Sprint and Verizon have been enjoying their CDMA femtocells stateside for a while now, but Vodafone becomes the first to do the honors in Europe today by launching the continent's first commercial 3G femtocell, christened the Vodafone Access Gateway. The device -- seemingly sourced from Alcatel-Lucent -- requires an in-home broadband internet connection with a minimum speed of 1Mbps. It's rumored to be capable of full HSPA, enough horsepower to feed even high-end Voda handsets with WiFi-free broadband in places around the home where reception's normally a little dicey (or absent altogether), and it'll drive up to four authorized phones with it at the same time. Anyone on a £30 monthly contract or higher can get it at no charge, but otherwise, you can expect to pay £160 (about $263) for the pleasure of building out Voda's network on its behalf. So, AT&T, what's going on over there, guys?

[Via Slashdot and eWeekEurope]

We heard way back at CES that a GSM Pre was in the works, but not until now have we heard who exactly in the world would be using it. According to confirmation received by T3, Palm is gearing up to disclose the whos, whats and wheres behind the UK launch next week, meaning that we've got seven days (give or take) to twiddle our thumbs until we know which carrier (O2 or Vodafone, most likely), how much and when it'll be available for purchase. We know it's agonizing, but at least you've a time frame to circle in your Trapper Keeper now, right?

Somewhere along the line, some higher-up at Samsung clearly said "I've got it: geometry-themed d-pads." The rest, of course, is history -- Samsung ran with that theme, giving birth to the Jet and the Omnia II. But wait -- what if you could go back in time, take something like the S5600, and facelift it just a bit to give it a similarly unusual appearance? That's exactly what Vodafone has chosen to do in launching the midrange full-touch featurephone, apparently working with Sammy to add in a diamond-shaped nav pad and rechristen it the fierce-sounding "Blade." With a 3.2 megapixel cam, HSDPA, and GPS, it's nothing to sneeze at; whether it's worthy of a name as awesome as Blade, though, is another story altogether.

[Via Unwired View]

It'd originally been available to a random, totally select group of elite individuals, but availability of the HTC Touch Pro2 on Vodafone UK has now opened up to pretty much anyone who wants it. As is virtually always the case with European carriers, you can get this monster for as little as absolutely nothing depending on the contract and plan that you choose, so dive in and sign your life away for a couple years, won't you?

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

"Regular" customers still have a bit of a wait yet, but it seems that Vodafone has gone ahead and pulled the trigger on shipments of HTC's Touch Pro2 to business customers -- assuming a post on the carrier's forums is legit. The phone's not due to be released until July 12 for any old chap who wants to fork over the dough for one, though it's not unusual at all for a carrier to offer hot new handsets to its prized B2B channel a little bit early. Windows Mobile 6.1 is still a bummer at this point, but you've got to give an enormous amount of love to the hardware -- and the promise of an official upgrade to 6.5 in the not-too-distant future.

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

Word on the street has been that Deutsche Telekom is being given the full-court press to do something with its unprofitable British operations, and the obvious choice would be to sell it off to one of its competitors -- Vodafone, Orange, O2, or 3. Apparently, though, Orange went ahead and made an offer just in the past few months, only to be turned down -- a sign that the French company either lowballed or that DT has very different plans on its mind. Rumors are circulating now that a restructuring will be announced as soon as this week that could give T-Mobile UK some time to turn its red ink around, but if that falls through, it's said that Voda might be interested in swapping its Turkish division for it -- so hang tough, DT, you've got options on the table.

Like this thing? We hope you don't -- or if you do, we hope you're on Vodafone, because that's the only way you're going to get it, it seems. The Nokia 6730 Classic candybar is an interesting device in that Voda intends to launch it globally across its entire wireless footprint, bringing turn-by-turn navigation and S60 to a wide audience spanning multiple continents and target demographics. It's also got a 3.2 megapixel AF cam, the usual microSD expansion, and a 2.2-inch display, all launching next month for an undisclosed (but we imagine very reasonable) price.

