Huawei is looking to speed up the worldwide adoption of Huawei Pay by signing a co-operation agreement with UnionPay International. 

The two companies, who are working together for the first time since they initially created Huawei Pay, are looking to make mobile payments work more seamlessly. Under the new agreement, Huawei and Honor mobile phone users outside China will able to add UnionPay  bank cards to a phone that has Huawei Pay enabled and, by placing phones next to Union Pay-supported POS terminal, make a quick payment. The companies have implemented payment token technology to enable transactions to be more secure.

Huawei Pay is already supported by 66 banks and is compatible with 20 mobile devices including various mobile phones and smart watches. Russia will be the first country outside China to receive the service. Currently, UnionPay bank cards are accepted in 85% of Russian territory, with over 400,000 POS terminals supporting UnionPay quick payment. More than 10 Russian banks have issued nearly 1.3 million UnionPay bank cards.

Digital future

Zhang Ping'an, president of Huawei consumer cloud services, said, "Open sharing is an important direction for the future of digital economy and intellectual interconnection, which is why Huawei end-user cloud services build an open and globalized smart mobile ecosystem for the end users. Huawei hopes to work with partners such as UnionPay International to provide more secure and convenient mobile payment services to each and every user of Huawei smart device around the world.

• Best mobile phone deals in January

It’s been all change at Dixons Carphone. The company’s CEO, Sebastian James is leaving to become CEO of Boots. It’s the second departure from the mobile phone and computing company in a matter of weeks, in early January, CFO  Humphrey Singer left to take the financial reins at Marks and Spencer.

The company wasted no time in getting a replacement in. It’s announced that Alex Baldock, CEO of Shop Direct is set to take over. Dixons Carphone has, no doubt, been impressed by his ability an online transformation of the company and sees him as the man to lead the company through choppy waters.

James’ departure marks the end of a troubled period for Dixons Carphone, the company announced slashed profits in December. The company announced that it was overhauling its business model after its poor performance over the half-year. The company declared a fall in pre-tax profit of 60.4%, compared with the same period last year; while UK profits  fell from £130 million to £34 million.

Under the circumstances, it was almost inevitable that the company would seek to make changes and Baldock’s rapid appointment as CEO signals that the change at the top had been considered for some time.

Outstanding contribution

Ian Livingston, chairman of Dixons Carphone, said: “Seb has made an outstanding contribution to both the creation and success of Dixons Carphone. It is a much stronger company today than when he became CEO of Dixons Retail in 2012 with revenue, profit and customer satisfaction all substantially higher. The Group is now the market leader in eight countries.”

Livingston went on to welcome Baldock to the company.  “He has an outstanding track record in leading large, complex consumer-facing businesses. He’s led Shop Direct through one of UK Retail’s fastest, most far-reaching and most successful digital transformations, delivering five consecutive years of record financial performance, with strongly rising sales and an almost tenfold increase in profits. We look forward to Alex bringing that leadership to the Group as we build on our market-leading positions.”

• Best mobile phone deals in January

The European smartphone market may just be hitting saturation point. According to sales data analyzed by GfK, sales in the last quarter of 2017 showed a 3% decline since the same period in 2016. 

Europe wasn’t alone: there was also a decline in smartphone sales in China and in the emerging and mature Asian markets. However, sales were buoyant elsewhere in the world, particularly in Middle East and Africa. Sales in the regions showed a year-on-year increase of 8%, while sales in central and eastern Europe showed an rise in sales of 7%. While both north and south America contributed to the positive outlook.

The decline in sales is not being matched by declining revenues, however. While European vendors have to negotiate that decline in sales, its sales revenue is healthily growing at a rate of 17% year on year. Small beer, compared to the large rise that central and eastern Europe experience – a rise of 28% is very healthy indeed.

It’s not surprising that revenues are slowing somewhat, however, smartphone prices have increased by 10% year, softening the blow for those European dealers who are faced with declining sales.

