Modern mobile phones are prone to all of the failures of most types of electronic equipment. Add to this the bangs, drops and scrapes they can often endure and it is little wonder we are telephoned regularly about repairing mobile phones.

The latest SmartPhones are also crammed with software that can cause problems in the same way as a regular computer.

If the phone is less than 2 years old and the damage has not been caused by yourself you will likely be able to get a warranty repair. This usually means sending the phone back to the manufacturers, the manufacturers nominated repairers, or taking it in yourself if you are local.

The repair itself is free although you may have to pay to post it to them.

For older phones, or where the damage is caused by yourself - for instance dropping it in a bucket of water (or toilet bowl!) - you will have to get the phone repaired elsewhere.

We have a number of repairers where we send our broken handsets. However there is a cost involved and it is often more expensive to repair than to buy a new handset.

Whilst mobile phone insurance is available, it is not cheap, particularly for small business users who have more than one phone.

Also, whilst your handset is away being repaired, you will have to make your own arrangements with regards to a replacement phone. It makes sense to keep a cheap unlocked phone spare to use in the event of a repair being needed.

If you have a question about mobile phone repair please contact us for a quick chat.

As well as offering business mobile phones, we also offer a full range of business telecommunications products and services. This includes landline telephones.

We can install new telephone systems, telephone lines (analogue/ISDN2/ISDN30) and reduce your call costs. If you are currently with BT you could be saving up to 40% on your calls.

There is no interruption to your service and you keep your current number. We take over your billing and put you on one of our bespoke tariffs. Calls start from 0.75p per minute.

You get a simple to understand monthly bill detailing all of your calls.

We can also take over your broadband, providing business-grade broadband with low contention ratios, giving you excellent bandwidth and quick resolution in the event of problems.

We have a dedicated landline department, including telephone engineers, so we are only one phone call away if you have any concerns.

So, if you are approaching the end of your current contract, (NB - beware getting trapped into another lengthy contract by your current provider without your knowledge!) then get in touch and see what we can offer your business.

Identity Theft

Identity theft in the mobile phone arena is reportedly on the increase. If fraudsters are able to get hold of your personal details they can add extra handsets to your account, get them sent to another address and use them to run up extremely large bills.

The first you might know about it is when a whopping big bill comes through your door! For those that don't check their bills every month, try to keep a close eye on them and report any suspicious activity as soon as you become aware of it.

Better still keep your data safe in the first place. Shred bills when throwing them away and if a bill doesn't turn up chase it up to make sure it isn't being sent to a new address.

Bluetooth anti-theft device coming soon

The Nio is designed to connect to a key ring (or belt) and communicates permanently with the handset you want to keep safe via bluetooth. If the handset goes out-of-range (for instance you might set the range at 5 metres) then an alarm sounds on both the mobile and the Nio device, alerting you to the problem and also to where the handset has moved to.

You could also attach the Nio device to other items of value such as a laptop to keep them safely in range at all times.

This device is ideal for business users where it is not only a matter of losing a piece of hardware, with its inherent cost plus employee downtime, but also the potential loss of important company data that's at stake.

Our aim at Business Mobile World is to make your business communications simple, straightforward and cost-effective. One of the ways we can cut your costs is by including free calls within your package.

We offer many business mobile tariffs that include free calls to UK landlines. These are numbers beginning 01, 02 and 03. Eg. 0115 944 8977 (our number for you to call us).

If you have an inclusive package with free landline minutes this leaves the remainder of your minutes solely for mobile-to-mobile calls. This could mean a serious reduction in the number of inclusive minutes you need, a reduction in tariff, and best of all a reduction in your monthly costs.

If you have more than one mobile handset we can include free calls between all of your company mobiles. Again this can reduce the number of minutes you need and therefore the cost.

You need to analyze your current bills (or let us do it for you) and see where your minutes are being used. From this we can ensure you get the best value-for-money package.

We can also offer a GSM gateway (or Premicell) which you use for your landline calls to mobiles. This device automaticaly routes all calls starting 07 (mobile numbers) via a dedicated sim card meaning that these minutes can come out of your monthly inclusive allowance.

All of these ideas can be used together to ensure that you pay as little as possible for every business phone call and therefore maximise your profits.

There has been speculation in the mobile world about the possible takeover of the UK arm of T-Mobile for a little while. Vodafone were thought to be bidding, as were 02.

However T-Mobile UK look set to merge with Orange in a deal set to create a mobile phone goliath with 37% of the UK market (over 28 million customers), overtaking 02 as the largest network.

The deal could be signed by November and will mean the companies make large ongoing savings through sharing network resources and streamlining their admin and customer service operations.

These savings could well result in lower tariffs for their customers in the future however for the time being all accounts will run as normal as both brands will be retained, at least for the time being.

