Click below to
find interesting
information from our
October 2010a
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
No-one
is safe
from
high
roaming
costs
No-one is
immune from the
high cost of
Global Roaming.
At a recent
conference,
South African
mobile network
Cell C's CEO
Lars P. Reichelt
revealed no-one
can escape the
reality of high
roaming charges.
Reichelt
said that a
recent two week
trip to Europe
became very
costly after he
racked a roaming
bill for R140
000
(approximately
A$20,500) by
doing little
more than email
while
travelling.
“You don’t
want to roam
with a very high
speed network. I
did it two
months ago…I
just did email,
and I had a bill
of R140 000,”
said Reichelt.
“Roaming is a
bitch.”
vRoam agrees
that the cost of
roaming is way
too high, and
offers
Australian
travellers the
only
post-paid
alternative.
Travel
Free
hotel
WiFi
A free
wireless
internet service
is the most
important
amenity a hotel
can offer.
According to an
AJD Power and
Associates
survey of 53,000
travellers, free
WiFi ranked
ahead of
complimentary
breakfasts and
free car parking
as a hotel
"must-have", no
matter what
class of hotel.
Travellers
are expecting
free internet
access to be
included with a
hotel's room
rate, as a basic
amenity like
water or
electricity. The
ability to use
mobile devices
without
interruption is
seen as a
comfort of home
that should
extend to the
hotel
experience.
Curiously, it
seems the more
expensive a
hotel, the less
likely they are
to offer free
WiFi. Many
budget and
mid-range hotels
(around 96%)
offer included
WiFi, whereas
most up-market
hotels charge
for the access.
The L.A.
Times reported
that charges for
internet access
was the most
common complaint
at luxury chain
Ritz-Carlton.
With many cheap
hotels including
access in the
bundle, expect
most hotels to
yield on the
issue and
include free
WiFi for their
guests over the
next couple of
years.
Mobile phones
iPhone 4 reveals
PIN security
breach
Several months
ago we
discovered a
serious security
breach in
Apple/s iPad and
iPhone 4
operating
system. We
decided not to
publicise the
breach, but with
the news
breaking
worldwide we are
now publicising
it as it has
implications for
EVERY mobile
phone user (not
just iPhone/iPad
owners).
Briefly, the
iPad/iPhone 4
operating system
(not applicable
to earlier
iPhones, and
Apple has said
it will rush out
a fix for
affected
handsets)
bypasses the SIM
PIN feature.
This means that
calls/data can
still be
made/consumed
without a PIN
being entered
(the iPhone/iPad
is also
relatively
unique in that
the SIM can be
removed/returned
without turning
the power off or
removing the
battery).
This means that
anyone losing
their handset or
SIM can find
calls/data being
made (at
possibly great
expense,
particularly if
you happen to
lose it
overseas) even
if the handset
was turned off -
a thief could
simply put your
lost SIM into an
iPhone and use
it without
entering a PIN.
To be fair to
Apple, although
they are perhaps
the first to
accidentally
produce a
handset that
bypasses the SIM
PIN, the
underlying
security hole
seems to be in
the GSM SIM
specifications.
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