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]

Having the Palm Pre on Sprint might be good for Americans driving their pick 'em up trucks down the CDMA data highway, but it doesn't do Europeans (or Palm's bottom line) any good over in the Old World. Now we've got video and images of a GSM-loving Palm Pre on the loose in Vietnam. Why 'Nam? Easy, as workers gain more rights and higher wages in China, manufacturers of all our fancy consumer electronics are heading further south in search of cheap labor. While this doesn't mean a damn thing regarding launch, it's still good to see a functioning GSM Pre in the wild on the way to launch sometime before the end of the year, possibly sooner. Video after the break, as the saying goes.

[Thanks, Enzo]

While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers, at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used on handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday. One charger for any mobile phone... where's the catch?

It boggles the mind that Palm is still totally silent on the issue of global Pre availability; yes, granted, Apple employed similar foot-dragging following the original iPhone's launch, but the difference there was that Apple was under way, way less pressure from consumers and investors to immediately deliver a monster hit. We've heard rumblings as recently as late May that Telefonica has signed a deal to deliver the Pre on its various networks around the world, but since then, nothing -- and that's where some scrappy little distributor in Romania comes into play. A company called IRIS -- a smartphone distributor for years and Romania's authorized Apple outlet -- says that the Pre will be hitting shelves over there in September for something in the range of $550 unsubsidized, putting it right in range with what Sprint is charging off contract. Of course, by September, the Pre will be fighting a readily available iPhone 3G S and gobs of new Android sets, but webOS itself already proves that the new Palm knows how to work under pressure.

[Via GSMArena]

In case you weren't already convinced of a certain model of Nokia 1100's hackability by the exponential surge in its aftermarket value, fraud investigation firm Ultrascan has successfully recreated a virtual bank heist by reprogramming one of the devices to receive another phone number's text messages. Using this trick, shady characters in fancy suits can get your mobile transaction authentication number -- provided you live in a country like Germany or Holland that use mTANs -- and use it to get into your bank account and transfer funds. They'd also need your account name and password, mind you, but obtaining that data isn't nearly as complex when there's plenty of people clicking on the wrong emails and signing into fake website with all those deets and the associated digits. It all sounds a bit like the stuff of crime novels, doesn't it? And before you go running to eBay with that 1100 you stashed away in a drawer years ago, please note that it only works if the candybar was produced at a very specific plant in Bochum, Germany.

The EU's latest proposal to cap roaming costs among its member nations on a tiered multi-year plan passed with flying colors before Parliament this week, meaning the deal goes into law effective July 1. There's a lot of push-back on this one from the GSMA -- makes sense, considering they represent carriers -- and concern that affected carriers will respond by simply raising domestic rates to counterbalance the lost revenue, but ultimately, it seems the powers that be are rolling the bones in the hopes that this works out in consumers' best interests. Telecoms commish Viviane Reding says roaming texts could drop in cost by a solid 60 percent, so yeah, we'd say that's a win.

We've seen it time and time again -- carriers using their power to strong-arm consumers into paying services that could very well be free. Over in Europe, the almighty EU is considering "binding guidelines" that could force wireless operators to allow VoIP services such as Skype to run over their cellular networks. It should be noted that all of this is still very preliminary at the moment, but if the Union can somehow force carriers to support these so-called "innovative services," we could see a very favorable (for consumers, anyway) domino effect. As it stands, each EU country has the ability to decide individually on how they deal with blocked internet services, but obviously an EU-wide mandate would seriously shake things up. Or cause unstoppable riots, one.

[Via Electronista]

In Europe? Want cheaper international roaming? Of course you do -- if you don't you're either a carrier or a sick puppy -- and it looks like you just might get your wish. Members of the European Parliament have agreed in principle to reducing the caps on international voice, text, and data roaming to €0.43 per outgoing minute, €0.19 per incoming minute, €0.11 each, and €1.00 per MB wholesale, respectively, on July 1 of this year. Voice minutes further reduce to €0.39 / €0.15 and €0.35 / €0.11 on July 1 of 2010 and 2011, while data ends up as low as €0.50 per MB in two years from now. Furthermore, carriers will be required by law to warn customers when they get close to hitting 50 worth of data roaming, at which point they'll need to consciously agree to bust the cap -- by SMS, for example -- otherwise they'll automatically be cut off to prevent insane, unexpected bills. If all goes according to plan, the proposal will be brought to a full vote next month.

Good news, Europe. Telefónica and Vodafone have just made public a milestone pan-European agreement that will enable the two to share network infrastructure in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the UK, with detailed discussions ongoing in the Czech Republic. The collaboration will supposedly deliver efficiencies of hundreds of millions of pounds for each company over ten years, and for customers of each, they can look forward to better coverage across each of those nations. Oh, and subscribers should also expect rates to remain lower compared to what would happen if each operator were forced to build out individually, but it's not like either of these guys are coming out and saying that. At any rate, we figure there's some serious celebration in order for those in the region, no?

Remember that marginally unsightly red and gold T700 we spotted back in January? Yeah, O2 UK just got up the nerve to actually offer it up for sale, but it's doing the smart thing by selling it for £0.00 on a Pay Monthly contract. In case you've forgotten the specs, this one boasts up to 8GB of expandable memory, a 3.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, inbuilt speakers, up to 9.5 hours of talk time, video capturing abilities, an FM radio, a 2-inch display and 3G data support. You know, on second thought -- maybe that color combination is starting to grow on us.

[Via MobileBurn]

Make no mistake, the all-black HTC Magic is for real. Separated here at CeBIT from its glistening white counterpart by an equally white G1, this near-final Magic looked just stellar in its glossy dark coat. We chatted it up with an on-hand representative who confirmed that the handsets on display weren't absolutely finalized, and that when launched exclusively on Vodafone in Europe (you read that correctly), the Voda logo would be proudly plastered on. He stated that there were no immediate plans for selling an unlocked one in Europe or abroad, but that's just the standard line given when a carrier has yet to get their special toy. He also affirmed that HTC "believed deeply" in Android, and that the world at large would be seeing a lot more where this came from in the near future. Have a look at what these lucky Europeans will soon have access to in the gallery below.

Check it, Vodafone UK users -- Samsung's sultry Tocco Ultra Edition, which is better known as the Ultra Touch S8300 'round these parts, will be shipping your way real soon. According to the same "Coming Soon" page that tipped us off to the impending debut of HTC's Magic, the Tocco Ultra will be arriving in March for an undisclosed amount. Hit the read link to register for updates, and good luck avoiding the Magic while you're there.

[Thanks, Shattered Ice]

We knew production was destined to start in 2009, and lo and behold, Orange has committed to selling the thing. You heard right -- sometime "later this year," LG's G910 Watch Phone will be available across the operator's European footprint, though there's nary a mention of pricing. For those who've forgotten, this timepiece will support Bluetooth headset pairing, 3G HSDPA, video calling, multimedia playback and touch input, and it'll also make you the coolest cat in the office. And that's a Billy Mays guarantee.

We can already tell that this naming thing is getting out of hand, but for all intents and purposes, the handset you see above is the same HTC G2 we've seen hosted up in T-Mobile documentation and those gnarly in the wild snaps. Now, according to some very believable Vodafone snippets, we're being told that this here handset will launch exclusively on the aforesaid carrier as the Magic, bringing with it a 3.2 megapixel camera, HSPA, WiFi and GPS. Also of note, Cupcake will be loaded on from day one, though there's no word on pricing and availability just yet.