It is unknown what will happen to Virgin Mobile, which runs on T-Mobile's network, or 3, which has recently signed up to do the same. These issues could be affected by possible intervention by the competition authorities who are likely to want to scrutinise the deal and the effect it will have on the UK mobile phone market.

Business mobile phone users with both networks should be unaffected in the short term but, as we always recommend, when their contracts are due for renewal should look around for the best deals by contacting us.

A couple of the latest releases and upcoming phones are previewed below.

Nokia N900

Not due until October 2009 (probably) this phone features a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.5 inch touchscreen, 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 600Mhz processor, 32GB storage, GPS - basically everything you can put into a phone these days! So don't expect it to come cheap.

It could be seen by many as a rival to the iPhone and is very much being aimed at the "must-have" gadget market. Our experience is that these top of the range all-singing all-dancing handsets prove very popular, but most people, particularly small business users, are unlikely to use all of the features and would be better off with lower spec phones that do what they need on cheaper tariffs.

However, if you really want one we can happily supply you with one (once it is available in the UK) and will quote you a variety of tariffs to suit your usage.

LG GW520 (aka LG Calisto)

This is a cross between an LGKP500/501 (LG Cookie) and the LG KS360. Featuring the Cookie touchscreen but with the addition of the 360 slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

It comes with a 2.8 inch touchscreen, 3.12mp camera, up to 16GB storage and a variety of colours! Not as well featured as the N900 but a whole lot cheaper and available on our lowest business mobile tariffs.

Other new phones coming out later this year include the HTC Touch 2, Nokia X3, LG GM750 and the Nokia N97 Mini.

Vodafone's 3 months free line rental on 24 month Your Plan for Small Business tariffs is now extended until September 30  2009!* 

The Your Plan for Small Business tariff offers a number of benefits for small business mobile users:

• Unlimited calls to landlines (01, 02 and 03)
• Inclusive 500MB BIS or WME (Instant personal emails and internet usage)
• 250 inclusive Text Messages

Inclusive mobile minutes start at 500 for only £25 per month and rise to 3,000 (with 3,000 inclusive texts) for £70 per month.

Ideal for BlackBerry and SmartPhone users with its inclusive data.

Contact us for more information or for a free quote and handset choice.

 
 
 
 
*Customer’s first 3 months are free and will be credited back from month 4 – This is not available as cash back. Offer applicable to new 24 month customers and additional connections to existing contracts.

Your old phones can be recycled for cash. There are now dozens of companies who will take your phone, working or broken, and pay you cash in return.

Many people now have at least one spare phone, and some households will have several tucked away in cupboards and drawers. Each one can be monetized by sending it to a recycler where they will either be reconditioned for sale again or, if they are beyond repair, be broken down for the parts they contain.

If you have several phones they will arrange for collection from your premises. They could be worth from £5 to £120 each so the returns add up.

We can take your old phones in part exchange against a new business mobile deal. Get in touch for a free valuation and save money on your business communications at the same time.

We can probably give you a better price than a recycler would pay and save you the hassle of organizing it all. Give us a call on 0844 880 8116 to find out more.

Following straight on from July's figures, here are the top 10 mobiles for business according to the despatch figures for August 2009. Last months position shown in brackets.

1. (3) Samsung M110
2. (1) Nokia 3110
3. (-) BlackBerry 8520
4. (10) Nokia 2680
5. (2) Nokia 6300
6. (-) iPhone
7. (-) Nokia 6600
8. (-) Nokia E63
9. (-) Nokia 2630
10. (-) Nokia 5800

Plenty of new entries, of particular note the BlackBerry 8520 which we are offering on our lowest BlackBerry tariff ever.

We are also able to offer the Apple iPhone, in all of its various model types, for those looking for an excellent SmartPhone, albeit on a much more expensive tariff.

Interestingly most places are made up of less expensive phones, good solid workhorses ideal for both business and tradespeople.

We've been doing some research on the best selling business mobile handsets and looked at our despatched phones for July. The results are as follows:

1. Nokia 3110
2. Nokia 6300
3. Samsung M110
4. BlackBerry 8120
5. Nokia 6500
6. Nokia 2760
7. BlackBerry 8900
8. LG Cookie
9. Nokia E71
10. Nokia 2680

We stock a real variety of mobile phones, from the most basic functional unit for making and receiving calls to the latest SmartPhones including the iPhone.

We can source just about any phone that's currently being made so whichever mobile phone you need for your business get in touch and we'll get you the best deal.

Are alarm clocks a thing of the past?

More and more people are using their mobile phones to wake them up in the morning. In fact more than 50% of people now use their mobiles instead of an alarm clock.

There is even software for mobile phones that can monitor your sleep patterns (by listening to your breathing) and wake you up in the lightest part of your sleep, thus avoiding the shock of a loud alarm when it will affect you most.

