Signal shines as Eazi telecom prepare for launch

Anyone who has looked through the list of available mobile networks showing on their phone in Gibraltar can not help to have noticed the appearance of a new network called "26609".

This is the signal for the new "Shine" mobile network from Eazi Telecom who have a telecomunications licence from the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (www.gra.gi).

The '26609' number comes from the combination of the "266" MCC - Mobile Country Code allocated to Gibraltar, as defined in ITU E.212, and "09" their Mobile Network Code to identify them as a specific network within the country.

They join GIBTEL [26601] the mobile network from Gibtelecom, and CTS [26606].

The other neworks listed are stray 'overspill' signals coming from the masts of Spanish networks across the border in Spain.

The original Eazi Telecom website can be found at www.eazitelecom.com but their new public facing website under the Shine brand is beginging to get populated at www.shine-mobile.com.

There is something interesting regarding domain names here, which we might return to in a day or two...

Microsoft not giving EU data protection to Gib?

This week Microsoft unvieled Outlook.com as their sucessor brand, user interface and domain name to hotmail.com (which they purchased at the end of 1997) as their public webmail service.

However, this reminds us of an ongoing issue with Microsoft accounts, when you register for a Microsoft login for any of their online services, you get a dropdown box to select your country:

However, when you select any other country in the EU, a pop up message appears giving a warning:

The message in the bubble popup "Privacy for residents of the European Union" is actually a link to this page:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-live/sign-up-privacy-rights-ui

It should be noted that the linked page does NOT suggest Microsoft will handle data differently for EU residents (i.e. people to whom they have displayed this message), BUT rather Microsoft is giving a warning that data may not be stored in a country that meets EU standards for data privacy.

However as Gibraltar is fully part of the EU, people resident in Gibraltar should similarly be given the same data protection warning notice as other EU residents.

[The member state of the EU that is called 'the United Kingdom' actually comprises both the UK and Gibraltar - separate countries from each other, but the same member state.]

This issue has gone on for some time and various people have tried to bring it to Microsofts attention without sucess. Perhaps the next step is to contact Microsoft legal.