When I got my new company mobile a few weeks back, I turned it on and immediately received a couple of spam SMS messages inviting me to call a premium rate number. Of course, I deleted them, but I might not have if I’d known about Vodafone‘s VSPAM initiative.

“When an unsolicited text message is received a Vodafone customer can forward it, free of charge, directly to 87726 or VSPAM on their mobile keypad. Vodafone will then collate a consolidated report of all the unsolicited text messages reported by its customers, which it plans to send directly to mobile messaging regulators… previously customers were advised to contact the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) directly… [who] can take regulatory action against parties running such services. ICSTIS has prosecuted several service providers so far and it intends to ‘name and shame’ the operators who currently support the service providers running these premium rate services.”

[Vodafone press release, 21 August 2003]

Even though this initiative is two years old, I’ve not come across it before, so I’m blogging it here for anyone who is interested.

Have you ever been asked to type out some obscure code on your mobile handset to retrieve some information for a support representative? Here are some of the useful codes I’ve found (tested on Nokia handsets using the two largest UK networks: a Nokia 6021 connected to Vodafone; and a Nokia 6600 connected to Orange):

• *#06# – display the IMEI of the handset (does not require send to process). IMEI number analysis will show details of the handset manufacturer, type and production date (although strangely, my Nokia 6021 is recorded as having been produced two days after I received it!) as well as handset approval information and IMEI number break down.
• **21*number# – divert all calls to number (call forwarding).
• *43# – activate call waiting.
• #43# – cancel call waiting.
• 141number – temporarily withhold caller line identification (CLI) information when calling number.

These ones might be useful for Vodafone users (none of them worked for my handset connected to Orange):

• *#100# – obtain own number (returned in local format, e.g. 07812345678). Number analysis will give a whole host of useful information about a number including the number range, country/operator/network (for mobile numbers – although my personal number which has been transferred between networks still shows the operator as Vodafone Ltd even though it’s been connected to Orange for over a year now), number break-down, network technology type (for mobile numbers), and dialling format information.
• *#104# – obtain voice mailbox number (a response of 447812345678 VF-GMLRE relates to a voice mailbox number of +44-7812345678).
• *#147# – display number of last caller, along with time and date (e.g. 01234567890 08:00 30AUG05).
• *61*mailboxnumber*10*duration# – set the ring duration before diverting to voice mail (where mailboxnumber is in international format, e.g. +447812345678, and duration is between 5 and 30).
• *#1345# – check pay as you talk balance.
• ##0021# – cancel call forwarding.
• 1210 – cancel all voicemail diverts.
• 1211 – reset all voicemail diverts to the standard setting (divert if switched off, engaged, or out of coverage).
• 1212 – send all calls to voicemail (e.g. when abroad and receiving calls could cost you money!).
• 1213 – remove the all calls divert (1212).
• 1471 – voice equivalent of *#147#, with call return options.
• 21212 – record a personal greeting.

Another useful Vodafone number to know is for checking call rates when abroad. Text from country (e.g. from France) to 4636 and the reply will detail the cost to make a call from country, the cost to receive a call from country, the cost of sending an SMS message from country to a UK number and the name of the Vodafone preferred rate network for country (e.g. SFR in France).

If anyone has some more useful codes (not numbers for information services), please leave a comment on this post including the handset type and network on which the codes have been tested (no requests for handset unlocking codes please).

Other useful links

Area code information
International dialing instructions

Notwithstanding the fact that last month I wrote about how I’d finally found a use for a camera phone, my preferred feature list for a mobile handset is quite simple:

• Make and receives calls (with good quality reception).
• Long battery life.
• Easy to use.
• Good looks (colour screen would be nice).
• Bluetooth data communications.
• Infra-red data (IrDA) communications.
• Multiple profiles (general, silent, meeting, etc.).
• Directory service/address book.
• Call register.

Other features I might use are a loudspeaker (handsfree) mode and GPRS; but whilst camera, FM radio, and even MP3 player are nice to haves, they are by no means essential. As for smartphones, I have a Nokia 6600 but I’ve barely scratched the surface on its capabilities (mostly because I’m scared of running up huge bandwidth usage costs on my personal account).

For a long time now, the standard handset given out to most corporate users in the UK has been the Nokia 6310i. For a while it was the Nokia 6810, but my new work phone is a Nokia 6021 and I love it!

