Mobile Broadband for O2

Did you know that WIN power Pay & Go Mobile Broadband for O2?

When a user plugs in their mobile broadband dongle and start to browse they are presented with the O2 welcome page (above) which is served by WIN. At this point we identify the user by MSISDN and show them information on usage and remaining balance. If they have balance remaining then they are free to browse on, if not they can "Buy Data Access".

When the user wants to purchase additional data credit they are presented with 3 options (right) and can then select to pay by debit or credit card (lower right). The whole service and intergration to the O2 customer gateway is manage by WIN.

 

If you are interested in finding out more, or want to find out how similar implementations might be appropriate for your customer, please ask Tristan.

Viewing mobile sites on your PC, get a bit Foxy!

This week we are going to get you viewing mobile web sites on your PC. To do this you will need Firefox, which is an alternative web browser. Firefox is probably the best browser out there for mobile Web site testing. To make Firefox imitate a mobile device you need:

• The Firefox Web browser (obviously), download here.
• User Agent Switcher add-on
• xHTML add-on
• wmlbrowser
• Some mobile device user agents

Once you have downloaded and installed Firefox (Note: when asked if you want to make it your default browser click NO) you will need to install the extensions, these are small bits of code that enhance Firefox. To this you will need to browse to this page in Firefox, then click on each of the add on links above, and install them.

As you install them you will need to restart Firefox so that they are enabled, but just keep say yes / ok at the prompts.

Once you have the three add-ons installed you will need to install some User Agent Profiles these tell the website what type of device is browsing the web site. To install a range of these profiles simply save the file below to your PC by right clicking on it.

• download xml user agent list 2.x

Then import into the User Agent Switcher - to import the file choose Tools / Default User Agent / User Agent Switcher / Options - as per screenshot.

Then choose import, and select the file you down loaded above. As this list includes all of the default items from the current default UserAgent Switcher install, so you can just overwrite your default, so tick the box on the right.



 
 
 
 

You are now ready to emulate a phone. Click Tools, Default User Agent, Mobile Devices, Devices and select Nokia 9500. Now if you type in a web domain, try http://www.cnn.com/ and you should get the mobile version of the site rather than the full web version.
 
For more technical information, and to take you to the next level you may find the following site link useful:
 
http://mobiforge.com/testing/story/testing-mobile-web-sites-using-firefox

Ogilvy Brand Utility Day

As you may know WIN was part of the Ogilvy Brand Utility Day in January, myself, Alex Klose and Matt Winters attended. At the event we were able to leave a really strong footprint for WIN especially with our SMS & twitter service that was running on their main big screen and during the actual presentations.

In addition, Alex Klose was interviewed by their lab team and we are very pleased to announce that he was actually incorporated in the final version of the video about the brand utility day (which was launched last week).

Please feel free to have a look here just click on the video - he appears at about 4 minutes.

Who or what the heck is PPP?

PPP?
Well the answer is PPP is what ICSTIS turned into.... none the wiser... let me explain. As you are all aware the industry is awash with acronyms or TLAs as I like to call them (that's Three Letter Abbreviations). Well PPP stands for Phone Pay Plus, and this is the organisation that regulates phone-paid services in the UK. It replaced the equally easily understood ICSTIS (Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services).

 

What they do for Consumers

PPP exist to help protect the consumer from harm from services paid for by phone, this primarily means Premium rate lines and sms services. One of the things that PPP provides is a simple number checker so that Consumers can check who owns any given number or short code. For example if you look up 62277, a WIN shared shortcode, you will see our info. This allows consumers to identify who has billed them.
 
They also regulate services using a Code of Practice. This sets out the rules with which all providers of phone-paid services must comply. Among other things, they require:

• clear and accurate pricing information
• honest advertising and service content
• appropriate and targeted promotions.

 

What they do for Businesses
For companies operating services PPP will provide copy advice for adverts, service messages and other promotions. And if people do not stick to the Code of Practice then PPP can bar services, and if needed will also make adjudications on services and fine the operators of the service. Hopefully by keeping services in line the industry can avoid the Consumer confidence issues that Premium rate lines suffered in the past.

 

Who pays for PPP?
Well the industry pays for PPP, a small % is taken from every transaction to pay for PPP.

 

 

Regulators in other countries
Ireland RegTel

(Can Greece and KL post details of the Regulators in their countries please)

Facebook Mobile

So you use Facebook, but did you know that Facebook is by far the biggest destination mobile site in the UK. This was the insight at the recent launch of Comscore's Mobile Media Metrics at the iMax cinema London.

So how do you access Facebook on your mobile? Well there are a number of ways, if your a smartphone user then you probably have an app for it. These apps (iPhone version right) are in fact often quite small / light applications as most of the information is web based, and in the case of my N96 it just launches a mobile web session opening on m.facebook.com. The Facebook site is quite smart in its repurposing for mobile, as it serves different version for different sites, so it has a touch screen version as well as ones suited to older phone types.

In addition to the apps and mobile internet version Facebook also uses text alerts to keep users up to date. You can choose to get selected updates and notifications by text on most UK networks. And these alerts, which are free to the user, drive huge volumes of mobile data traffic - which is why the operators are willing to send the messages to users at not charge. WIN for example does the Facebook SMS messaging for T-Mobile in the UK and we are sending and recieving hundreds of thousands of messages a day. (Alex Campbell is the WIN contact for more information).