February 2010 Round up
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Members & Colleagues, Welcome to AIME's K&N News round up for February 2010. I hope you find this a useful summary of our ongoing efforts to support your business and if you have any views on how to improve the News update or feel there is particular industry information you would like us to add please don't hesitate to get in touch with myself or Zoe. Likewise if you have any significant company news/announcements or would like to raise your profile as a member just get in touch (our news is now emailed to over 2,000 subscribers). We are pleased to welcome two new members in February, Daisy Telecom and Phonenumbers4U. Most members will know Daisy Telecom, a returning member (formerly Redstone Telecom); and we hope to introduce PhoneNumbers4U (see profile at end of newsletter) to members at the AIME General Meeting 10th March. Looking forward to this month, you may have already been made aware by mobile operators or your Accredited Payment Intermediary that the new Payforit Scheme rules version 3.0 are out. These rules are a big rewrite over previous versions and represent a new opportunity for industry to approach the emerging micro payments market that has been stimulated by the growth of Web 2.0. AIME will host the first cross industry forum to discuss the new changes and what it means for business on 24th March. This event is free to members and their service partners, so please register your interest to attend with Bianca bianca@aimelink.org. Or if you would like to get involved as a speaker or sponsor please contact me toby@aimelink.org. Toby Padgham |
Chairman's Brief
Dear Members,
It's a busy old time with lots going
on.
Firstly, an update on key initiatives. The Central
Industry Database working group had a meeting earlier this month and also
met with PPP to discuss key areas of governance. The vice-Chair is
leading this initiative, supported by Rory and David and they seem to be
happy with progress so far. The Interactive Broadcast Group had a
working meeting to discuss SMS voting and the group is currently in
discussions with industry members and also with PPP to review the code
requirements and how we can work together to get SMS voting back on TV.
The first draft psychic best practice guide was produced at the start of
February and there has recently been a working group meeting to review
before it is put into practice. The Regulatory Best Practice
initiative is also progressing with actions from the January working group
meeting. Finally, following AIME's submission to PPP, a revised help
note was issued for virtual chat and so this is now closed.
The
executive is working on three consultations and these include PTV3 and
AIME has written to Ofcom to arrange a follow up meeting from AIME's
consultation submission to discuss psychic services and there is another
meeting to follow in early March. We also submitted a response to Ofcom's
draft Annual Plan for 2010/11 and the executive is working on a draft for
Ofcom's Review of Consumer Complaints Procedure.
The board met on
February 9th and we invited new industry board member for PPP, Hugh
Griffiths. You will have seen the note sent out regarding board
elections and I would be delighted to talk to any member who would like
any more details on this process or what the board involves. I am
keen to keep the board numbers to 9 as I believe this is ideal for a
number of reasons provided that there is the right mix of industry
representation across the value chain. The Vice Chair also briefed
the board on the output from the ILP meeting which was held on 16th
February and a note has been sent out to members with the key
points. Finally, the Ofcom quarterly meeting took place on February
25th.
Overall, I am reasonably happy with the membership levels
considering that we are operating in a tough economy and industry revenues
are mirroring the economy's flat line growth. We welcome Daisy
Telecom and Phonenumbers4U this month as new members and a number of us
have renewed memberships for another 12 months. Toby, myself and
various other board members are also in discussions with a number of other
organisations to join and I will update you on progress on this next
month. We are being careful with costs and keeping expenditure down
as much as possible - this means that it can be challenging to secure as
much PR as we would like and we do have to be selective. On this
last point, we are the supporting association for the Netsize Guide 2010 which launched on February 16th and features an
AIME written article on Payforit 3.0.
In my next report, I shall be writing to you
about industry revenues and how the different sectors are
performing. I am also meeting with Toby shortly to review all inputs
to the first draft of the three year plan which was sent out recently and
which we hope to formalise shortly.
