T-Mobile have announced price reductions in their SMS and data costs whilst roaming. SMSes will now cost 25p (instead of 40p), and data will now “only” cost £1.50 per MB (down from £7.50 per MB). Whilst we support these price reductions, we don’t think they go far enough to encourage people to use these services completely (when 3 will give you Mobile Broadband in the UK for £10 for 1GB, it puts into question these data roaming charges). For calls, we recommend you look at MaxRoam, but until they support data, you may still be better just leaving the phone switched off.

These price changes should take effect from next month, according to SMS Text News, but we would recommend you check with T-Mobile if you are going to rely upon the price to use the service abroad.

If you take your mobile phone abroad “on the offchance I need it”, or are a regular traveller abroad, then you may want to look into MaxRoam, an Irish based company. Although there’s a small monthly charge of 1 Euro (clearly and honestly explained on the website), they offer very low roaming charges for calls back to the UK, for receiving calls whilst abroad, and for calling in the country you are visiting. They achieve this by supplying you a new SIM card (so your phone either needs to be unlocked, or they offer a discount on getting your phone unlocked), which you use in place of your “UK” SIM card. Best of all, if you are a regular traveller, you are able to select upto 50 landline numbers that route to your phone (like all mobiles whilst roaming, there is a charge for receiving calls).

Let’s take France as an example, and compare the rates to Orange UK:

• To receive a 5 minute call: 95p (Orange), 75p (MaxRoam)
• To make a 5 minute call back to a UK landline: £1.90 (Orange), £1.34 (MaxRoam)
• To make a 5 minute call to a landline number in France: £1.90 (Orange), £1.34 (MaxRoam)
• To make a 5 minute call to your voicemail: £1.90 (Orange), £1.03 (MaxRoam)

As you can see, there are savings to be made over using your own phone number. We should point out you should go and check the MaxRoam website for yourself to ensure you are happy with the rates; MaxRoam bill in Euros, so there is the exchange rate to take into account, plus the small monthly fee. There are also odd occasions when MaxRoam are more expensive by a few pence. Orange and MaxRoam roaming rates for France, plus Euro/GBP rate taken as at 22nd June 2008. MaxRoam allow you to TopUp over the web.

If you are a regular traveller, you may well find combining a MaxRoam SIM with a local number in the country you visit will work out cheaper for both you and people calling you.

Head off to the MaxRoam website and find out more; for roughly £24 you will be sent a SIM, be given a local landline number in UK, France, Ireland or USA, and get 5€ credit on your account, alternatively, for £44, you’ll get the SIM, the landline number, and 30€ of credit.

According to a short article over at SMS Text News, it appears the EC Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has given all European mobile phone network operators two weeks in which to reduce their roaming SMS and data charges, or face regulation. Of course, if history repeats itself, the operators will huff and puff, reduce their rates a little and regulation will still be introduced to ensure the rates fall further. As a consumer, the price drops can only be a good thing; as an occasional traveller, I normally leave my phone switched off whilst abroad to minimise the cost; if the operators get these price reductions down far enough, many people will be more inclined to use their phones abroad, which of course will increase revenue even further. 3 are already pioneers in this field by offering “3 like home” on their own foreign networks, but they don’t have networks everywhere people travel to.

Of course, whether or not the operators reduce their rates in time for this Summer is also up for debate, but at least we should see rates start to drop at some point.

Maplin are selling a GPS Tracker, which offers the ability to record your location as you travel around.  It can record at a variety of differing levels, providing either greater accuracy, or a greater time period the logs are recorded for.  Unlike other units, it doesn’t support external media cards, so you are limited by the internal memory, but for most people it will still easily cover a day or two of photography.  It uses the Sirf Star III chipset for greater accuracy, measures 47 x 29 x 12mm and weighs only 21g.  It’s claimed to be compatible with Google Maps and Google Earth, and is water resistant.  For £39.99, it might well be worth a look for many budding photographers…

Thanks to Mark at Automated Home for the heads up.

