Exactly what has happened?

Whenever you visit a website, certain details are automatically passed to the site, such as your general geographic location, the device you are using, and the operating system you are running. As well as allowing site operators to get an overall picture of their audience, this allows them to customize webpages to specific visitors, for example showing prices in local currency, or displaying a special version of each page designed for mobile devices.

O2 has now confirmed that in some circumstances, the phone numbers of mobile web users were transmitted in this way.

How could this happen?

O2 intentionally includes the phone number in the transmitted information in certain circumstances. This includes to its own websites (making sure only customer can access certain features), to sites that sell services such as ringtones and need to know where to send them, and to some adult sites that need to check if there is a parental control filter on the user's phone account.

While trying to make technical changes to its services,]]> Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:46:00 GMT http://www.uk-mobile-pages.co.uk/articles/4g-access-to-go-nationwide.html New government plans mean that high-speed 4G mobile broadband should eventually be available to 98 percent of the population. That's higher than originally planned, and means it will be available in places that don't currently have mobile phone coverage of any kind.

Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has now published fuller details of the licensing process for the rights to provide 4G services. The winning bidders will be required to cover 98 percent of people by 2017, up from an original threshold of 95%. The networks will be assisted in this expansion by access to a £150 million government fund that had previously been set aside for expanding phone service in otherwise unprofitable rural regions.

Mobile companies have been critical of the revised rules for the license auctions. Everything Everywhere (the partnership of Orange and T-Mobile) says the requirement to cover more of the country could mean price rises for consumers. There was also disappointment that Ofcom has dropped a rule that guaranteed both Everything Everywhere and Three would be guaranteed some access to the 4G frequencies. Rivals Vodafone and O2 already control frequencies that could be converted to a 4G]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:05:00 GMT http://www.uk-mobile-pages.co.uk/articles/uk-mobile-networks-deny-mobile-snooping-scandal.html British mobile network operators have stressed they do not use a controversial phone monitoring system that may have secretly been installed on millions of handsets.

The software, produced by a US company named Carrier IQ, hit the headlines this week when a security researcher claimed it was being used in a more sinister way than previously revealed.

The software is installed at a root level, meaning its on the handset before it gets to a customer and is difficult to either detect or remove. Officially it's designed to allow networks to get information on which handsets are experiencing particular service problems, allowing them to pinpoint a particular handset, operating system or application as the cause.

A video released this week suggests the software can be used in a more sinister way, with those who install it being able to identify individual handsets and get an almost complete record of every action made on the phone including individual keystrokes.

All major UK networks have said they do not use the software or receive any information from it. Most major manufacturers have said they don't install it as standard and will only do so where requested by a]]> Fri, 2 Dec 2011 20:04:00 GMT http://www.uk-mobile-pages.co.uk/articles/mobile-users-happy-with-service-but-not-all-networks-equal.html Communications regulator Ofcom has reported that more consumers are happy with their mobile phone network than with their landline or broadband providers.

A survey of 3,000 people found seven in ten were happy with the service they received from the mobile company compared with six in ten for landline and broadband.

O2 received the biggest support with 82% of customers saying they were satisfied overall with the company. That compared with Orange on 80%, T-Mobile and Vodafone both on 78%, Virgin Mobile on 73% and 3 on just 67%.

The figures for how satisfied customers were with customer service told much the same story. However, when it came to complaint handling, O2 was the only company where more people were satisfied than dissatisfied.

3 consistently scored the lowest ratings for specific elements of customer service such as speed in answering calls to a helpline, politeness of advisers and willingness to resolve a situation. However, only 28 percent of 3's customers said the customer service made them less likely to use the company in the]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:57:00 GMT