T-Mobile Germany says sipgate makes jailbreaking too attractive
[Via TUAW]
Posts with tag germany
Sorry, T-Mobile yanks, this one actually goes out to your German cousins; we still don't have a Bold commitment stateside from anyone other than AT&T. It's cool, you've got the WiFi Curve, remember? But yeah, back to T-Mobile Germany for a second -- those guys have become
The concept of exchanging voice minutes for obligatory ads pushed to handsets is a business model still very much in its infancy, but Blyk -- which currently has a live MVNO in the UK and plans to launch in the Netherlands later this year -- must be feeling good about its chances right now, because it has announced a planned expansion into the German, Belgian, and Spanish markets next year. Key to the service's success is recognition by advertisers that customers actually give a crap about the highly-targeted marketing material being pushed to them; Blyk claims that click-through rates are rockin', which is probably providing the impetus for the planned expansion. We're still not so sure we'd trade 217 text messages and 43 voice minutes a month for the privilege of being blasted with
Germany's Deutsche Telekom apparently discovered over the weekend -- or "discovered," as the case may be -- that there seem to have been some cases of "illegal use" of landline and wireless usage data back in 2005 and 2006, and it has turned the case over to state prosecutors for investigation. That's the official line anyway, but the inside track says that the data had been collected by DT to track calls between its employees and journalists at tumultuous time for the company; plans had been announced to cut over 30,000 jobs from the roster back in '05, and efforts were seemingly in full swing to prevent leaks to the press. See, all this time we'd thought those pink-clad T-Mobile agents following us everywhere, jumping in bushes or ducking around corners whenever we glanced their way were just watching out for our best interests and trying to be friendly. Who knew?
Echoing statements made by other carriers offering the iPhone, Deutsche Telekom has gone on record at its recent annual meeting saying that iPhone customers on its T-Mobile network in Germany are shattering mobile internet usage stats, outpacing users of other handsets by a factor of 30 (yes, thirty). Without going into too much detail -- wouldn't want to irritate the Cupertino mothership, after all -- DT said that it has sold in excess of 100,000 units since its November launch, a number that meets its expectations. The smart money says that data usage is going nowhere but up once the darned thing launches with a serious radio, too, so let's just hope the satisfaction doesn't turn into sorrow when the airwaves get saturated with overzealous Safari sessions.
Never mind Nokia's arguments that Bochum is too expensive of a location to make phones, because RIM wholeheartedly disagrees. Sort of, anyway. Although there's no indication that the Canadian firm is going to start producing handsets in the downtrodden German town, it apparently did see Nokia's move as a fabulous opportunity to hire on a whole boatload of fresh talent and has decided to open an R&D facility there. It seems that RIM had already been shopping around Europe for a place to set up camp, and the Bochum layoffs came at just the right time to catch its attention. A Nokia board member says that RIM is indeed in Bochum, but is "talking to engineers, not workers," whatever that means; we thought engineers were workers, but this probably simply confirms that RIM's facility won't be a factory.
Significant reductions in handset pricing are frequently harbingers of their imminent discontinuation -- or, at the very least, a sign that the affected phones have fallen off their high horses and into midrange anonymity. Calling the iPhone "anonymous" really doesn't do it justice, admittedly, but the fact that T-Mobile Germany's new pricing plans can net you an 8GB model for a scant €99 (about $155) on contract is an interesting move any way you slice it. The blowout price is only obtainable by signing up for the "Complete XL" plan, which runs €89 a month (about $139) and includes 1,000 minutes, 300 texts, and unlimited EDGE and use of T-Mobile's WiFi hotspots. Is it all a sign that they're looking to cut down on inventory ahead of the inevitable?
Oh sure, we've seen alleged criminals wriggle out from under the strong arm of the law, but this one takes things to an entirely different platform. Reportedly, a truck driver in Germany was pulled over for yapping on his cellphone while cruising, but apparently, said trucker actually wasn't talking when the boys in blue saw his handset upside his melon. As the story goes, the 43-year old was actually using the freshly recharged mobile to "warm his ear" in an attempt to alleviate an earache. Astonishingly enough, he was even able to provide "an itemized telephone bill proving he had not been using the phone at the time he was stopped," thus, a court in Hamm accepted the excuse and let him go sans penalty. Something tells us this guy's got friends in low places.
As if being on the hook for $92 million wasn't enough, Nokia is now being chased down for what looks to be another €4 million or so, which comes out to just over $6.2 million. This time, the German government is "demanding" that Nokia repay said amount in research subsidies now that it is closing its factory in Bochum. Reportedly, the German Research Ministry gifted the cellphone maker with €4 million in order to "fund four separate research projects dealing primarily with new antennae and wireless transmission technology," and now it's asking Nokia to "explain by early April which patent filings resulted from the projects and which German production or research sites benefited from the results of the projects." So much for basking in the glory of Q4, eh?
Looks as if Nokia's going to be using a portion of that gigantic profit it raked in during Q4 to appease NRW.Bank -- unless a meeting it hopes to establish within the next few days changes matters, that is. Apparently, a German state has "asked" the handset maker to hand back government-issued subsidies (with interest, no less) that it received to build a cellphone factory in Bochum which it now plans to close. In sum, Nokia's looking at a tab of $92 million, as the folks in the industrial Ruhr region are none too pleased about what will likely result in the loss of some 2,300 jobs. Purportedly, the cash is due by March 31st, and if Nokia refuses to comply, the bank has stated that it will "take legal action to secure payment." Them's fightin' words there.




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