Vodafone

Last summer Vodafone unveiled their Access Gateway femtocell, a small router-esque device which connected to your home broadband connection and acted as a micro mobile mast in your own home.

Vodafone has just relaunched the Access Gateway with the slightly snappier and decidedly less euphemistic Sure Signal. It the exact same beast in the same BT Home Hub looking white box, but it now benefits from a reduced price of £50 for customers on a Vodafone pay monthly plan or £120 for everyone else - this can be broken down into monthly payments of £5 over a 24 month period.

The Vodafone Access Gateway Sure Signal plugs directly into your broadband line and routes all voice calls, texts and data requests across your connection.

We think that this is really useful if you live in an area which has reliable broadband connections but bad signal.

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Vodafone is offering the incredibly popular Samsung NC 10 netbook with built-in mobile broadband connectivity for customers who sign up for 24 month contracts. The Samsung NC-10 is free on both a 24 month contract for £25 a month with 1GB of data and a 24 month contract for £30 a month with 3GB of data, and comes with a Vodafone SIM and Mobile Broadband built-in, meaning no USB dongle, so no extra cost.

Integrating the SIM card within the body of the laptop itself also places a significantly smaller drain on the battery, and is also frees up one of the three USB slots for greater convenience. The Samsung NC 10 comes with an Ethernet port allowing you to connect to the net at home using your fixed-line broadband subscription, rather than eating into your mobile broadband usage.

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Ever had problems with mobile phone signal at home? Well now thanks to Vodafone and a little thing they call the Vodafone Access Gateway (pictured), you can set up a miniature mobile phone network in your own home using your broadband connection.

Much in the same was as you’d set up a wireless network in the home for multiple computers and laptops to connect to, Vodafone Access Gateway plugs directly into your broadband line and wirelessly routes all voice calls, texts and data requests across your connection.

Seeing as voice calls and texts aren’t hugely data intensive compared to say streaming music and video online, this shouldn’t have a huge impact on your monthly usage. This is great news for those who live in areas where mobile coverage is patchy at the best of times, and can’t always get through to friends and family on their mobiles.

The Vodafone Access Gateway will be available to order in store and online from the 1st of July. The Gateway will be available on Vodafone price plans from as little as £15 a month, or for a one off fee of £160. No news as of yet if the Gateway will be available at a discounted price when bought with Vodafone mobile broadband; we’d assume that some sort of deal along those lines would be available in the future.

3 has just launched a new 30 day rolling SIM-only mobile broadband deal which costs £15 a month provides 5GB data, and access to the net at top speeds of 3.6Mbps.

This is perfect for those who don’t want to commit to a long-term contract, but will want to be able to connect at odd months throughout the year, and get better value for money that Pay As You Go. As with SIM-only plans seen on mobile phones, customer only need to give 30 days notice to cancel the contract, so there’s no long term obligation.

This SIM-only mobile broadband package can also be bought with a USB modem, for those who don’t have a spare dongle lying around. The Huawei MF627, E156g and E1550 are all available for £19.99 each.

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After about a year of negotiations and will-they-wont-they speculation, Carphone Warehouse has finally snapped up Tiscali’s UK operations for a cool £263 million. This purchase means that Carphone has leapfrogged Virgin Media to become the second largest ISP in the UK, with some 4.25 million broadband subscribers.

More importantly, the buyout means that Tiscali customers, concerned that they may lose their connection can rest easy. It was thought that Tiscali had racked up debts of €500 million across the Continent, and rumours of the group going into administration had subscribers understandably worried.

Tiscali UK CEO Mary Turner said: “It’s good news for our customers who will increasingly benefit from a group that has consistently championed best value and award-winning customer service.”

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone also said: “It has been the longest deal I have ever worked on. I think it has been hard for the shareholders of Tiscali because during the process we had the collapse of the banking world and then the decline in the pound to the euro so we think this price is low.”

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Vodafone and O2 have agreed on a deal which will see the two mobile operators merging their mobile networks, in order to improve mobile phone reception across the country, and, more importantly, improve the availability and quality of mobile broadband services.

Matthew Key, chief executive of O2 owners Telefonica Europe said: “This goes some way to ‘future proofing’ the network,” adding that “the current economic situation was a catalyst.”

The merging of the networks will see the operators saving hundreds of millions of pounds over the next few years, and could, in theory, lead to the eventual rollout of mobile broadband services comparable to fixed-line connections in terms of speed and reliability, in accordance with Lord Carter’s Digital Britain proposals.