Meeting all of my ‘A list’ criteria above, the 6021 is the perfect phone for me but I had some fun and games trying to get it to synchronise my contact details with Microsoft Outlook. Once I worked out how to turn on the Bluetooth functionality within my Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S7010D, I could get the phone to communicate with the PC via Bluetooth, but although the Nokia PC Suite (v6.5.12) seemed to detect the phone, I couldn’t get the Nokia PC Sync utility to recognise the Bluetooth connection.

After spending ages creating and breaking down Bluetooth pairings between the phone and my laptop, I finally gave up, remembering that I had the same issue with my 6310i too and that IrDA seemed to work every time. Sure enough, an IrDA connection did the trick but the whole point about a Bluetooth-enabled phone is that I can synchronise my phone and my laptop without having to activate IrDA and set up a line of sight connection.

Come on Nokia – you’ve produced a great phone – now how about some decent connectivity software to go with it…

I’ve received this from a couple of sources and it seems to be both genuine and a really good idea. Since last Thursday’s attacks in London, this campaign has gained a lot of momentum and many people will already have received e-mail about this but just in case you haven’t seen it, then I’m sending it to your feed reader!

The East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust have launched a national “In Case of Emergency” (ICE) campaign. The idea is that you store the word “ICE” in your mobile phone address book, along with the number of the person you would wish to be contacted in case of emergency.

In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It’s so simple that everyone can do it.

For more than one contact name, multiple ICEs can be defined (ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc.).

Quoting from the original ICE press release:

“A Cambridge-based paramedic has launched a national campaign with Vodafone to encourage people to store emergency contact details in their mobile phones.

Bob Brotchie, a clinical team leader for the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust, hatched the plan last year after struggling to get contact details from shocked or injured patients.

By entering the acronym ICE – for In Case of Emergency – into the mobile’s phone book, users can log the name and number of someone who should be contacted in an emergency.

The idea follows research carried out by Vodafone that shows more than 75 per cent of people carry no details of who they would like telephoned following a serious accident.

Bob, 41, who has been a paramedic for 13 years, said: ‘I was reflecting on some of the calls I’ve attended at the roadside where I had to look through the mobile phone contacts struggling for information on a shocked or injured person. It’s difficult to know who to call. Someone might have ‘mum’ in their phone book but that doesn’t mean they’d want them contacted in an emergency. Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE we’d know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person may even know of their medical history.'”

More information is available at the ICE – In Case of Emergency website.

Following yesterday’s atrocities in London, it was widely reported that the mobile phone networks collapsed under the strain of those caught up in the chaos trying to contact their friends, family, work colleagues and vice versa.

In a statement from Vodafone yesterday lunchtime:

“The news networks have been reporting that Vodafone have shut down the network to ordinary users in the London area because of the incidents reported this morning. This is NOT the case, although customers will be experiencing severe congestion in the London area. However, [The Metropolitan Police] have asked us to invoke [ACcess Over Load Control (ACOLC), which restricts the network to emergency services only] in one base station in the Kings cross area, and this should be switched on imminently.”

Anyone worried about relatives or friends they have not heard from is advised to contact a special police hotline on +44 (0)870 156 6344.

It had to happen – with music single sales falling and downloads incorporated into the official UK music charts (since 17 April 2005) one day a ringtone-derived music single (the inevitable evolution of a music single-derived ringtone) would outsell a major music act. Keni was outraged to hear the crazy frog ringtone on my phone today (and no, I didn’t buy it – my brother sent it to me via Bluetooth) but I’m amazed at just how much attention the crazy frog has generated, seeing as it all started off as a Swedish student imitating his mate’s two-stroke scooter (hmm… I do something like that with my son in the shopping trolley as we whizz ’round Tesco…).

What seems particularly strange is how people are petitioning to get this off our airwaves (even complaining to the UK advertising standards agency) – surely if a company has enough money to pay for this level of advertising (and if you’re going to make £10m from selling a single ringtone, that should be plenty), then let them do it – even the “no advertising here” BBC runs ads on its World Service and in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show coverage Alan Titchmarsh regularly mentions that the event is “supported by Merrill Lynch” (there goes the last of my street cred’).

The ringtone download market is growing at a phenomenal rate and according to The Independent, the typical £3 cost of a realtone is divided up as follows:

• Music publishers 32p.
• Content aggregators and distributors 64p.
• Mobile operators 75p.
• Record labels £1.29.

I was interested to hear Keni comment today that with the launch of the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform (formerly codenamed Magneto), the market for skins to customise smartphones could potentially be as large as the ringtone market (especially with the convergence of consumer-focused mobile phones and digital music players). We’ll have to see if that prediction comes true, but in the meantime I have to confess that I quite like the crazy frog… and the Nokia tune has been driving me mad for the last ten years.