Welsh language mobile phones

Mobile phones with Welsh language capacity (for menu and SMS) will soon be available. Initially sold in Welsh phone shops they will eventually be available to buy online.

No sign of 4G in the UK

With sales of SmartPhones soaring, and people using internet on their mobiles more and more, plus new developments such as streaming TV on mobile handsets, the current 3G network capacity is likely to be stretched in the coming years.

The replacement 4G network, with speeds over 100 megabits per second, looks like being a long way off for the UK. Whilst there are rumours of its arrival in other parts of Europe, none of the UK networks look set to launch commercial 4g services in the near future.

Is your SmartPhone safe?

As more and more SmartPhones are bought, more handsets are using common operating systems allowing the possibility of mobile phone viruses in the same way as computer viruses.

There is anti-virus protection available for your phone and it could soon be needed as security companies are reporting a large increase in activity from cyber criminals targetting mobile phones.

Many small business users (self employed and working from home)  opt for non-commercial mobile phone deals. They deal direct with the network on a consumer tariff. This option is OK and works well for many but there are advantages of taking out a dedicated business mobile contract.

Business mobile deals have improved considerably in recent times and often match or better consumer deals, even for one handset. By taking out a phone with us you don't have to deal direct with the network, any problems or questions give us a call. No call centres or queuing, you get straight through to a real person who can help you.

The vast majority of calls are between family members/colleagues. You can take out additional handsets on the same account, for instance for a partner or child, and these benefit from low priced "sharer" tariffs. They share the existing benefits of your contract in terms of inclusive minutes and texts and all calls between your "group" are free of charge.

You can add-on extras such as mobile broadband via a free usb modem stick, all billed under one account with one simple monthly repayment. The bill being in the company name makes it nice and easy for your accountant (or for yourself if you do your own accounts).

When it comes to upgrade time you will be notified in advance and have the chance to get expert advice on your new handset/s to make sure you get the best deal. Any changes to your tariff can also be made by analyzing your current usage.

These are some of the benefits of switching from a consumer deal to a business contract. If you would like to find out more please contact us.

It has finally arrived, our best BlackBerry business mobile deal ever. For only £25 per month you get a free BlackBerry 8520 mobile phone handset (pictured right) with 500 inclusive mobile minutes (plus unlimited calls to UK landlines - 01, 02 and 03), 250 texts and 500mb of data in the form of BlackBerry Internet Solution (BIS).

This is on the Vodafone Your Plan for Small Business. Best of all if you order before the end of August you get three months free line rental! (if you cannot order before September please contact us as these free line rental deals are often extended)

Contact us for your FREE BlackBerry Curve 8520

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 features include a 2.64 inch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, touch-sensitive optical trackpad, memory expandable up to 32GB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 2MP camera, BlackBerry OS (512mhz processor), BlackBerry's legendary mobile email, Organizer and MP3/MP4 player.

Stocks are likely to be limited on this deal so please contact us ASAP to get your handset.

Business Mobile World is a website in the 21c Telecom group. This comprises a number of websites dedicated to all forms of telecommunication.

The group started out in 1996 as Phone Direct providing business mobile phones. In 2008 the name changed to 21c Voice and Data to reflect the number of other services we can now provide to business customers. This includes:

• Business Mobiles
• Landline telephone systems/lines/calls
• Broadband
• Device and vehicle tracking
• Non geographic numbers
• VOIP telephone systems
• Mobile Broadband
• Phone call recording

Since 2008 other businesses and websites have been consolidated within the group and it continues to expand with the latest website launched this week.

Best business phone deals focusses primarily on business mobile phones and landline phones. It has been kept deliberately simple, just providing the basic idea of what can be offered without complicating matters. It makes it easy to get in touch with us to find out more.

Basically we can provide your business with a fully converged telecoms solution with bespoke tariffs, free hardware and seamless integration between the individual components. To put it simply, we will sort out your communications.

Don't hesitate to contact us for advice and quotes for any or all of our services.

Watch phone goes on sale

The LG910 phone watch will go on sale on August 27th exclusively available on Orange with a price tag of £500. Initially a limited release available only through its Bond Street retail outlet it will be available mid-September for online sale. Potential buyers can register their interest now on the Orange website.

With a 1.5 inch touchscreen you are unlikely to find it easy to browse the internet or read your emails, however making and receiving calls should be no problem. It could well be a collectors item of the future.

Dual sim mobiles

British manufacturer Onyx has announced a trio of handsets coming out soon with twin sim card holders. This will allow users to decide which one to use on the basis of cost or coverage, or for them to use both a personal and business sim card in the same device, switching between them once they are out of the office.

Onyx have also announced they are developing a new mobile phone handset using Google's Android operating system.

Palm Pre launched in October

The much awaited Palm Pre will be coming exclusively to O2 in October (the 10th to be exact). In advance of this release the Palm Pre app store will be launched in September featuring a mixture of paid and free apps.