It appears there have been a couple of surveys in the last few weeks where people have been asked about mobile phone calls on aeroplanes. Overall, both surveys showed most people are not keen on the idea of “I’M ON THE PHONE” calls taking place in the, air, but generally, those same people support the idea of instant messaging and data access. The Yahoo survey in the UK reported the following numbers:

• 87% of people would like voice calls banned
• 38% would like SMS support (of course, that means 62% don’t want that either)
• 28% would like data support (whether 72% want it banned, or just wouldn’t use it isn’t clear)

In other parts of the same survey, 49% said email would be useful (I’m not sure how the 21% who don’t want data are going to get their email!), and 14% said they would like to check the weather.

Equally, a US survey by Harris Interactive (but still commissioned by Yahoo it would seem) came up with similar results:

• three quarters said cellphone support should be limited to “non-talking” features
• 69% said if calls were allowed, there should be a “talking area” on the phone, ie you only disturb other people on the phone, and not the person in the seat next to you

Of course, it’s only in the last year that the network operators have realised they can make real money from data services priced at sensible levels, so whether the airlines listen to surveys like these, or just plough ahead with voice only services at very high roaming rates remain to be seen. Another point to note; we don’t think the survey included price within the question; consider these two questions:

• Would you like to check the weather and receive your email on your phone whilst in the air, for a flat fee of £1 for the whole journey?
• Would you like to check the weather and receive your email on your phone whilst in the air, paying a ridiculous £10 per Mb? (which isn’t far off Orange’s old UK rate of course)

We suspect people will want the first scenario, and the airlines will want the second scenario…

Nokia have announced that Nokia Maps will link into their Ovi user content sharing platform. Maps on Ovi will allow users to plan their trips on their desktop and then synchronise (automatically or manually) this data to their smartphones. Also, users will be able to record routes and POIs whilst out travelling and upload them to Ovi to share them with their friends and family. Although not available now, Nokia hope to have this technology released around September time (missing most people’s Summer Holiday, but that might give them more time to iron out any bugs or issues before people come to rely upon it). More news over the coming months as and when we get it.

In the meantime, Nokia have recently updated the Nokia Maps 2.0 beta version, so if you are trying out the new software, we’d recommend getting the latest update.

Picture and some content courtesy of Crave.

In order to improve the reliability of phone services whilst travelling with Virgin Trains, Virgin have worked together with Vodafone, who have installed repeaters into all 52 Pendolino trains which should help to boost 2G and 3G coverage, and is plans to improve the dropped call rate by 60%.

Story courtesy of SMS Text News.

As we first reported here, Air France have now expanded their In Flight trial to now include voice calls too. It’s believed that the airplane can handle around a dozen simultaneous calls, and is likely to cost in the region of £1 to £2 per minute (the exact rate is set by your network operator). The trial should continue for 3 months, unless any problems are discovered in that time.

Story Courtesy of Wi-Fi Networking News.

Dopplr, the traveller’s social networking site, has reported that Heathrow has changed it’s baggage restrictions. They have lifted the one bag carry on restriction, which means you can now take a bag and a laptop bag onboard as hand luggage. Also, you no longer need to remove the computer from the bag as a matter of course, as they have rolled out improved scanners. Given all the bad press around the opening of Terminal 5, it’s nice to see some good news for Heathrow.

British Airways is planning to offer free WiFi in 25 Business Class Lounges across the UK, courtesy of BT OpenZone. 6 of these lounges are at the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow. This service starts on 1 April. Users will get directed to the BA website where they can activate their wireless devices and will then have access to BT OpenZone.

Story courtesy of StrategyEye [Via SMS Text News]

Datawind, in conjunction with STYLZ, have launched a range of accessories for the PocketSurfer 2. First available (all are sold by Widget) is the Leather Case (£14.99). In the near future we should also see a leather case with a strap (£17.99), a USB Car Charger (£14.99), and a travel adaptor pack for £19.99.

[Via Tech Digest]

Brando have released a number of accessories for the Asus Eee PC range. These include a car charger (pictured above), and a Travel Charger (with a range of different power plugs).

Air France are spending most of 2008 running trials of mobile phone technologies on European flights that use some of their Airbus A318 planes. On these flights, once the “No Mobiles” light goes off, users can use their phones for sending and receiving SMS, MMS, and emails. In the second half of the year, they will also include voice support. The plane contains a picocell, which then transmits the signal via satellite. This will involve international roaming rates, which may limit the number of people actually using the trial.

