The 3G Dating Agency’s Blog

Thanks to the MiniBar Mobile crowd down at the Truman Brewery in London for the great feedback, our first time attending but definitely not our last!

The event focused on what’s cool and hot in the mobile web space and also included presentations from Richard Vahrman of , Alexander Strub of Truphone, Roy Shelton of Next2Friends, Priya Prakash of Flirtomatic, Margaret Gold of Vodafone Betavine (GREATLY APPRECIATED SPONSORS OF THE BAR!), Scott Beaumont of Mippin, Stewart Townsend of SUN Startup program. Media Partners were TCUK and  Intruders TV.

MiniBar is a social evening in East London which offers people a chance to snaffle some free beer while discussing p2p, Creative Commons, web applications, social networking and general Web 2.0 (3.0) mayhem & fandango. 

Here you can find people who will help you making your next project work. The event is what we call ‘useful fun’. Usually there are 200+ of London’s – and beyond – finest web entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, tech journalists, bloggers, VCs, and technology freaks. Click here to sign up for news on future MiniBar Mobile events

Bhutan Telecom has commercially started the 3G network that will enable mobile subscribers in Bhutan to make video calls and enjoy high-speed internet on their mobile phones.

Managing Director of Bhutan Telecom, Thinley Dorji, said the launch of 3G service will revolutionise the country’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector, and 3G Project Manager ,Yeshey Tshogay, said to the Kuensel newspaper ”All services available on GPRS and EDGE are available on 3G, but the user experience on 3G will be different due to high speed and video call services available only within the 3G network”.

The launch occassion was commemorated by a 3G Video Call between Nandalal Rai, Information and Communications Minister, and  Yeshey Zimba, Works and Human Settlement Minister.

Read the full story at Business Standard

SC Magazine has reported on how the recent natural disasters in Myanmar (also known as Burma) and China have led to various scams to steal money intended for donations.Reporter Sue Marquette Poremba reports that “not only are websites being hacked to redirect funds meant for legitimate organizations, as had happened during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, but now scammers are also using text messages to ask potential donors to wire money to a certain account.

Other scams include SMS’ suggesting that recipients could help the aid agencies by just calling or sending a text message. When responding the donor may unwittingly be dialing up a premium rate number or subscribing to a premium rate SMS service that will persist in debiting money from their mobile account balance until they unsubscribe.

Mr Van Horenbeeck a security expert with Message Labs, said he thinks these types of attacks will increase “as the barrier to responding to a text message is very low, there will initially be quite a few people that may feel inclined to support the cause by sending a quick reply,” he said. “There’s a much lower investment in sending a message, and people are likely to react. The same goes for text messages, where requesting people to contact ‘for-a-fee’ numbers can actually constitute direct payment. Essentially, the loop for the attacker between sending his message and getting revenue shortens.”

Here is the link to the official Disasters Emergency Committee who really do need your support 

Donations can be made at any High Street Bank or Post Office quoting Freepay number:1643, by calling the automated donation line 0870 60 60 900 (24 hours a day). In the UK you can also text the word DONATE to 83696 to make a £1.50 donation.

Romanian operator, Zapp says that it has completed its 3G network roll out 15 of the 19 cities that will benefit from 3G coverage by end of June 2008 including: Brasov, Braila, Sibiu, Arad, Bacau, Satu Mare, Baia Mare, Constanta, Craiova, Ploiesti, Targu Mures, Cluj Napoca, Timisoara, Galati and Pitesti.

Zapp won a licence for 3G services in the 2.1Ghz bands in 2006 and last month, Chris Bataillard, CEO of Zapp, announced the decision to switch to 3G technology for its network as opposed to CDMA2000 which the company already uses for its 450Mhz network.

We look forward to welcoming Romanian singles to our Global 3G Mobile Community…

A Juniper Research report out today predicts that the total global revenues for Mobile Social Networking and User Generated Content will rocket from $1.8bn in 2008, to $11.2bn in 2013, accounting for 50 per cent of the Mobile Web 2.0 market.

The prediction has surprised many industry thought leaders because it puts communities central to the growth of the mobile web whilst claiming that the impact of mobile search and mobile IM will be more measured.