This follows in the footsteps of a deal done in December 2007 between 3 and T-Mobile. The two operators share HSDPA networks and are starting to decommission masts, with T-Mobile already noticing savings, costs, freeing up money that can be invested.

In Spain, a joint venture between Vodafone and Orange saw the two providers able to bring much faster services to rural areas, by reducing the number of base stations needed, thereby reducing the cost of running and maintenance.

Virgin Media came out on top in a recent survey on mobile broadband products by independent consumer group Which? who tested each of the provider’s products to see if the much advertised plug and play aspect of mobile broadband set up really was as easy as that.

Providers were tested on usability, customer service, ease of set up, speed and connection, and how easy it was to cancel.

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Combined mobile and fixed-line broadband packages are becoming increasingly popular with consumers who want broadband access both at home and on the move.

Orange has now thrown down the gauntlet with the new combination Orange Home and Mobile Broadband package. Going for £20 a month, the bundle provides customers with up to 8Mbps ASDL broadband, a free wireless router and free evening and weekend calls via a landline, along with mobile broadband at up to 3.6Mbps with a 3GB monthly bandwidth allowance and a free USB dongle.

Unfortunately the offer isn’t open to everyone. You have to be living in one of Orange’s Local Loop Unbundled (LLU) areas to benefit from the deal, which is available on an 18 month contract. The deal is likely to persuade Orange’s rivals to reduce their prices. Currently Vodafone and O2, for example, charge £15 a month for mobile broadband alone.

Asif Aziz, Director of Broadband and Home for Orange said “We believe these new offers not only complement our existing fixed and mobile broadband service range, but also provide flexible alternatives to meet the needs of today’s 21st century customer - who quite rightly demands a premium service at the same time as best value for money.”

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The Grande Fromage of TalkTalk and AOL owners Carphone Warehouse, Charles Dunstone has launched a “formal review of the group’s corporate structure” which could lead to the breakup of its telecoms division, which could potentially see TalkTalk becoming a fully independent ISP.

However, it is more than likely that usual suspects Sky, Vodafone, Orange, BT and the gang will be offered the chance to bid for the customer bases of both TalkTalk and AOL beforehand – TalkTalk is believed to account for some £1bn of Carphone Warehouse’s current £1.3bn valuation.

The BestBuy deal is said to be taking its toll on the group, and Dunstone is reportedly considering splitting the group in half, allowing for easier management of the retail arm of Carphone Warehouse.

“We recognise, however, that the structure of the Group may now no longer be appropriate for the optimal development of the two businesses,” said Dunstone. “The Board has therefore initiated a formal review of the Group’s corporate structure and capital requirements, which may lead to a separation of the two businesses. In this instance I would remain closely involved with both companies.”

This is a bit of an about turn for the company which, earlier this year, was thought to be the favourite to buy up the UK arm of Tiscali’s home broadband customers, a move which would have seen Carphone become the biggest ISP in the country. Now Sky are thought to be in negotiations to buy up Tiscali’s UK operations instead.

While news of its first ever mobile broadband offering leaked out early, Virgin Media have managed to keep schtum about the best bit… the price.

Today the company is to launch the UK’s “cheapest ever” bundled mobile broadband package. Both new and existing customers will be able to subscribe to the new service from as little as £5 a month, when taken with Virgin Media’s XL (20MB) or L (10MB) cable packages, or Virgin Media’s ADSL Bundle 1 (8MB with ‘Talk Anytime’).

For customers on the cheaper M cable broadband package or Virgin Media’s ADSL Bundle 2 the monthly cost rises to £10. There is a one-off charge of £25 for the USB modem itself, but this is hardly excessive considering the contract has a minimum term of one year, rather than the anticipated 18 months.

The mobile broadband package comes with 1GB of monthly data allowance – enough for 10,000 plain text emails, plus 30 hours of web surfing, 60 music tracks and 30 2-minute videos. Virgin Media charges a very reasonable 1.46 pence per MB for usage beyond the 1GB allowance – less than its competitors.

Graeme Oxby, Managing Director for Mobile at Virgin Media, said: “Our 1GB mobile broadband is great for people who need home broadband but also want access to the internet on the move. The bundle is exceptional value and offers complete peace of mind, not only because it comes from genuine broadband experts but also because it offers the safety net of considerably cheaper rates if customers go over the monthly data allowance.”