Finally, the next General
Meeting is on March 10th and we have presentations from Bradley Brady,
Director of Strategy & Stakeholder Relations at PhonepayPlus who will
be providing members with an update on the latest 12th Code developments
& Joe Waters, Director of Gener8 Finance Ltd. I very much hope that
you will be there.
Edward
Boddington
AIME Chair
Showcase
Mobile
World Congress thoughts - Google comes out of the
corner
February witnessed a very cold, wet and
windy MobileWorld Congress in Barcelona, the mobile industry's largest
event of the year. MWC 2010 was attended by 49,000 mobile aficionados, up
about 2,000 on 2009, according to figures released by the GSMA. Overall,
the feeling was more upbeat than last year, which wasn't difficult, when
most people's thoughts were about the recession and whether they would
still have a job when they returned home.
MWC remains an important
event. I've been attending since 2000 when it was called GSM World
Congress and even though the past decade has seen the industry often use
the event to overhype its under achievements on many an occasion, this
year was slightly different. The titans of the mobile industry seemed a
little lost and lacking in direction, while for the first time that I can
remember, the titans of the internet industry were setting the agenda for
2010 and beyond. It actually seemed like a web event in many ways and the
interesting elements were, as always, at the friction points between the
former emperors of the industry like as handset makers and network
manufacturers and the new whizz kids on the mobile block - internet
companies and apps developers. As always, however, Apple still preferred
to keep its involvement very low key.
RepresentationMembers please note that
further information and meeting notes on AIME initiatives are
available on request from the secretariat.
AIME Initiative - Central Industry Database
AIME Initiative - Regulatory Best Practice
AIME Initiative - Interactive Broadcast Forum
AIME Initiative - Psychic Best Practice
Payforit 3.0
Regulatory Update - Virtual Chat Helpnote
Regulatory Update - PPP Quarterly Report
(Source PhonepayPlus Quarterly Report Q3 09/10)
Industry ConsultationsOfcom Participation TV - Rules on the Promotion of PRS
Ofcom - Draft Annual Plan 2010/11
Ofcom - A Review of Consumer Complaints Procedure
Ofcom - Wholesale Charges for Number Translation Services and Premium Rate Services
Industry consultations & AIME responses can be found on the AIME website |
Information & Networking
- 2 New AIME Members - Daisy Telecom and Phonenumbers4U
- AIME Supporting Association for Netsize Guide 2010
- AIME attendance at MobileWorld Congress
- Member email alerts sent out including:
- PRS Bad Debt Surcharge update
- Advanced view of revised PPP Virtual Chat Services Helpnote
- AIME suggestions for PPP Triage System
- AIME Executive Board Elections
- ILP Meeting (16th Feb) summary
Member News
- O2
Delivers Dynamic Priority Ads through Shazam IPhone App
O2 today announces an exclusive sponsorship deal with Shazam which will allow it to deliver highly targeted ads for its Priority Tickets service to Shazam users. Customers will be served relevant ads for O2 Priority pre-sales based on the music they have tagged through Shazam's iPhone application. The dynamic ads will be delivered using 4th Screen Advertising's ad serving platform, Mpression.
- Profit without the hassle
'Profit without the hassle', that's the offering of premium rate reseller and new AIME member Phonenumbers4U and so confident is the company's founder, Richard Howard, that he can convert even the small clients into worthwhile revenue that he is putting his money where his mouth is.
- New Appointment: AIME member Lourens de Beer moves on as MD of Net Mobile UK to become Chief Marketing Officer at Muzicall. Lourens has been very active with AIME initiatives and since joining Net Mobile (then MINICK) in 2008 he has done a fantastic job as MD to build the company in to what is now a strong UK Application Development business under the NTT Docomo group. We wish Lourens well in his new role and hope he continues to be as active with AIME.
Dates for your diary!2-3rd March - FT Digital
Media & Broadcasting - AIME Supporting
Association, member discount If you would like further information on any of AIME's activities, initiatives or benefits of membership, please contact me at zoe@aimelink.org Kind Regards, Zoe Patterson |
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