3g-g
8th June 2007, 01:13 AM
Vodafone have put a wee-gadgety-squeezy thing between your handset and the internet proper, apparently so you can view any web page optimised for your mobile. However, I've also read that not every website works and the Vodafone squeezy thing doesn't like them all!
I'd be interested to find how anyone is finding this, are they seeing any benefit now they can see web pages they possibly couldn't before?
I also like at the end of the article below it mentions users can download as much data as they like - up to 120MB. Is that not a complete contradiction?!
Vodafone has unveiled its new, much-heralded mobile web service in the UK alongside a flat-rate charging structure.
Vodafone has unveiled its new, much-heralded mobile web service in the UK alongside a flat-rate charging structure
Vodafone has struck deals with YouTube and Yahoo!
The move is a bid to encourage much greater use of the web on mobiles.
At present the vast majority of the company's data revenues, which contribute a quarter of total turnover, are derived from simple texting. But it is desperate to squeeze out new growth in mature markets such as Europe.
At the heart of the Vodafone Live! offering is a piece of software that sits on the network. It reconfigures web pages from any site in the world, making them easier to view and navigate on whichever mobile is being used.
Vodafone said 10m of its UK consumers already own a 3G or GPRS-enabled handset, enabling them to access the new service immediately. Many rivals have based their web offerings around specific, hi-tech handsets.
All operators have been fearful that big web brands could bypass their mobile portals altogether as consumers use search engines to seek their favourite content. However, Al Russell, head of mobile internet and content services for Vodafone UK, said the goal was to become ''the indispensible gateway between consumers and the mobile internet''.
Vodafone has struck revenue-sharing deals with an array of leading web companies such as eBay, YouTube, MySpace, and Yahoo! Mail.
All of these sites will be viewable via the Google-powered search tool on Vodafone's portal, but if the sites are accessed directly on the Vodafone Live! portal instead, users are offered much richer features.
The company hopes to build an audience for these services and sell advertising space. Vodafone said that half of the additional data revenues the company added last year were from non-text services such as browsing.
However, it remains to be seen what appetite users will have, for instance, for Vodafone's version of YouTube, which currently offers only a fraction of the videos available on the fixed line version of the video sharing site.
Vodafone will charge contract customers £7.50 a month for as much data as they can use - up to 120 megabytes. In a significant move, it will no longer charge customers extra for surfing the web outside the Vodafone Live! portal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/06/07/cnvodafone107.xml
I'd be interested to find how anyone is finding this, are they seeing any benefit now they can see web pages they possibly couldn't before?
I also like at the end of the article below it mentions users can download as much data as they like - up to 120MB. Is that not a complete contradiction?!
Vodafone has unveiled its new, much-heralded mobile web service in the UK alongside a flat-rate charging structure.
Vodafone has unveiled its new, much-heralded mobile web service in the UK alongside a flat-rate charging structure
Vodafone has struck deals with YouTube and Yahoo!
The move is a bid to encourage much greater use of the web on mobiles.
At present the vast majority of the company's data revenues, which contribute a quarter of total turnover, are derived from simple texting. But it is desperate to squeeze out new growth in mature markets such as Europe.
At the heart of the Vodafone Live! offering is a piece of software that sits on the network. It reconfigures web pages from any site in the world, making them easier to view and navigate on whichever mobile is being used.
Vodafone said 10m of its UK consumers already own a 3G or GPRS-enabled handset, enabling them to access the new service immediately. Many rivals have based their web offerings around specific, hi-tech handsets.
All operators have been fearful that big web brands could bypass their mobile portals altogether as consumers use search engines to seek their favourite content. However, Al Russell, head of mobile internet and content services for Vodafone UK, said the goal was to become ''the indispensible gateway between consumers and the mobile internet''.
Vodafone has struck revenue-sharing deals with an array of leading web companies such as eBay, YouTube, MySpace, and Yahoo! Mail.
All of these sites will be viewable via the Google-powered search tool on Vodafone's portal, but if the sites are accessed directly on the Vodafone Live! portal instead, users are offered much richer features.
The company hopes to build an audience for these services and sell advertising space. Vodafone said that half of the additional data revenues the company added last year were from non-text services such as browsing.
However, it remains to be seen what appetite users will have, for instance, for Vodafone's version of YouTube, which currently offers only a fraction of the videos available on the fixed line version of the video sharing site.
Vodafone will charge contract customers £7.50 a month for as much data as they can use - up to 120 megabytes. In a significant move, it will no longer charge customers extra for surfing the web outside the Vodafone Live! portal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/06/07/cnvodafone107.xml