Call me a Europhile if you wish, but I love the EU when it does it's job: i.e. facilitates competition and cuts down on monopolies held by large international corporations.
 
Today I hear the roaming charges for intra-Europe calls, text AND DATA, will be subject to caps  -  €1 per MB for data.
 
This is great news for everybody:

The consumer will know what to expect before the bill arrives after a business trip - like a conference for example ;-)

I’ve sat through an unbelievable number of nav & LBS presentations, so I get quite excited when I see one that genuinely interests me.

Below you’ll find the video of presentation by Jeff Holden from Pelago @ Where recently.

He’s followed on from thoughts that were buzzing around my mind after checking out Nokia Vine recently.

Basically, Jeff has brought together 3 ideas that for me suggest big money for LBS.

(Location + Context) + Analytics = Money (?)

Vodafone has made a non-binding proposal to acquire a 15% stake in Vodacom Group for ZAR22.5 billion in cash, less Vodacom's attributable net debt at the date of signing subject to the listing and unbundling of Telkom's remaining stake of 35% in Vodacom to Telkom shareholders.

 

After selling off Vodacom, perhaps Telkom could direct some of the proceeds into its fixed line infrastructure to enable it to provide more reliable service.

Subscribers have been obliged to tolerate Telkom's sometimes unreliable, often appalling, fixed line telephone service for years. As a state-run monopoly, Telkom could afford to be complacent about its incompetence because customers couldn't take their business elsewhere.

I came across some really interesting news today as huge silicon valley venture capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has set up a $100 million ‘iFund’ to invest in companies building applications for the iPhone.

What an exciting week for location news. Since I arrived back from the Navigation & Location Europe conference in Amsterdam it’s been all go for Nav&Loc!

Nokia is preparing its response to Apple's iPhone with a device currently codenamed 'tube'. It will support Java and I'm guessing (with Nokia's current commitment to mobile navigation and location) it will include GPS. Vice President of Forum Nokia, Tom Libretto, also provided an entertaining quip and dig at Apple... In reference to Apple having shipped 5 million to 6 million iPhones since launch, Libretto responded "We've done that since dinner on Friday." Nice!