone market.
Nokia, which makes roughly four out of every 10 mobile phones sold, has been losing out in the market for phones that can access the internet, send emails and download third-party applications, to products such as the Apple iPhone and BlackBerry Storm. The Android software platform, meanwhile, has been gaining ground with over half a dozen handsets expected to be available by the end of the year.
Analysts at HSBC reckon Nokia had 47% of the global smartphone market in 2007; that was down to 35% last summer and 31% at the end of the year.
The smartphone segment is critical as it is the only part of the mobile phone market which is growing. Cash-strapped consumers are either holding on to their existing phones and opting for cheaper SIM-only deals or "trading up" to more advanced gadgets such as the iPhone.
Opting to use Android, an "open source" platform that any software developer can access, is a reversal of the company's previous strategy in mobile phone software.
A year ago, Nokia bought out the partners in its Symbian mobile software joint venture and announced plans to make its products free of charge to other manufacturers in an attempt to see off the threat posed by Android and the iPhone.
But the response to the opening of Symbian has been relatively muted. By contrast, users of the iPhone have already downloaded over a billion applications in just nine months and Android has attracted a host of developers offering their "widgets", or applications, to consumers through the Android Marketplace.
Gadget fans have already hacked one of Nokia's existing devices, the N810 internet tablet, so it can run the Android system but the new device is expected to fully integrate the Android platform.
There has also been speculation that Nokia is looking to extend its smartphone range as a result of its recent deal to collaborate with chip giant Intel. Nokia was unavailable for comment, however.
