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January 16, 2012

Various email messages that suddenly arrived in the in-boxes of an unspecified number of Virgin Media customers on Jan. 13 and that promised much faster internet broadband services for less were embarrassingly and quickly removed by Virgin just a few hours later. Needless to day, the messages were a major snafu for Virgin's public relations department.

Virgin Media had initially sent a message boasting about Virgin Media Tickles, which apparently the company gives to "people we know and like: our customers". The overly generous memo pledged to boost connection speeds from 100 Mbps to 120 Mbps even though it was sent to customers on packages below 100 Mbit/s.

The email messages started by saying: "You're already getting the U.K.'s fastest widely available broadband, and starting this summer we'll be starting the roll-out to boost your speeds from up to 100 Mb to up to 120 Mb. We'll also be lowering the price of your broadband package in April to match the price of our 50 Mb Broadband XXL packages."

Virgin then said it would be doubling many of its customers' broadband speeds with the promised upgrade this summer. It said customers wouldn't have to lift a finger to take advantage of the upgrade of up to 120 Mbit/s that would apparently come with a discount.

Virgin Media then signed off by proclaiming: "We'll be in touch in a few weeks with more details about your price reduction, so there's no need to call us, or do any thing, except keep enjoying what is already the U.K.'s fastest broadband internet service."

However, just a few hours later it was a very different story: "Hello there. Oops! That last email, 100 Mbit/s Broadband Announcement, was sent in error! Please ignore this, we apologize for sending it in error, and rest assured that current Virgin Media Cable Broadband customers will be receiving some good news about their broadband in the next two weeks."

VM also posted an explanation about what had gone wrong on its customer support forum, blaming "gremlins in our email system" for the hiccup."

When contacted for additional comments, Virgin Media told us: "The email was correct, just that it was accidentally sent to more than just 100 Mbit/s customers when only they should have received it."

Subsequently, Virgin Media representatives have been back in touch to clarify matters, saying: "Following our announcement last week that we are doubling the broadband speeds our cable customers receive, we’ve started to write to let them know how it will work and what to expect. Our first email, intended for our 100 Mb customers, was accidentally sent to some customers on other tiers which may have led to some confusion."

It added: "We’re sorry for any misunderstanding and will be writing to customers again soon to clarify how the upgrade will affect them. In the meantime, as part of our double speed program, we are delighted to confirm that 50 Mb customers will actually be upgraded to 120 Mb, meaning even more Virgin Media customers will be able to take advantage of the fastest broadband speeds in the United Kingdom."

Some 50 Mb/s customers will see an initial rise to 100 Mb/s before moving up to the full implementation of the 120Mb/s service, VM spokespersons added.

In other mobile news

Even with today's challenging economic climate across the globe, and a threat of further recession in the business segment, new numbers recently published by Juniper Research reveal that mobile banking users will reach 530 million globally by 2013, up from about 301 million last year.

Juniper adds that mobile services are becoming a fundamental component of banks' business strategies as they respond to the current financial crisis, and most banks are now fully aware of the importance of its customers to access their accounts from their smartphones, BlackBerries and tablets.

The report also found that as banks migrate from traditional bricks-and-mortar approaches and seek competitive differentiation, mobile banking apps offer an opportunity for all financial institutions to improve operational efficiencies and customer retention rates as a cost-effective communication channel.

Juniper underscores that as consumer smartphone adoption becomes more prevalent, mobile banking will gain traction, particularly in Western markets, with consumers seeking tighter control on finances given uncertain economic conditions.

Juniper also observes that banks are anticipating consumer demand by developing native smartphone and tablet applications for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. But the report also cautions that the most successful deployments today are already adopting a triple-play solution utilizing not only mBanking apps, but SMS and browser-based delivery channels as well.

According to report author Sonia Lalli-- "Overall, mobile banking services will be one of the greatest success stories of the mobile commerce industry over the next five years, as consumers and business users observe the benefits of accessing banking services on the move."

