Misc.

Further to the previous article, we’ve obtained more information on the chronology of events and it’s a rum old tale indeed. When the original advert, claiming 3’s prices were better value than O2’s, was shown in August 2004, O2 immediately sought out a High Court injunction to take the advert off air, claiming the price comparison was unfair.

When the High Court refused to grant the injunction because the advert was true, O2 had a quick rethink and decided to drop its complaint over the price comparisons, but launched a new one over the use of the ‘bubble imagery’ in the advert. Obviously O2 use bubbles in their own adverts, so they claimed that 3’s use of the imagery constituted trademark infringement.

Again, the High Court dismissed the complaint and stated that 3 had complied with all the requirements for a lawful comparative advert, and that there was nothing confusing, denigrating or trademark infringing about it. The English Court of Appeal said 3 should win and emphasised that that the rules on comparative adverts should be interpreted in the way most favourable to the advertiser, as it promotes competition and benefits the consumer.

Because the Court of Appeal felt this decision would affect business and advertising across Europe, some of the points were sent to the European Court of Justice for consideration. Now the ECJ have returned their decision: 3 are still in the right. This means advertisers can now carry out comparative advertising in a more confident manner.

It also benefits consumers due to the fact that advertisers can now highlight when they have the best value deal, and not be creatively restricted while doing it! That’s got to be good, right?

On YouTube is a visual with a voice-over relaying 3’s victory over O2 in the courtroom. It is all in regard to a series of adverts produced four years ago that demonstrated 3 were offering greater value.

As the voice over points out, “most people liked it, O2 didn’t”, this was down to two factors. Firstly that consumers were made aware that 3 were indeed cheaper than O2 and secondly, that the advert had utilised bubble imagery… shocking behaviour.

Anyway, enough chatter, see it below.

More to follow shortly…

It is a philosophy that has given birth to the perpetual sale, an all year round season after season reduction on anything from under-crackers to widescreen TV’s. And this is only the tip of the bargain iceberg, with one-off offers and for a limited time only whetting the appetite of the spend shy consumer.

If this intro has hastened your heartbeat then you should definitely jump over to TechRadar and investigate the article ‘You can still get a free laptop!‘ Detailed in there is the 3 mobile broadband offer that will get you internetting all over the proverbial shop on an Acer Aspire 5315 for £35 per month.

Interested? Then be aware that the deal is only available through Carphone Warehouse and PCWorld and on the 3 Plus Broadband, hence the £35 per month, for the specifics click here.

3 are thanking their followers; those dedicated few that have been there since the start.

It appears that customers who have been with 3 since their launch in March 2003, and have presumably held a contract for the five years since, have been getting a rather pleasant reward for their loyalty. Evidence of such is on show on the SMS Text News site, which has posted the image below of goodies received by 3g.co.uk forum contributor 1000Killahurts.

Red shredded paper, balloons, party blowers, an N95 8GB and a PAYG USB modem? A nice haul in anyone’s book. There seem to be no specific details regarding this initiative, but for more speculation about this act of generosity, jump to 1000Killahurts’ thread at 3G.co.uk here.

Don’t believe me? Then head over to The Register and read about how the potential minefield that is the telephone conference call has obliterated the hard work of two PR peeps from o2.

In the day of cups and string such a thing would never be possible, but in this connected world in which we inhabit, such things are always on the cards. The event that will have ruined the back end of this week for the two individuals was meant to be a simple call between a couple of o2 PR bods and The Register about their allocated bandwidth.

Unfortunately the o2 fellows dialled in and then seemingly instantly forgot they had done so, allowing the ears at The Register to catch one or two comments about their readership that were less than flattering. Not satisfied the conversation continued, suggesting that those leaving the network were “muppets” followed by a derogatory reference to our good sponsors, the cheek of it!

Well if the relations team at o2 were seeking to create a ripple, they’ve excelled with Taptology, Broadstuff, PR Media Blog and The Lounge among many others picking up the story. In the grand scheme of things it could happen to anybody. We reckon the real story here is about the service, one that’s throttled at 128kbps versus realistic speeds of between 1 and 2 mbps at our sponsors.

But to the vexed question: Are The Register’s millions of readers nerds? Some will be proud to wear that badge, others less so. Either way, we’re betting most would appreciate the benefits of HSDPA - and some even know what it stands for. We’re pretty sure muppets and nerds are welcome at 3 - they deal with us on regular basis *boom tsk*.