According to GfK, much of the rise in revenues was down to the 24% rise in value growth in Great Britain and the 19% value growth in France.  The company predicted, however, that the outlook for the region in 2018 is positive, with demand expected to rise by one percent to total 126.4 million units.

Struggling

Asian markets are struggling more, despite the rise in unit price, developed markets on the continent suffered particular losses. Further west, the strong markets in Egypt and Saudi Arabia fuelled growth in the region.

Yotaro Noguchi, product lead in GfK’s trends and forecasting division, said, “The outlook for 2018 is positive as GfK forecasts global smartphone demand to rise by three percent compared to 2017, driven by emerging Asia and central and eastern Europe. With saturation in developed markets, consumer retention will be a key focus for smartphone makers, which, alongside increased commoditization, will encourage greater innovation and differentiation in order to spur sales.”

• Best mobile phones in January

Rural businesses stuck with slow connections are being offered a lifeline.

 British company, buzzbox Telecom, has developed a 4G business-grade dongle that offers connectivity for up to 10 devices. The system offers a choice of O2 or Vodafone to connect users through the company’s wi-fi network. The cost of the service is £20 per month with no long-term contract and a one-off set up fee of £29.

Access to fast broadband remains a problem for many rural companies. According to Ofcom’s State of Nations report, last December,  about 17% of rural premises are not receiving a viable broadband connection,  This compares to just 2% in urban areas.

Development

Stuart Spice, founder and director of buzzbox Telecom, comments: “I know first-hand how important it is to have a good broadband connection for your business. Access to high speed broadband is not only important for keeping up with news and information, communication with your friends and family but most importantly for the growth and development of a business.

He added that the company had signed up a customer for the dongle already: a car showroom owner in Surrey. “Unable to receive reliable broadband from his previous provider because of his rural location; he switched to using our dongle and is now free of any complications when using WIFI.”

• Best mobile deals in January

BT has overhauled its Mobile Sharer offering aimed at mid-sized businesses. The company has added a range of new features to the service: these include new international roaming zones and a new tariff structure.

The latter allows its customers to use their shared UK call, text and data allowances when roaming in the new zones, for a small daily charge. The new zones in the MobileSharer platform include UAE, USA, Australia and China.

In addition to these changes, BT has provided additional security for its customers thanks to a partnership with MobileIron. This will provide a new device management service, complementing the existing service from BlackBerry.  The new security offering will allow businesses to secure and manage their employees’ mobiles via a portal. Businesses can make sure devices are password protected, set up and control device settings, manage permissions and apps and lock or wipe the data from the device remotely should it get lost or stolen

New partnership

MobileSharer is a service that, as its name suggests, allows customers to control costs through shared bundles of calls and texts, while offering a daily allowance between 1GB and 6TB.

Mike Tomlinson, BT’s managing director for small and medium enterprises said: “We’ve expanded our reach by introducing new international roaming options, giving our customers greater connectivity overseas than ever before. And what’s more, customers can also enjoy the cost benefits and convenience of being able to use their UK monthly mobile plans when they’re abroad. Our new partnership with MobileIron also gives customers even more choice when it comes to safeguarding valuable business data and managing the security settings on employees’ devices.”

• Best January phone deals

Ofcom is pressing ahead with its spectrum auction for future 5G services, despite the appeal from Three.

The regulator has updated the timetable for the forthcoming auction of spectrum in the 2.3 and 3.4 GHz bands as it believes it’s in the public interest to press ahead with the plans.

The auction has already been delayed by the action brought by Three and BT/EE – both of whose claims were dismissed by the High Court in December. EE/BT subsequently dropped the action but Three is continuing with its appeal, which is being heard on February 13 and 14.

There are two wavebands being auctioned: the 2.3GHz, which can be used for existing services and the 3.4GHz, which is aimed at future 5G offerings.

Regulations

Ofcom said the regulations for the service auction will be published on January 24 and will come into effect on January 31. These regulations will include guidance in how to take part in the auction. However, the regulator said that it would not make any announcement on bidders until after the Three appeal had been heard.