Lalli's report added that "As customers become comfortable with undertaking basic banking functions on their mobiles, an increasing number will adopt transactional-based banking services enabled by the enhanced functionality afforded by smart devices, exposed to an all-immersive consumer experience."

Other key findings from the Juniper report include:

MNOs and banks have a mutually beneficial opportunity to collaborate to improve customer acquisition and retention, while at the same time reducing operational costs.

Transactional mBanking usage will reflect similarly aggressive growth rates to SMS with over 550 million subscribers globally by the end of 2016.

Overall, the developed markets of North America, Western Europe, the Middle East and China will have the highest penetration of users in 2016.

The Mobile Banking whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full study.

In other mobile news

Intellectual property and patent licensing firm Sisvel has acquired 450 patents from Nokia, 350 of which are essential for mobile and wireless communications.

Sisvel emphasizes the term 'essential' since it is impossible to build mobile phones conforming to 2G, 3G and/or 4G/LTE telephony standards without infringing the patents.

But as such, they are also subject to Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing-– hardly the sort of thing a patent firm would be interested in.

And the confusion is a bit understandable. It also fits with the perception of Nokia as a bit of a desperate company, prepared to raise money selling patents to an IP firm. But then again, Nokia received $1 billion from Microsoft, but that was almost a year ago, so maybe that one billion is gone already...

At any rate, Sisvel is a patent-licensing company which doesn't make anything, so it can look like a temporary recipient acquiring patents with the sole objective of pursuing unwary infringers.

The company did send local police on exhibitors at CeBIT and IFA back about four years ago for infringing MP3 patents it administers on behalf of Philips.

Sisvel is actually concerned with the creation of patent pools, dealing with fields where the myriad of patent-holders makes getting individual licences next to impossible, and the mobile segment happens to be one of them. In such fields, some sort of aggregator is not only necessary, but desirable.

So if you're planning to make a DVB-T set-top box, then you can go along to Sisvel and get yourself a complete licence package which Sisvel has negotiated with all the various intellectual property holders. The same thing applies to DECT, H.264 SVC and MPEG audio, to name just a few.

In many cases, you don't even have to go to Sisvel for those licences-– you can still strike deals with the individual patent owners if you so choose.

The Nokia patents which Sisvel has now acquired already have numerous licensees, and those deals remain in place along with Nokia's own licence to continue using the patents.

Sisvel has been trying, in competition with Via Licensing and the MPEG LA, to put together a comprehensive IP licensing pool covering all the essential parts of the preferred 4G telephony standard, LTE (long term evolution).

4G and LTE technology is more efficient than 3G and actually saves wireless spectrum utilization when compared to 2G and 3G.

However, this is a significant step in that direction and good news for Sisvel, but if the company is a troll then it's maybe a 'friendlier troll' offering FRAND licences to mobile segment companies who need one.

In other mobile news

Apple had to temporarily close its flagship store in Beijing after frustrated would-be customers rioted and threw eggs into the Apple Store windows when they were told the that the new store simply didn't have the iPhone 4S in stock.

A crowd of no less than 500 people waited in the cold outside the Sanlitun Apple store in Beijing yesterday morning for the long-awaited Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S, and the mood turned ugly when they were told by staff that the new store just didn't have any of the iPhones on hand and wouldn't be opening that day.

Most of them had waited overnight in temperatures that dropped to -10 degrees C. The frustrated Apple fans started hassling security guards and throwing eggs at the windows of the store in the high-end mall before they were cleared off by the police.

The Sanlitun store is shut until further notice and Apple has said it will halt the sale of all iPhone models from its Chinese stores.

There is no information on when Apple will start delivering the new devices. An Apple spokesperson said "Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store in Beijing due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhones will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being."

However, the iPhone 4S can still be obtained from China's mobile network partner China Unicom, or the Apple online store.

Delays and shortages of the iPhone in China have created pent-up demand for the new device. Apple has 10.4 percent of the smartphone market in China. Many buyers at the Apple store were scalpers who buy stock in bulk to later resell it with a 30 percent surcharge to people that didn't want to wait in line for 10 hours or more.

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Source: Virgin Media.

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.