Barcelona is to become the first ‘tap and go’ city in Europe thanks to La Caixa, Spain’s largest retail bank. Tap and go payment cards and terminals have already been rolled out throughout the city in one of the biggest deployments of financial services technology in Europe. The technology, which will see bank cards, mobile phones and even watches embedded with a wireless payment chip will gradually replace the use of physical cash for small purchases.

As part of the plan the bank will issue 1 million cards to its customers and provide 17,000 payment terminals in shops throughout the city from department stores to local retailers. The bank has also teamed up with Visa Europe and will be providing Barcelona with 500 ATM machines with contactless readers.

While there have been previous mobile payment systems initiated in Europe such as the contactless card readers introduced in McDonald’s and Starbucks chains and the Google Wallet launched by Google in partnership with Mastercard and Sprint, this is the first time the technology will be used on a large-scale throughout a European city. Barcelona was chosen to be the first city as La Caixa will be showcasing the new technology at next month’s Mobile World Congress. The whole process is expected to cost the bank around €9 million to kit out Barcelona and a further €40 million to provide the rest of Spain with the technology over three years. The bank carried out a pilot scheme for the payment system in Sitges last year, which was hailed as a “great success” and saw sales increase by 23 percent.

To see the unveiling of this new technology and a whole host of other telecommunications-related industry news head down to the GSMA Mobile World Congress, 27 February – 1 March 2012 in Barcelona. For the best hotels, rented apartments and other accommodation choices contact EAS, your friendly local travel agents. With our expert knowledge and experience we’ll make sure you have an unforgettable stay. We’ll even sort out your transportation and nightly entertainment needs so click on this link to fill in our request form.

The cellphone bills of French mobile customers are to be halved in what is being promised as the biggest shakeup in the French mobile market in recent years. New 3G player Free Mobile, a subsidiary of Illiad, has promised to use a variety of different network technologies to reduce its own costs and undercut the competition by half.

And so far it seems to be working. The firm has already launched a contract-free plan priced at a mere €19.99 a month, which includes unlimited calls and text messages, in addition to 3Gbytes of internet usage. Customers also have the option of an entry-level option priced at €2 a month with no contract which includes 60 minutes of calls and 60 text messages. Customers who use Iliad as their broadband supplier will receive the unlimited mobile plan for the reduced amount of €15.99. The move by Free Mobile as already seen established networks such as Orange, Bouygues and SFR forced into offering their own reduced price plans.

In order to make the price plan work Free Mobile will have to keep its costs lower than its competitors, which it claims it can do through combining a use of Wi-Fi, HSPA and in the future 4G. The firm also has the advantage of being able to use its installed base of home gateways, which when it rolls out femtocells will increase the cost efficiency of its mobile data delivery systems.

For more information on the French mobile market and other telecommunication markets around the world make sure you don’t miss out on the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 27 February – 1 March. If you’re after accommodation then look no further than EAS, your friendly local travel agents. We’ll find you the best hotels and rented apartments right in the heart of Barcelona. Or if you prefer, why not try one of our luxury yachts – the choice is yours. Just click on this link to fill in our request form.

The UK has fought off challenges from Germany and France to be named the most digitally aware nation in Europe. The British own more smartphones and digital video recorders, watch more television over the internet, and spend more time online than any other nation in Europe. This information comes courtesy of a report by Ofcom, which claims that people in the UK spend more than 12 hours a week online – more than any other major economy except the USA.

Smartphone penetration is higher in the UK than in any other country in Europe at 46 percent of all mobile subscribers, a figure even higher than in the US – Spain comes a close second place with 45 percent penetration. The report also reveals that the UK has the world’s highest penetration of digital TV, which is present in a staggering 97 percent of households. And when it comes to the amount of time watching television online the Brits come out on top yet again with 27 percent watching programmes via the internet each week. In the US only 23 percent tune in online weekly to catch their favourite programmes.