In a statement, Ofcom said “The litigation by Three is continuing to delay access to the spectrum and the benefits to consumers and businesses that can flow from it. We are keen to ensure that we can move as quickly as possible to hold the auction once the judgment of the Court of Appeal has been given.”

 

 

• Best mobile deals in January

 Users of ARC-based IoT devices have been warned about potential distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Argonaut RISC Core (ARC) processors are one of the most commonly-used in the world and are particularly widely used in IoT devices.

The vulnerability, a variation of the well-known Mirai botnet, has been dubbed Okiru and is claimed to be the first variation of Mirai to be aimed specifically at ARC devices.

The botnet was discovered by the security  research team known as Malware Must Die, although it was security researcher ‘Odisseus’ who brought news of the attack to wider attention when he tweeted about the severity of the attack. “From this day, the landscape of #Linux #IoT infection will change. #ARC cpu has produced #IoT dervices more than 1 billion per year. So these devices are what the hackers want to aim to infect #ELF #malware with their #DDoS cannons.”

Long history

Mirai has a long, infamous history in attacking IoT devices most notoriously the attack on Dyn servers in October 2016. Odisseus noted that, no sooner had Okiru been identified, than it was responsible for a denial of service attack on a security website.

• Best January phone deals

Chinese smartphone vendor is gearing up for its public flotation later this year. According to the Financial Times, the company has selected Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to lead the IPO. There is some speculation that the company is looking to go public in Hong Kong, although the FT quotes analysts who believe that a New York flotation is more likely.

Xiaomi has been rumoured to be heading for an IPO, ever since it recorded a stellar financial performance last year. In January, it was announced that the company had posted a 76% rise in smartphone production, thanks to its improved distribution channels and increased sales overseas.

The company is believed to be looking for a company valuation of at least $50 billion, although some executives are believed to be looking at the possibility of reaching twice that.

Major revaluation

 If the IPO did reach this figure it would be, according to the FT, the sixth largest company on the Hong Kong stock exchange.  It would certainly offer a major revaluation of the company. The last sales offering for the company, three years ago, valued the company at $45 billion.

The company is not commenting on any speculation on its future IPO.

• Best phone deals in January

Derbyshire-based business communications providerA1 Comms has reached a new partnership with Vodafone UK. The deal will expand the range of devices that are available to A1 customers through its websites and high street outlets. Vodafone joins EE, O2 and Three as a network provider to A1 Comms, offering more choice to its customers.

AI Comms, which recently won Best Dealer at EE’s annual Indirect Retail Partner Awards, is also hoping that the new agreement will provide more opportunities to its own retail partners and affiliates. The company recently celebrated its 20th anniversary by hitting record sales. The company is forecasting revenue of over £130m this financial year, a 56% increase on the previous year.

 According to Paul Sisson, the company’s CEO. “Vodafone will give even more choice for our online and high street customers, and will add incremental value for us and our partners.”

Wider range

While Scott Shields, head of indirect consumer sales at Vodafone UK, added: “By expanding our retail presence online and in store through third party companies, we can reach a wider range of customers with our great deals.”

As a result of the agreement, Vodafone pay monthly deals are now available from A1 Comms Buymobiles.net, AffordableMobiles.co.uk, Phones.co.uk - as well as its Go Mobile and Mobile Shop high-street stores.

• Best phone deals this January

Chinese companies could be banned from US government contracts under the terms of a bill currently before Congress. If successful, it would mean that the likes of Huawei and ZTE would be shut out of any future government deals.

There’s been disquiet in the US for some time about Huawei. Just last week, AT&T pulled out of a planned agreement to sell Huawei phones, while last year a federal grand jury ordered the Chinese company to pay $4.8m in damages to T-Mobile after it was found to have copied some designs from the mobile operator.