Story courtesy of Engadget, Picture courtesy of vliegtuig.

For those in or near London, the Oyster scheme is being expanded further. As well as using the contactless smartcard to pay for your travel, the scheme has already been adopted by a number of newsagents, allowing you to buy low value items on the same card. Now, Nokia, O2, and Transport for London are planning to release a mobile phone with a built in Oyster smartcard chip, allowing the device itself to act similar to an actual Oyster card. The difference will be that the purchase amount will then be added to the user’s mobile phone bill.

Although this is a new development for the UK, The Guardian report that 50% of phones in Japan are already equipped with this sort of technology.

The trials of this device (a Nokia 6131) were announced this morning, with the trials starting today for the 500 lucky travellers.  These travellers are getting the new phone with credit on their mobile phone account, credit on their new Oyster chip in the mobile phone, and some credit from Barclaycard, who are also partners in the trial.  The trials run for 6 months, so will finish at the end of May 2008.

Thanks to The Guardian (and others), and especially Ken at UK Mobile Report, who attended the launch event this morning.  Also, thanks to Nokia.

Over at AutomatedHome, Keith has been using the 3 USB Modem for some while now, and has written a lengthy review. It’s well worth a read, especially in light of 3’s plans to have a PAYG (Pay As You Go) USB modem option in the future.

If you look at the CD that comes with the 3 SkypePhone, you’ll discover you can install USB drivers that allow you to use the phone as a modem via usb. This will result in you getting a nice fast internet connection wherever you can get a 3G signal. You can also connect via Bluetooth to achieve the same thing.

There are a number of payments options open you to for Internet access. If, for example, you have chosen the PAYG 3 SkypePhone, then you can use your £10 topup (which is needed every 30 days to keep Skype working) for the Internet Add-ons, which are:

• £5 per month if you are a regular user
• £2.50 for a week
• 50p for a day

Now, 50p is nothing compared the charges for WiFi, unless you are a regular traveller, in which case you will either have an unlimited WiFi package, or a 3 USB modem already. Any spare credit you have, you can use to make calls (12p/min) or send SMS texts (12p/text).

Remember, without the Internet Add-On, Internet Access is £1 per Mb, so even the 50p per day is very worthwhile.

However, despite the fact that people are using their 3 SkypePhones this way, and despite the fact that people have mentioned this in the 3 SkypePhone forums, we should point out that the conditions attached to the Internet Add-Ons state you cannot use it as a way of getting Internet access on a laptop (ie another device tethered to the phone, whether via a wired or wireless connection). As such, please be aware this method is likely to be against 3’s T&Cs.

Update: Having said that, if you buy the 3 SkypePhone on contract, you can add X-Series or Broadband Add-Ons to the service, of which some of these options seem to allow use of a tethered device. Please confirm this directly with 3 though, as we have been unable to confirm this so far.

Thanks to Chris at Tamebay for the inspiration for this article.

3UK providing some useful information at the bloggers update session today. Firstly, 3 announced that they will soon be releasing a PAYG (Pay As You Go) USB Modem. This will be useful to occasional travellers fed up of paying for and relying upon hotel WiFi systems that don’t work as well as you like and never quite reach the bedroom.

Also more interesting was Adam Davis’s comment on the 3 SkypePhone. Adam is “Head of Marketing and Product Management UK Handsets” at 3UK, and said the following; “The important thing next year is improvements to the phone. The problem is different things are wanted in different territories, but we are looking at things like improving the camera, HSDPA, SkypeIN/OUT. But the bottom line is the price must not increase.” For some of us, the idea of SkypeIN and SkypeOUT would make the phone an interesting proposition on top of our normal mobile phone, and hence we believe once these features are available, 3 could be selling even more of these devices.

On that point, it’s worth pointing out that the iSkoot Skype product (which 3 use on the 3 SkypePhone) supports SkypeIN / SkypeOUT, so iSkoot already has the knowledge to get these things working.

Thanks to Ken at UK Mobile Report for some content.

Google Transit, which allows users to find the best public transport route from their destination to their location now includes data from Travel South East, which gives them coverage of a small part of the UK for the first time. Expect this coverage to expand over the coming months.