Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world. This week.. O2 fined £10m for overcharging customers, British Airways expands trial of mobile health app, Blog: Can rivals capitalise on WhatsApp privacy saga and much more…
O2 fined £10m for overcharging customers
BBC
Mobile network O2 has been fined £10.5m by telecoms regulator Ofcom for overcharging its customers.
For eight years, some customers who were leaving the network were double-charged some fees on their final bills, Ofcom said.
The error affected more than 140,000 pay-monthly subscribers between 2011 and 2019, totalling £2.4m.
O2 said it had refunded many of the customers, adding an extra 4% to the sum involved.
Read more…
British Airways expands trial of mobile health app
Travel Weekly
British Airways will expand its trial of mobile travel health app to all inbound international flights to the UK from February 15, as the government tightens border controls.
BA started trials with VeriFLY on flights between London and the US on February 4.
Use of the VeriFLY app is optional for all eligible customers.
Blog: Can rivals capitalise on WhatsApp privacy saga?
Mobile World Live
WhatsApp has been the most popular messaging app globally for years, and a large part of its parent Facebook’s success could be contributed to its tendency to vocalise the app’s security capabilities after introducing end-to-end encryption in 2016.
In a statement highlighting 2 billion users it crossed a year ago, Facebook reiterated its commitment to ensure WhatsApp would be a place for private conversations, claiming protection was now “more important than ever”.
Read more…
First strategy game on mobile to fully utilize blockchain tech on SKALE
European Gaming
Mobile games alone brought in $81 Billion dollars in revenues in 2020, a massive number by any standard. It’s no wonder that many predict games will quickly become a massive driver of blockchain adoption, acting as the gateway to crypto for many consumers. We certainly think so, which brings us to our next Dapp, CryptoCrusades, one of the first grand strategy games on mobile that fully-incorporates blockchain technology.
There are many games working with SKALE in the Innovator Program and many gaming use cases. We are excited about all of them. However this particular use case within gaming is one we are very excited about – On Chain Gameplay.
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Mobile payments acceptance increases in Spain, Pecunpay reveals
The Paypers
Pecunpay has revealed that Spain is gradually increasing the use and acceptance of mobile payments, while the use of cash is decreasing.
According to the press release, the research is called ‘Study of mobile payment trends in Spain’ and is carried out in partnership with Visa. Furthermore, payment methods in Spain are undergoing a profound transformation. As a result, the use of mobile payments, though in an incipient way, was on the rise among Spaniards. For instance, 34% of the 2000 people who have taken part in this study say they make payments with their mobile.
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Why Customers May See More Text Messages From Retailers
Forbes
SMS text messaging has been around for decades and is generally considered low-tech compared to the complex state of the art technologies used today by many retailers like artificial intelligence inclusive of machine learning and virtual reality. However, SMS text messaging’s advantages are simplicity of use for both customers and retailers and high return on investment for companies that use it to communicate with their target customers.
Ross Kramer, CEO of Listrak, a digital marketing cloud technology provider that powers the software infrastructure for SMS text messaging to work. explains why this technology is a favorite with customers and retailers.
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JCB and Keychain develop blockchain-based micropayment infrastructure for IoT
Finextra
Japanese credit card scheme JCB is collaborating with Singapore’s Keychain to develop a a secure infrastructure for processing credit-based micropayments between IoT devices.
The innovation seeks to enable direct human-to-machine and machine-to-machine payments at scale without the confines of credit cards.
The initiative will exploit Keychain’s distributed ledger infrastructure to reduce operational risks related to data security by providing each IoT device with a unique, blockchain-based, self-sovereign identity associated with customer identity.
Read more…
Why Smart Cities Need To Secure The Mobile Edge And Wireless IoT Devices
Forbes
In today’s hyper-connected economy, wireless devices are powering digital transformation in cities across the globe. From improving traffic flow to enabling connected and efficient healthcare, wireless devices, mobile edge, or multiaccess edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), this technology is improving the lives of citizens and ushering in a new era of efficient, data-led decision-making.
But as cities get smart, they are also reckoning with the challenge of securing the mobile edge. At the farthest edges of their networks, where their smart devices live and their high-value applications operate, they are challenged to see beyond their own device limitations.
Read more…
Huawei and Tencent aren’t playing around over mobile game revenue
Nikkei Asia
About an hour after the clock struck midnight to usher in 2021, Huawei Technologies dropped a bombshell.
The firm announced it had suspended cooperation with Tencent Holdings on mobile game, and would for the time being remove all the firm’s gaming offerings from its app — even smash hit “Honor of Kings.”
The firm said Tencent had one day earlier unilaterally changed the nature of the two firms’ relationship. Huawei did not agree with the changes, forcing it to “halt cooperation.”
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