The bill before Congress, which has been introduced by Texas representative Mike Conaway, seeks to “To prohibit the Government from using or contracting with an entity that uses certain telecommunications services or equipment, and for other purposes.”  A few paragraphs later, the mention of the ‘entity’ makes more sense. “In its 2011 ‘‘Annual Report to Congress, the Department of Defense stated that, ‘‘China’s defense industry has benefited from integration with a rapidly expanding civilian economy and science and technology sector ... including Huawei, Datang, and Zhongxing, maintain close ties  to the PLA (People’s Liberation Army).’’

Availability

The bill, if passed, would not affect Huawei’s availability in the US. While it doesn’t have any bundled deals with carriers,  its smartphones will still be available. The company also sees the US as less important than Europe when it comes to overseas expansion.

• Best mobile deals in January

 It may be boom time for IoT but it’s a boom shared by very operators. According to a new report from research company Berg Insight, just 10 companies are benefiting from this drive to adopt the new technology. 

The company found that these 10 firms have a whopping 76% share of the cellular IoT market – currently standing at more than 400 connections.

Given the level of investment from China, it’s no surprise that the company with the lion’s share of the market is China Mobile with 150 million IoT connections, Vodafone takes second place with 50 million connections, while AT&T and China Telecom are ranked fourth and fifth. Deutsche Telekom, Softbank/Sprint, Verizon, Telefónica and Telenor complete the set.

“The Chinese mobile operators achieved tremendous volume growth in 2017, driven by accelerating uptake of cellular IoT in the domestic market”, says Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight and author of the report. “China Mobile is believed to have reached 200 million cellular IoT connections at the end of 2017”.

 More revenue 

The Western mobile operators actually earn more revenue than their Chinese counterparts. Berg Insight expects that at least three operator groups – AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone – will generate more than US$ 1 billion in revenues from IoT in 2018. “The main strategy for growing IoT revenues is vertical plays in major application areas,” said Ryberg.

• Best phone deals in January

There was a brief period when it seemed that mobile phone users were exempt from the problems that computer users were experiencing. After all, it had been a long time since any phone vendor had used Intel chips in any product, so there was nothing for the Apple fanboys or the Android customers to worry about.

That all changed when it was revealed that there were two processor flaws and the second one, Spectre, most decidedly did affect ARM chips – which meant pretty much every phone and tablet out there.

What followed then was almost a masterclass in how rumor was disseminated and how misinformation can spread. First of all, it should be remembered that this vulnerability was identified and reported seven months ago and was not supposed to have been revealed until next week (coincidentally in a week when the tech world had decamped to Las Vegas for CES and those pesky tech journalists would be otherwise occupied).

But then there was also the uncertainty of what Spectre meant to users and the contrasting messages, on one hand being told it was that it was worse than Meltdown as it wouldn’t have been so easy to apply fixes to it; and, on the other, how it wasn’t quite so bad as it wasn’t something that could be exploited by a script kiddie working on his own, but would need state-sponsored teams on the case.

And according to Zimperium security advisor, Adam Donenfeld, the dangers to individual users are limited.  “Spectre is essentially an information disclosure vulnerability. While it is possible to steal information using that vulnerability, stealing a specific targeted piece of information is not as easy as it might appear,” he said.  

He pointed out that there was already protection available. “As of now, the average user can either wait or install a 3rd party security solution. Obviously, it’s a new class of vulnerabilities we’ve yet to see, so there might be more to it. But, an upcoming patch will fix the known issues related to that class of bugs.”

That’s not to say that the vulnerabilities aren’t worrying for users. Many Apple users, whether of phones or computers have long been of the belief that their devices are secure against any form of attack, so the news that their phones were vulnerable to attack too – even though Apple put out a statement saying that the company would be reacting to the Spectre vulnerability.  According to the company statement, “Apple will release an update for Safari on macOS and iOS in the coming days to mitigate these exploit techniques. We continue to develop and test further mitigations within the operating system for the Spectre techniques, and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, and tvOS. watchOS is unaffected by Spectre.”

It wasn’t just Apple, of course, one of the issues that users had concerns about is what was happening to chips that ARM was making for other vendors, such as Qualcomm. The company also put out a statement to assuage customer anxieties. “Providing technologies that support robust security and privacy is a priority for Qualcomm, and as such, we have been working with ARM and others to assess impact and develop mitigations for our customers. We are in the process of deploying these mitigations to our customers and encourage people to update their devices when patches become available.”