Both the Brits and the French come out as internet shopaholics according to the report, with both spending 84 and 83 minutes respectively browsing through retail websites.  But while the French may be busy windowshopping it’s the Brits who come out on top yet again when it comes to purchasing things online. An incredible 79 percent ordered goods via the internet in 2010, while more than 10 percent had visited an auction site such as Ebay on their smartphone.

For information like this and plenty more news from the world of mobile technology head down to GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, 27 February – 1 March. If you’re after accommodation then look no further than EAS, your friendly local travel agents. We’ll find you the best hotels and rented apartments right in the heart of Barcelona. Or if you prefer, why not try one of our luxury yachts – the choice is yours. Just click on this link to fill in our request form.

Taiwanese firm HTC has been ordered by German patent firm IPCOM to stop selling its smartphones in Germany. The injunction affects all HTC phones that use UMTS technology, which according to IPCOM, covers all HTC 3G devices. The firm, which sells an estimated 2 million smartphones in Germany each year, is the world’s fourth largest vendor of smartphones, but it has been facing problems of late. Not only have its Desire, Sensation and Wildfire models proved less popular than Apple’s iphones and Samsung’s Galaxy, but the company’s revenues have seen a quarter on quarter fall over the past year. The last two weeks of November saw the company’s share price fell by more than 30 percent. That means that with the exception of Blackberry maker Research in Motion, HTC shares have been the worst performing among smartphone companies this year.

The reason for HTC’s flagging fortunes have been put down to a lack of design changes over the previous two years, as well as ineffective branding compared to its Apple and Samsung rivals. That said, HTC chief financial officer Winston Yung believes things will turn around for the company in 2012 thanks to a mixture of new LTE phones for the US market and a number of flagship global product launches.

And while HTC was getting injunctions from IPCOM, Motorola was winning its own patents dispute in Germany, this time with Apple. The Android smartphone maker complained that Apple had failed to license one of its wireless intellectual properties. If Motorola decides to pursue an injunction this will result in the blocking of the sale of Apple products in Germany (although this is unlikely to happen before Christmas). Watch this space for more information, or alternatively get down to the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, 27 February – 1 March. For the best in accommodation, arranged transportation, hotel recommendations, and anything else you can think of to make your stay in Barcelona one to remember, look no further than EAS, the travel agent you can trust. With our expert local knowledge we can source rooms in the best hotels, find you the most centrally located apartments, organise airport transfers and other transportation needs, and even arrange yacht and aircraft charters. Click on this link for more information.

British telecommunications company O2 launched the first ever 4G network in London last week. The UK capital joins Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany in offering the fast speed network, which allows customers to download information over their mobiles at the same speed as a fibre-optic landline connection. The catch, however, is that it will only be available in 25 locations around the city to 1,000 Londoners who have agreed to participate in a nine-month trial – the largest Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial ever to be held in the UK.

Initially the trial will not involve phones, as no compatible handset exists yet. Instead Samsung dongles will be handed out which can be plugged into tablets and laptops. The test joins a similar project initiated last month by Everything Everywhere and BT, where 200 people in the village of St Newlyn, Cornwall were given 4G internet access for three months.

Despite the trial, the UK is still viewed as somewhat of a 4G laggard compared with the US, Germany and Scandinavia, which have been deploying 4G commercially for the last few years. It will not be available in the UK until the analogue television signals are switched off at the end of 2012. Even then the UK is unlikely to have its own service until 2017, something that could cost businesses up to £730 million a year.

The new technology is capable of speeds of up to 150 megabits per second, although trial users are more likely to experience speeds of between 25Mbps and 50Mbps. When it is introduced nationwide it is expected to drop to between 10Mbps and 15Mbps, which is still faster than a fixed line broadband connection.

You can catch up on the latest global 4G news at the GSMA Mobile World Conference held in Barcelona, 27 February – 1March. EAS has all your accommodation needs including rooms at the city’s best hotels and most centrally located rented apartments. How about transportation around the city and nightly entertainment? Well we can even organise that for you too. Click on this link to fill in our request form.