Click below to
find interesting
information from our
December 2010
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
Roaming
- you
will be
spending
more
Despite the
economic
downturn and
increased
regulation of
roaming, the
global roaming
market is tipped
to expand by
86pc and could
be worth $70bn
by 2015,
according to
Informa Telecoms
& Media. This is
being driven by
the massive 246%
growth in
smartphones.
Roaming will be
6.3% of total
mobile network
revenues by
2015.
Although
revenues are
expected to slow
down globally
until 2012 as a
result of the
economic
downturn and
customer cost
saving
initiatives, a
marked upturn is
expected from
this point
onwards as
markets recover
and as mobile
data roaming
becomes
increasingly
prevalent.
“Data
roaming, new
pricing models
and
technologies, as
well as
regulation, are
just some of the
forces that will
transform the
roaming market
over the next
five years,”
commented Paul
Merry, Senior
Analyst at
Informa Telecoms
& Media.
vRoam offers
Australian
travellers a
cheaper
post-paid
alternative.
Travel
Beware
hotel
reviews
Many
travellers
use
review
websites
such as
TripAdvisor
to
select
hotels
when
planning
a trip,
especially
to an
unfamiliar
destination.
With
over 35
million
reviews,
travellers
can find
it a
source
of
useful
advice.
It
appears that
many on-line
reviews,
however, are
invented,
exaggerated, or
placed by either
the hotels
themselves
(positive
reviews) or
competitors
(negative
reviews).
TripAdvisor is
currently facing
litigation by up
to 400 hotels in
relation to
claimed
defamation from
fake reviews.
Whilst review
sites may be
great if you
have no other
source of
advice, be
careful of
making decisions
based on
"outlier"
reviews that
don't match
other comments,
reviewers who
have only
reviewed one or
two hotels, and
old-dated
reviews (as the
hotel may well
have changed
since).
Mobile phones
NFC - what's
that?
You remember how
mobile phones
didn't have
cameras a few
years back? Deep
in the design
labs of the
handset
manufacturers
9and the mobile
networks),
designers try to
figure out what
features people
will want
included with
their handsets.
A
technology that
has been in the
works for some
time and may be
the next feature
to swamp new
phone models is
NFC - Near Field
Communications.
To non-techies,
that's
short-range
(around 10cm)
secure synching,
used for
information
(swipe an
NFC-equipped
poster and see
information on
your screen) or,
more
importantly,
mobile payments
such as tickets
or small
purchases. Or
even to use as
electronic keys.
The ultimate
goal is to
replace your
wallet.
Of course, to be
ubiquitous, NFC
will need lots
of equipped
handsets, lots
of payment or
ticketing
terminals, and
extensive
cooperation
between
manufacturers,
networks and
financial
institutions.
Quite a few
handsets are
already
available, the
latest rumours
being Android
2.3 and iPhone 5
will support
NFC.
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