Hype

With statements like this, it’s clear that the vendors have been trying to meet users’ worries. According to Donenfeld, the manufacturers have worries beyond the technical issues. “I think mobile vendors are not as concerned about the impact, but rather about the hype behind it: information disclosure vulnerabilities are not new. At the end of the day it’s just a simple patch that fixes those bugs, just like other vulnerabilities. One of the issues here however, is that the vulnerability (and some PoCs) were released before a patch was installed. But those vulnerabilities required more vulnerabilities to chain with, to achieve a full compromise of the device.”

The episode has done one thing, however, it has concentrated mobile users’ minds on how vulnerabilities their devices are. While users (on the whole) are diligent about updating PCs and installing antivirus software, there haven’t been the same efforts expended on mobiles: could the Spectre flaw change this. Donenfield is non-committal: “I hope so. But Spectre is no different and doesn’t shed light on how users view their phones: a security solution for mobile devices was needed before, and is needed after this patch as well.”

That’s not to say that, a week after Spectre was first reported, that the industry couldn’t improve matters. The fact that news of vulnerability was leaked and disclosure wasn’t handled properly is still contentious. Donenfeld believes it could have been handled better “I think there wasn’t a responsible disclosure. The fact that the vulnerability details, as well as PoCs, were released before some flagship devices were patched, implies miscommunication between the disclosing party and the vendors.”

And it’s probable that these points will have been noted and lessons are certain have been learned –  the proof will be when it happens next – we’ll be better prepared: won’t we?

• Best mobile deals in January

If anybody wanted reminding of the approaching menace of GDPR and the implications for businesses, then the £400,000 fine handed out to Carphone Warehouse, earlier this week, would have been a bit of a wake-up call.

While the fine wasn’t part of any GDPR arrangement – that doesn’t come into effect until May – the size of it was a bit of an eye-opener. “It’s the size of the fine, that was a bit unexpected,” said Lewis Henderson of security company Glasswall, pointing out that the three million customer accounts greatly exceeded the 157,000 customer records in the Talk Talk breach: an incident that also warranted the £400,000 “You do wonder what a company has to do to be hit by the maximum,” Henderson mused.

The size of the fine is significant because in May, the now-dizzying amount could well be dwarfed by the penalties handed out for breaching GDPR.  So, while the £400,000 is, as Henderson points out, below the maximum, it’s large enough to serve as a warning shot.

Telcs and mobile operators will, by virtue of their large customer bases, be tempting targets for cyber criminals and, given the size of their turnovers, they will be tempting targets too for information commissioners looking to make an example of shoddy data protection practice.

It’s fair to say that there won’t be heavy fines handed out in the first few weeks that GDPR is in operation but, it’s almost inevitable that within a year some company will be hammered. There does seem to be a belief floating around the industry that the size of the fines (at 4% of global turnover) is just so much talk. But given the sloppy practice that rather too many companies are indulging in, we can expect to see at least one hapless firm hit by a huge penalty, pour encourager les autres.

Henderson said that the world has moved on since GDPR had got closer. “I made a quick calculation, and estimated that if the ICO fined Carphone Warehouse the maximum it could under GDPR guidelines, it would have been hit with a £190m fine.”

And it’s the realisation that fines could be that big that will concentrate minds of the operators, ensuring that their systems are as robust as possible. But, as Henderson said, three years after the Talk Talk data breach, companies are still being hit – just in November, it was reported that Three suffered a data breach of its own.

But the nature of the attack has changed, said Henderson. “Three years ago, attackers were knocking on the door of websites, I’d say that these days 60% of attacks use file attachments – they’re the biggest threat.”

The fact that criminals are still threatening customer records – whatever the attack methods is scary enough – but one of the biggest counter balances against this used to be the reputational damage, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case any longer.”

