Mobile communication trade group, the GSM Association (GSMA) has announced plans to unite mobile connectivity with high street shopping experiences to help retailers.

At an event held last week in London GSMA, which represents nearly 800 mobile operators worldwide, deliberated how the mobile operators can utilize the Near Filed Communication (NFC) and the other related services to offer the value added services to their customers.

The affirmation of GSMA’s plans came after research, conducted by tech consultants Latitude, found that the mobile alerts would prompt almost 60% of US and UK Smartphone users to shop at least once a week. It said 80 percent will be interested in a mobile wallet.

GMSA, the joint venture of Telefonica UK and Vodafone – Weve – payment service provider – The Logic – and NFC specialists – Proxama – comprehensively discussed the idea of a ‘loyalty wallet’ during the event.

The loyalty wallet will use the NFC and related technologies to combine loyalty cards, discounts, offers and incentives and store items in a single application.

Anne Bouverot, the GSMA general director, said that mobile commerce will develop to support the entire customer experience and they will go further than visiting a single store.

He said the consumers are looking for flexible and all-embracing services that guide them with research, vouchers, travel directions, entertainment and several other aspects of an outing to a destination retailer.

Weve CEO David Sear hailed the idea of the loyalty wallet and stressed the need of collaboration between operators and retailers. He added that Weve is in talks with some of UK’s top retailers for the implementation of mobile commerce vision.

For more information on the world of mobile head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, taking place from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in quality accommodation, marketing and event space at Mobile World Congress, hotels near the Fira Gran Via.  For further information, click here.

Vodafone Group has confirmed the long-running speculation that it has been approached by Germany’s biggest cable operator – Kabel Deutschland – about a probable multi-billion dollar take-over, a move which would boost U.K. mobile company’s broadband and TV offerings.

According to reports, Vodafone has offered between €81-82 (£68-69) to Kabel Deutschland but it has dismissed the offer citing it as too low. The mobile company is now reportedly considering increasing its offer.

Since the unearthing of the U.K. Company’s interest in Kabel Deutschland about four months ago, the shares of the cable firm have rose by as much as 27%.

The acquisition of Kabel Deutschland, which has around 8.5 million customers across Germany, would help Vodafone to bolster its mobile and broadband footing in Germany, where it acquired a leading telecom provider – Mannesmann AG – in a takeover worth $180 billion in 2000.

Vodafone, the world’s No. 2 mobile operator by revenue after China Mobile Ltd, last month recorded its first revenue drop in eight years, with rivals offering more competitive service bundles. .

The U.K. Company is also loosening its clutches over the German broadband operations, acquired in the Mannesmann deal, as Deutsche Telekom AG and Unitymedia Kabel have lured millions of its customers with awe-inspiring packages during the past few years.

Since the German takeover law demands the bidders to offer at least the average share price from the past three months, Vodafone would need to put a value on Kabel Deutschland of at least €6.39 billion to proceed with the offer.

And if the deal goes ahead, it will be Vodafone Group’s largest since it started operations in India in 2007 and it will look forward to attract more customers by bundling mobile, fixed-line, TV and broadband services.

For more information on the world of mobile head to the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, taking place 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in quality accommodation, marketing and Corporate event in Barcelona. 

The UK is now the world leader when it comes to mobile web use according to a new report by the country’s media regulator Ofcom. Brits now watch more television online, spend more on internet shopping and use tablets to access the web more than any other population.

The report, which compared data from 17 of the world’s leading economies, showed the UK leapfrogging Japan at the top of the list thanks to an obsession with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and online music services. The amount of data Brits download per month on tablets and mobiles now stands at 424 megabytes, more than 60 percent up on a year ago. In total, 16 percent of all website traffic in the UK comes from mobile devices.

“Our research reveals that the UK leads the way in using the internet on the move. Increasingly, it’s mobile devices like smartphones and tablets that are driving this growing demand for data – and in the UK it seems to be social networking sites that are behind this in particular,” stated Ofcom’s director of research James Thickett.

British 18-24-year-olds are the world’s top mobile social networkers with 62 percent accessing their profiles from smartphones and tablets, a larger proportion than any other country surveyed.

Internet shopping in the UK also topped the charts with consumers now spending an average of £1,083 online, almost £250 more per person than second placed Australia. A total of 23 percent of Brits have visited a retail website on their mobile phones, the highest percentage in Europe.

According to Ofcom a cultural habit of catalogue shopping, high credit card take-up and the early arrival in the UK of internet giants such as Amazon and eBay are reasons behind the high level of internet shopping in the country.

The Ofcom report, known as the International Communications Market Report, is an annual survey, which compares data across 17 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, USA, Italy, Australia, Japan, Brazil and China.

For more information on the use of mobile internet worldwide head down to the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2013, February 25-28 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. For the best hotels, rented apartments and other accommodation choices contact EAS, your local travel agents. With our expert knowledge and experience we’ll make sure you have an unforgettable stay. And we’ll even organise your transportation and nightly entertainment too. Click on this link to fill in our request form.

New details have emerged about the content of next year’s GSMA Mobile World Congress, which will be held 25-28 February at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona.

The GSMA have confirmed that the CEOs of AT&T, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Viber will give keynote speeches during the four-day event. These industry executives join previously announced speakers including the CEOs of Deutsche Telekom, Mozilla, Nokia, Vodafone Group, and Telecom Italia Group.

A programme of talks will cover topics such as “Mobile Operator Strategies”, “The Future of Communications”, “Operating in the Cloud”, and “Mobile in Media”.

Adding on to 2012’s successful Connected House exhibit, this year’s Mobile World Congress will feature Connected City, which will showcase all the latest cutting edge wireless technologies for the smart cities of the future. In addition, a Wireless Broadband Alliance Wi-Fi Zone will focus on next-generation hotspot migration, Wi-Fi roaming and offload and Wi-Fi and heterogeneous networks among other things.

Given the explosive growth of the apps market, App Planet will be back again this year featuring more product and service demonstrations, network opportunities and workshops from some of the biggest and most influential companies in the mobile apps market.

And this year’s mPowered Brands Programme will see GSMA and Leger Marketing team up to reveal the results of their 50-country citizen assessment on the importance of mobile technology on people’s lives. The assessment will focus on issues such as quality of life, individual productivity and shopping behavior among other things. The results will be shared at the mPowered Brands Theatre at the Mobile World Congress, so head down if you want to be part of the action.

Next year’s Mobile World Congress will be the biggest yet and will be housed in the state-of-the-art facility, Fira Gran Via, Barcelona. For the best hotels, rented apartments and other accommodation choices contact EAS, your friendly local travel agents here in Barcelona. With our expert knowledge and experience we’ll make sure you have an unforgettable stay. We’ll even sort out your transportation and nightly entertainment needs, so click on this link to fill in our request form.