As you would expect the Informer felt compelled to attend the annual telco industry jamboree that is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. If any reminder were needed of what a massive and vibrant industry we work in this is definitely it.
Mobile World Congress, the overlord of telecoms, the teat from which the industry suckles for the next 12 months, is less than one working day away. And The Informer could scarcely be more excited.
Mrs. Informer went jet-setting this week, which gave The Informer a chance to catch up on some long-forgotten pleasures. First on the list was staying up far beyond a reasonable hour watching trash TV, eating conveniently delivered food that’s less than suited for managing one’s slender physique, and playing online video games. Because who needs […]
Even by modern standards there was an exceptional amount of news regarding the use of technology to breach individuals’ privacy this week. The BBC seemed to have an unofficial ‘mobile snooping week’ with features dedicated to smartphone surveillance opportunities.
The Informer was amused to listen to a recent news bulletin on Radio 4. The newsreader, in impeccable, clipped, RP English, gravely announced that the boss of Twitter – one Dick Costolo – has conceded that his company “sucks” at dealing with trolls. The incongruity of a BBC announcer delivering American slang in the same voice as he would use to report on the Royal Family was just perfect.
It’s quarterly season again and if that wasn’t exciting enough it’s Q4, which means we get the full calendar year – lucky us. In the case of the big US tech companies we are presented with a Twilight Zone-like parallel reality where the accumulation of unimaginable riches is often greeted with indifference or even disdain.
The Informer enjoyed the company of the great and good of UK telecoms commentary over a glass of wine recently and conversation soon turned to the Internet of Things. There can surely be no greater pleasure in life than arguing the toss over the meaning of a buzzword with a group of like-minded professionals.
The corporate blog is a strange beast. Some time ago the business world apparently decided it wasn’t enough to just produce press releases, white papers, etc, it needed to blog too. In principal a corporate blog should be a much more informal form of external communication.
The technology industry never gets to work its way gently into the New Year, thanks to the staging of the Consumer Electronics show in the first week of January. While the show aims to set the consumer technology tone for the year, it’s also the home for some of the most unlikely and downright bizarre gadgets, of which this is just a small selection.
Late December is supposed to be dead when it comes to business news, so the Informer must extend the hand of gratitude to BT for picking this week to announce it is hoping to acquire the UK’s largest mobile operator – EE. Now if it could just announce plans to snap up Virgin Media next week that would be perfect.
Even operators privately admit they need to be regulated. While the laissez faire, free market utopia to which many of us aspire should preclude such interventions, in many cases a perfect market is impossible and it appears to be human nature to exploit oligopolies as much as possible. Hence, some kind of independent body is required to protect the consumer.
Be gentle with the Informer today as it was the Telecoms.com Awards last night and, as ever, it was a large one. Chatting to the lovely Lucy Porter, as you do, the Informer learned that, despite being a celeb of some renown, Porter rarely tweets.
Having come over all earnest a week ago The Informer will endeavour to keep things nice and frivolous this time. Today is Black Friday, or so we are told. It derives its name not from the apparent need to get especially drunk on the last Thursday of November, but from the consumer spending frenzy that pushes retailers into profit for the first time in the year.
This week the Informer reports from the front line of a war. Not an actual one with guns, bombs, etc – the Informer’s journalistic commitment doesn’t extend that far – but rather a cultural one, with moral missiles, rhetorical trenches and fortresses of dogma.
In the name of variety the Informer reports from Cape Town, South Africa this week. It’s hard to think of a location that would contrast more with last week’s venue – Stockholm – than Cape Town, but they do have a few things in common. They’re both coastal, cultured and cosmopolitan, but the Informer must report that a beer here is a tenth of the price than it is in Sweden.
Such is the Informer’s commitment to bring you, dear Telecoms.com reader, the latest news from across the world that this week’s A Week In Wireless comes to you from not-so-sunny Stockholm. The Swedes have been excellent hosts and the Informer is delighted to report that the country’s reputation for statuesque blondes is well deserved.
One of the many great things about the internet is the freedom it allows. There are no constraints on space and distance, the cost of participation is very low and within the boundaries of the law, nothing is off-limits. The flip-side of all this lovely freedom is that anyone can participate, even strange people, and furthermore they’re also free to pass judgment on everything else.
As the Telecoms.com awards draw closer, the Informer notes a general ramping up of such things. A close cousin of the industry award is the market survey, which aims to add some insight into a given part of the market. Once more, Telecoms.com does such a thing and many of its readers seem to find it useful, but the industry survey can take many forms.
The combination of the camera-laden smartphone and the cloud has given us the power to photographically record our every waking moment with the assurance that our memories will forever reside on a distant, networked hard-drive. But there is another side to this technological coin.
Video is the next big thing, apparently. “But surely it’s already been around for a little while,” you might nervously venture after a telco evangelist with a challenging hair cut blurts this factoid at you as if he’s just discovered the secret of alchemy. That was old video, he will sneer, we’re now in the mobile video era!
The #GlotelAwards are back live and in-person with a gala dinner full of exciting entertainment, celebrity guests a hhttps://t.co/kJwgPAy8pd
01 July 2022 @ 14:40:44 UTC
BT retains majority of rights to UEFA football until 2027. UK telco group BT says it has secured the rights to the hhttps://t.co/LxtpbB43gq
01 July 2022 @ 13:38:00 UTC
BT workers vote to strike amid 'culture of fear'. Members of the Communications Workers Union working for BT have v hhttps://t.co/jUtdtBPuEl
01 July 2022 @ 11:38:42 UTC
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