“People are being desensitised,” said Henderson. “When Talk Talk was hit in 2015, the share price took such a beating that it took months to recover the situation.” That’s a contrast to what happened  this week, he said, pointing out that when Carphone Warehouse got hit by its fine, the share price briefly went down ... by a whole percentage point. And given that the news of the fine was announced on the same day that the group finance director left, the penalty may not have been the only reason for that fall in share price.

There does seem to be acceptance now that customer records are going to be hacked and, while embarrassing, it’s no big deal. Ten years ago, perhaps, it could cause immense damage to a company’s reputation:  these days, such news causes just a ripple in the share price.

It’s precisely this sort of belief that GDPR has been designed to change.

So, how prepared are operators for the new reality of GDPR? According to a Clearswift survey from last September, organizations are not fully prepared for the changes in regulation. The research showed that only about a quarter of European businesses are GDPR-ready and, while technology and telecoms companies are better prepared than most, only 32% of this sector was fully engaged.

Unprepared

That, of course, was four months ago, there have been rapid changes since then as companies have woken up to the realities of GDPR. The Clearswift survey found that 44% of companies were well advanced in their plans, expecting to be compliant by the May deadline.  One of the factors that has driven that change is the realization that despite Brexit, the changes are coming and the UK being out of the EU will have no impact on the adoption of GDPR.

But even including the companies formulating a plan, about a third of all organizations won’t be ready and that will include a number of telecoms firms (Clearswift survey didn’t go into too much detail). Even if it’s only a handful, that’s a worrying sign.

The big boys will be fully aware of the issues and will have spent months tightening up their systems but, sooner or later, there’s going to a data breach and this time, someone’s going to be hit with a big  fine.

It would be nice to think that the operators’ systems are tightly secure but the use of attacks focused on attachments mean that it becomes harder to tie things up tightly. As Glasswall’s Henderson said: “It’s the gift that keeps giving.”

• Best mobile deals in January

We’re getting more used to paying by mobile but we’ve not hit mass acceptance just yet. That’s according to a new survey from eMarketer which found that just 22% of British smartphone users will use the device to pay for goods.

Although that sounds like an impressive amount for a relatively new technology, it’s dwarfed by countries such as China where 77% of smartphone users are happy to pay by phone. Even in Europe, there are users who are more content to use the technology: 39% of Danish smartphone customers and 34% of Swedish one will turn to their phones at point of sale.

According to eMarketer, one of the reasons for the lack of interest in the UK is that contactless cards are more popular here.  They’ve been in use since 2007 and their ubiquity has hindered the usefulness of mobile payments.

Contactless cards

“There’s no doubt that mobile proximity payments are beginning to get a foothold in the UK,” said eMarketer senior analyst Bill Fisher. “But they face some tough competition that just isn’t present in many other countries. Any standard issue bank card in the UK, both debit and credit, now comes with contactless technology as standard. Mobile proximity payment providers need to convince consumers that their tech offers benefits above and beyond this well-entrenched, and incredibly convenient, method of proximity payment.”

• Best mobile phone deals in January

Dixons Carphone is looking for a new group finance director after it has announced that Humphrey Singer, the current incumbent, is set to leave the company to become CFO at Marks and Spencer.

Singer, who has been with Dixons Carphone since the company was created from the merger of Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail (and occupied the same role at Dixons before the merger), is set to stay with the company until July this year. Dixons Carphone has already started looking for his successor.

The company’s share price fell following the announcement, standing at 0.39% lower than the previous day’s closing price. However, the company had also been hit by a £400,000 fine by the ICO, the news of which broke at the same time as Singer’s departure was announced.

Healthy position

Sebastian James, CEO, said: 'Humphrey has played a vital role in the Dixons Carphone transformation. His deep understanding of retail, hard work, absolute integrity and good humour have made working with him both a pleasure and a privilege. He leaves the business in a healthy financial position and with leading market positions in every country in which it operates. On behalf of everyone at Dixons Carphone, I thank Humphrey most sincerely for his dedication and commitment to the business and wish him every success in his exciting new role.'