Reporting on the growing number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide who are taking social networking to the streets, research conducted by Nielsen Mobile reveal that the U.K. leads Europe in mobile social networking on a percentage basis – with the U.S. just slightly behind boasting comparable numbers.

Already in the UKapproximately 810,000 mobile subscribers, or 1.7% of all mobile subscribers in the country, visited social networking websites on their mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008. That reach percentage was twice as high as it was in other major European markets-though similar to the USA, where 1.6 percent of all mobile subscribers (4.1 million in all) accessed social networks via their phones in December 2007.

Jeff Herrmann, Vice President of Mobile Media at Nielsen Mobile said:

“Social Networking is already a global phenomenon, and going Mobile is the next big thing!”

Yahoo news has reported that the company has begun the commercial rollout of its 3G wireless network in the USA.

Starting with New York City the company will continue to roll out the high-speed data network to major metropolitan markets, and by the end of this year it expects to cover those cities where most of its subscribers use data services.

Cole Brodman, T-Mobile USA Chief Development Officer, said that T-Mobile benefits from the extensive commercial experience of 3G in our European markets where the technology is more prevalent.

Sean Ryan, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, said that T-Mobile USA is “playing catch-up” with the other major carriers in the U.S. who already have 3G to some degree, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and Alltel.

Current Analysis’ Avi Greengart noted that the delay was caused, at least in part, by the U.S. government, which “stymied T-Mobile time and time again by holding onto the AWS spectrum” that is being used for the 3G network. Grespan has predicted that in six months 3G social networks would be showing major revenue growth.

The Daily Mirror reported today on how premium rate mobile conmen targeted readers of the teen magazines “Shoot” and “Bliss” with offers of obscene video clips and a dating service with “sxy singles”. We welcome the exposure of these cons but its very concerning that the regulators aren’t penalising the companies involved. Not only was the company (Blue Stream Ltd) trading with a name (“Free 4 U”) that was confusing with the trading name of the UK’s leading mobile retailer “Phones 4U” but it was also promising fraudulent claims of “NO RIP-OFFS, 100% FREE ACCESS”. The regulator even found that when youngsters were clicking on a particular page simply to look at a picture they were actually being charged as if they had downloaded it.

It’s a great shame that such services are undoubtedly bringing into disrepute the many companies, like The 3G Dating Agency, who are trying to build consumer trust in the mobile internet.Whilst the regulator PhonePayPlus was harse in its condemnation of the company as “Wilful, or at least reckless” it highlighted some of the huge issues with disreputable premium content companies who target mobile users under the age of 18. In small print the company defended itself by claiming that it was a “16-plus service” and by denying that “Shoot” was a children’s magazine.

This was the companies 5th formal reprimand in 18 months and the service was provided by Wireless Information Network who have themselves had eight more formal reprimands and been fined some £163,000 in the last year.

As the Mirror article rightly points out the fines are measly and the regulators need to start hitting rogue firms where it hurts!

I just read this interesting article at Zdnet and once again they seem to have got the measure of the mobile community opportunity:

“Social networking Web sites such as MySpace.com, which will soon go mobile, could become key applications driving data usage on new 3G wireless networks. For years, mobile operators, which have spent billions upgrading their networks to 3G wireless technologies, have tried to get customers to do more than talk on their cell phones. Despite their efforts, the vast majority of revenue still comes from voice calling.

But that could change in the next few years. A lot of fuss has already been made about people watching TV on their mobiles and downloading music to them on the go, but there’s another application that could also generate significant 3G data usage — social networking.

“Carriers have invested a lot of money in their networks,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “And at this point it’s a lot like throwing spaghetti on the wall to see which applications will stick. I doubt there will be any single killer application, but social networking on mobile phones could certainly be one that generates usage.”

In many ways, mobile phones are the ideal tools for social networking and building online communities. Not only are people rarely without their phones, but today’s handsets come equipped with sophisticated tools as well, such as cameras and digital music and video players and recorders, that can be used for documenting life. Mobile-handset makers Nokia and Sony Ericsson are even embedding technology into some of their phones that’s designed to make it easier for users to upload pictures and text to blogs. These phones are solid tools for people wanting to share photos, video clips or songs with their online communities.

What’s more, those in the teen and twentysomething crowd — the biggest users of online social networks — also happen to be some of the heaviest users of mobile data services such as text messaging and downloadable ring tones.