Top up with £10 and enjoy 1000 minutes of free calls on Vodafone

There is good news for those who really like to talk and talk, unlimited. Vodafonenow gives its customers Text, International calls and Web Freebees. These types of schemes will ultimately make customers feel the use of cheap mobile phonesalthough all mobile phones are not cheap.

The new scheme introduced states that all Vodafone customers can enjoy 1000 minutes of free calls when they top up with a minimum of £10 including the credit.

Vodafone UK has also introduced a fresh PAYG price plan that gives free calls when you speak to anyone who is on the Vodafone network. Different Top Up freebies announced by Vodafone are “Top Up and Get International”, “Top Up and Get Text and Web” and “Top Up and Get Talk” 

Virgin Media sells BlackBerry smartphones on Pay As You Go basis

It is reported that Virgin Media has recently announced about the launch of a new range of options for its customers so that they find it easy to surf the web, tweet and mail while on the move with its new introduction of Pay As You Go (PAYG) service. The shipments of BlackBerrysmartphones is considered to be a third of the Virgin Media’s contract. This indirectly depicts BlackBerry’s popularity in the United Kingdom. The PAYG service introduced by Virgin Media gives its customers unlimited BlackBerry services without the requirement of the monthly contract. Compare for best mobile phone deals in the market.

Customers can select their favourite range of BlackBerry models such as BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300, BlackBerry Curve 8520, BlackBerry Pearl 3G, BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Torch 9800. You will need to just top up and be connected always. Customers can activate a complete range of BlackBerry data services from £2 weekly or £5 monthly pass. The services include BlackBerry Messenger and Internet browsing, email accounts (supported up to ten) and access to BlackBerry app world. Customers can activate the BlackBerry smartphone on PAYG service just by sending ‘MONTH’ or ‘WEEK’ to 789030. A special app has been created by Virgin Media for its customers inorder to buy passes and also to manage their usage. This utility will be available for download very soon.

According to the executive director of Mobile and Home Page at Virgin Media, Graeme Oxby, the favourite smartphone in Virgin Media family is BlackBerry. Another reason for its popularity is about the connectivity speed it has whether at home or on the go. It was also reported that one in three of the contract customers selected BlackBerry smartphone last year. As the popularity of BlackBerry smartphone is growing Virgin Media has to continue providing new and better BlackBerry services.

Some of the smartphones that are currently available on BlackBerry PAYG are BlackBerry Curve 8520, BlackBerry Curve 3G, BlackBerry Pearl 3G, BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Torch 9800.

Customers with home phone service can take advantage of free calls to Virgin Media mobiles which includes free calls period. Also, the existing Virgin Media customers can be benefited with the ‘Simply 8p’ PAYG tariff, which includes reduced rates for texts and calls to the standard Addict PAYG tariff and 50 free minutes monthly for the calls that are made to other Virgin Mobiles

Vodafone UK gets smart metering award

UK has recently won the first smart metering award during the inaugural European Smart Metering Awards, which was a part of the industry’s annual UK and Europe Summit. This function was held in London last week.

the deployment of mobile data services in large scale.

Vodafone was selected for the award as it was a strong communications partner in the area of smart metering industry. Various factors that were taken in to account for the award selection were innovative technology, Vodafone’s network, secure data transfer and collection, capability and skills of its people. Various mobile phone networks are being introduced in to the industry and this has ultimately given an opportunity for the wide selection.

According to the Enterprise Director of Vodafone UK, Peter Kelly, the awards that are given out show the importance of smart metering in the United Kingdom. He also added that they are happy that the smart meter deployment in the UK has been enabled as a result of the award winning network and for the role they do.

Peter Kelly further added that the mobile data network connectivity was initially started up by Vodafone for smart metering purpose. This will help the customers to manage the energy in a better way and get a bill exactly for the energy they have used.

The Smart Metering Awards and the Smart Metering UK and Europe Summit study and understand the objectives and trends and also the latest developments that face UK based gas, electricity and water utilities. The awards also act as recognition for the innovators who play a determining role in improving the industry standards.

Brits prefer online mobile phone purchase

ased on a study conducted by uSwitch, about 78% of the people prefer to buy mobile phones online as compared to just 70% of the people buying a handset on the high street.

Customers are happy with the range of mobile phones that are displayed on offer on the web. About 64% of the people are satisfied with the purchase of mobile phones online when compared to 62% of the people who buy it from the shop.

The research conducted by uSwitch also revealed that if the customers look around for the mobile phone deals, they would be able to save £81 on an average per year.

According to the communications expert, Ernest Doku, the consumers require time and freedom to select a proper deal of a limited budget so that it would give him the most out of a reasonable price.

He also added that Ofcom will soon enforce European Union regulations, which state that the mobile phone contracts must be for 12 months to allow the customers access the latest deals and models

Verizon iPhone 4: What does it really mean?

The hype is all over the place, the Verizon iPhone 4 is really happening.  (Yawn!)

What does this mean:
* After all the years of speculation and waiting, Verizon finally gets the iPhone 4 which is 6 months old (this is a long time in Mobile years)
* iPhone 4, despite the "4" in reference is only 3G, Verizon is launching a 3G device amidst the 4G storm right after CES 2011
* Verizon's 3G apparently does not allow you to take voice call and surf the web at the same time
* Verizon's CDMA network limits their version of iPhone 4 to be used within the USA only, although ATT's iPhone 4 uses the micro-SIM standard, you still have some options to run another SIM card if you really wanted to (albeit ATT's iPhone is locked to itself making this point a wash, but there are other countries selling GSM iPhone 4s unlocked)
* The only improvements I see are better Antenna design (avoid the antennagate mess) and ability to run as a mobile hotspot up to 5 devices

In short, the announcement is much needed for both Verizon and APPLE to maintain/grow market share but disappointing as far as it being practically the same thing we've seen with lesser features.

CES 2011 Takeaway: Crap Load of Smartphones Upon Us

CES 2011 is the talk of town right now. If you have been following the usual tech blogs (Engadget and Gizmodo), you'll notice no shortage of Android-powered phones and tablets on the horizon.  If you think choosing a smartphone in 2010 was getting tough, I pity the fool that is looking to pick one this year. In short, 4G is everywhere, CPUs are on steroids and Android 3.0 is hot. Some interesting ones include:

Smartphones to look out for:
Motorola Atrix (ATT 4G, Dual Core CPU with Laptop Docking!!!)
Motorola Droid Bionic (Verizon, LTE 4G)
Samsung Infuse 4G (ATT 4G phone, Android, 1.2GHz)
LG Optimus Black (2MP Front-Cam, Thinnest for now...)
Sony Xperia Arc (Sony's comeback to Mobile Phone?)

Tablets to look out for:
Motorola Xoom
BlackBerry Playbook (RIM's attempt to win back marketshare)
Asus Eee Pad Slate (i5 CPU, Windows 7)
T-Mobile (LG) G-Slate (Android 3.0, 4G)

Noteworthy:  Pioneer's in-car infotainment decks of the future:  Pandora connected via iPhone