It's listed as "coming soon" for the moment, but in some brave, exciting future we all share, Samsung's C6625 Valencia will be gracing Vodafone as the aptly-named C6625v. It's not going to get passers-by to swoon, we're guessing, but the C6625v hangs tough with HSDPA, a totally usable QWERTY keyboard, and an interesting custom Windows Mobile Standard skin that may or may not have survived in its transition to a carrier-branded device (from the looks of the screen shot here, we're not hopeful). Best part is that we can virtually guarantee it'll be free on a reasonable contract, so this could end up being a good buy for frugal WinMo fanatics whenever it gets around to launching.

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

Who needs cheap roaming when you've got free roaming? It's funny how much crap the GSMA has given the European Union over its law-bound roaming caps for carriers, only to have Vodafone UK turn around and wipe roaming charges off the map altogether. From June 1 through August 31, subscribers who opt into the carrier's Vodafone Passport service pay home rates for voice calls from 35 European countries plus Australia and New Zealand; afterwards, they'll pay 75p to connect, which still seems reasonable if you make a few very long, droning calls (say, boring but obligatory corporate teleconferences). Unfortunately, data roaming's still more expensive than it should be -- but we suppose you could try doing some HSCSD if you were the enterprising type.

[Via MobileBurn]

Our pals from Engadget Spanish got a HTC Magic in their hands, and we have to admit it's quite a looker. The similarities to the G1 / Dream are obvious (besides the fact it doesn't have a physical keyboard, of course). On the downside, they found that inputting text while on portrait mode is a little complicated due to the size of the keys and the accelerometer seems to be a little slow -- besides those minor issues, though, the Magic has been well received in Spain. In any case, it's better to see these things on video, isn't it? Follow the break for the action.

Common widget platforms have been a hot topic among global carriers over the past year or so, with AT&T (among several other major players) coming out and saying that they're actively pursuing standardized OS-agnostic frameworks like the OMTP's BONDI initiative. Vodafone also happens to be a member of the OMTP, and the massive multinational operator has laid down the law this week by announcing that it will be creating a single clearinghouse for internet app developers looking to expose their wares to Voda customers around the world. In addition, there'll be a single set of APIs for location awareness, direct operator billing, and other goodies that should take some of the pain out of developing apps that can work across multiple devices. An SDK will be available to some partners starting in the summer, with broader release following on after that.

Looks like Telecom New Zealand was fully prepared to fold like a bad poker hand the moment Vodafone put on the pressure, because they've quickly agreed to delay the launch of their shiny new HSPA network with the thread of legal action looming. The so-called XT network will no longer be lighting up May 13 as promised; instead, they'll be looking to launch it toward the end of the month as Telecom resolves "technical issues" that are threatening to interfere with Voda's preexisting airwaves. At the end of the day, we think this probably works out best for Vodafone customers, Telecom customers, and those darling little kiwis (the birds, not the people) -- so hang tight; you'll all be blazing along on your Samsung F480s soon enough.

[Thanks, Steve L. and Aarun]

The ratio of firmware leaks to official, carrier-endorsed releases for the 9500 and 9530 Storms is something ridiculous like 7-to-1, so when we do see an official update, it's kind of a big deal. On that note, we present to you 4.7.0.141 -- Vodafone UK's weapon of choice for upgrading its fleet of Storms deployed in the field. Don't bother trying to shoehorn this into your units, Verizon customers; it's a different model, and you'll hopefully be getting yours soon enough.

[Via CrackBerry]

For our money, good, juicy carrier drama is better than an Emmy-caliber telenovela -- and there's a doozy brewing in Kiwi country where operator Telecom New Zealand is planning to light up its shiny new 3G network come next Wednesday. Vodafone claims that Telecom's new cells are wreaking havoc with its own network thanks to spurious radiation interfering with Voda's allotted spectrum. It gets better, though: the carrier goes on to claim that Telecom knew this was going to be the problem -- the government had apparently warned them -- and rushed to move up the launch date so that its competitors wouldn't have a chance to complain until it was too late. According to Voda's altruistic filing, the main concern is that emergency responders are dropping calls, and because its network is used so heavily for emergency services, it's a major cause for concern. At any rate, it's not trying to can Telecom's network -- just force 'em to install filters that will put a stop to the rogue signals. Seems fair enough, but in the meantime, the planned May 13 launch is in limbo.