The suspicion surrounding the internet has increased since the disputed election victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

The internet has long been viewed with suspicion by Iran's Islamic regime: a drive to stifle dissent has seen online speeds slowed to a crawl, websites hacked and filtered, email accounts monitored and a special police force formed to detect internet "crime". But amid a technophobia that has intensified in the face of continuing opposition protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, officials have now found one cyberspace activity they approve of: e-shopping.

A state-linked technology group has established the country's first online supermarket aimed at revolutionising the shopping experience in a country generally lacking the gleaming emporiums that can be found elsewhere.

Meydoonak.com is offering 2,500 grocery and household items at competitive prices. The supermarket will initially cover Tehran and operate from 8am till midnight six days a week excluding Fridays, the Islamic day of rest.

Managers believe they can woo customers with a home delivery service which is designed to liberate consumers from the chore of shopping in the city's notoriously traffic-congested streets.

The supermarket has been launched by the Rouyesh Technical Centre, a group linked to a state-run body, Jahad-e Daneshgahi, which has promoted a host of other hi-tech developments, including animal cloning.

The embrace of e-commerce contrasts with a generally hostile official attitude to the internet among Iran's theocratic leadership. The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders has included Iran among the world's 13 worst enemies of the internet.

In recent months Iran has filtered several opposition websites as well as social networking sites such as Facebook in an intensive effort to silence the criticism that greeted Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory last June.

Groundbreaking offer to save families hundreds each year on mobile calls

Launching on 1st April, Virgin Media will become the first phone provider in the UK to offer new and existing customers free home phone to mobile calls. In a pioneering move designed to give its customers even better value, over four million Virgin Phone customers will be able to call Virgin Mobile customers without charge, demonstrating unbeatable value and giving families and frequent callers a chance to save hundreds on call charges to mobiles each year.

The new initiative, which comes as part of a variety of unlimited calls packages on all Virgin Phone tariffs, is designed to give customers a worry-free way of keeping families connected, and friends in touch with loved ones. With over £1.6 billion spent on calls each year from fixed line to mobiles in the UK, this groundbreaking offer will give Virgin Media home phone customers an unbeatable way to save with unlimited calls to Virgin mobiles, added to the unlimited voice calls to UK landlines already included in their packages.

The move reflects Virgin Media’s focus on innovating in the mobile market and giving its customers more. With ten per cent of Virgin Media customers subscribing to 'quadplay' or four services, nearly half a million customers will be able to benefit immediately from free calls from their Virgin Phones to their Virgin Mobiles in addition to the free Virgin Mobile to Virgin Mobile calls they already benefit from. Alongside this, more than 4 million home phone customers will be able to make free calls to anyone with a Virgin Mobile phone.

Graeme Oxby, executive director of mobile and telephony at Virgin Media said: “At a time when other providers seem keen on giving their customers less from their phone service, we are extremely proud to be leading the way in this field, being the first to offer free home phone to mobile calls. Our successful quadplay strategy has demonstrated customers are looking for exceptional value by bundling more services together, and this move to include free calls to mobiles with our home phone service underlines our commitment to ensure Virgin Media customers get the best deals possible.”

For more information on Virgin Media products and services visit: http://www.virginmedia.com/.

-Ends-

Media Contacts:

Aviva Waks, 020 7404 3000, aviva@borkowski.co.uk
Emily Young, 020 7404 3000, emily@borkowski.co.uk
Asam Ahmad, 020 7299 5707, asam.ahmad@virginmedia.co.uk

Notes
1 Zero-rated tariff applies to the first hour of direct-dialled local and national geographic voice calls only (numbers beginning 01, 02 or 03) starting within the Talk Plan specified periods. From 1st April, calls to active Virgin Mobile numbers made within the Talk Plan specified periods will also benefit from zero-rating. As with landline calls, users should re-dial before 60 mins to avoid call charges. To be “active”, the Virgin Mobile number called must have originated a chargeable outbound event (call, sms , data session) within the previous 90 days. If a Virgin Mobile number that is roaming overseas is called, that number will still be charged any applicable roaming tariff, even though the landline part of the call may be free.

 

About the tariffs

From April 1:

About Virgin Media

With almost 10 million customers, Virgin Media is the UK's first quad-play provider of broadband, TV, phone and mobile.

The company is one of the largest residential broadband providers in the UK, using a unique fibre optic cable network to deliver next generation ultrafast internet access of up to 50Mb to just over half of all homes. Combined with a high speed ADSL service and mobile broadband products, Virgin Media is able to offer broadband internet access to virtually the entire country.

Virgin Media has the UK’s most advanced TV on demand service and is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer. It is the second largest provider of pay TV, was the first to launch a high definition TV service and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder.

The company operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world’s first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.

Virgin Media also owns Virgin Media Television (VMtv) which runs seven entertainment channels, including Virgin1, LIVING, Bravo and Challenge. VMtv is a 50 per cent joint partner with BBC Worldwide in UKTV, which consists of ten channels including Dave, G.O.L.D., Watch and Alibi.

Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).

 

This is an incredible turn up for the books. Although Virgin Media seem to be holding back on free 0870 and 0845 numbers, scraping call charges from Landline to Mobiles is a big move!

It says about free VM Mobile to Mobile calls... not something I've come across before, but if it's true then a family keeping track of each other, or even in a business scenario, this could save huge amounts of money.

Rich

Text “GIVE” to 70077 to donate £5 to the DEC for the Haiti earthquake appeal. You pay £5 plus your standard network SMS charge

Another brilliant example of how a bit of joined up thinking on behalf of the UK mobile phone networks allow people to use their mobile phones in more, and arguably, better ways.

Ted Thornhill - 18th January, 2010 Share|

‘I’m blowing the airport sky-high’ – Twitter joke leads to Terror Act arrest

After posting a joke on Twitter about blowing up Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport, Paul Chambers was arrested and banned from the airport for life.

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Social networking site Twitter

Heavy snow prevented Mr Chambers from flying to Ireland on Friday January 15, so he vented his frustration by posting a comment on the social networking site to amuse his pals.

“Cr*p! Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your sh*t together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky-high!!”

A week later, rather unamused police officers arrested him under the Terrorism Act after a tip-off from a member of public.

Detectives saw his messages as a security threat and questioned him for seven hours. He was kept in a cell for an hour after the interview, then released on bail.

Erm... anyone else think this "Terrorism Act" may have gone a bit too far now?

In fact, thinking about it... I'm probably going to get arrested for re-posting this aren't I?

I'll let you know when I'm let out again...

Rich