MEF in the Philippines: Mixing the Asian Carriers Conference

With the announcement that MEF is to hold an inaugural welcome Mixer in the Philippines during the Asian Carriers Conference next month, MEF Asia General Manager Linda Ruck takes a look at the unique market and discusses what makes it relevant to MEF and its members.Dynamic and fast paced, the Philippines mobile market has more than 100 million subscribers and a mobile penetration rate over 100%, with the mobile segment remaining central to the wider development of the country’s telecom sector.  At its peak more than two billion SMS messages were being sent every day, generating the largest …

Security of SIM cards under threat? – mobile industry reaction

This week, an announcement from Security Research Labs caused a stir, claiming that SIM cards, the ubiquitous and generally regarded safe data storage lynchpin of mobile handsets, is in fact facing a critical hacking risk.  In particular, older generation SIM cards, estimated to number some 500-750 million in the wild, could be susceptible to infection by a virus that according to Forbes, could: send premium text messages, surreptitiously re-direct and record calls, and — with the right combination of bugs — carry out payment system fraud. It has been noted that the issue is of particular …