O2 is also at network-level ad blocking

Following in EE's footsteps, O2 is at a "well advanced" stage of implementing ad blocking.

Read the whole story

 

[alagemo]

Surely they're only looking at doing this so they (like the guys who run ad-block) can sell access to customers to advertisers?

I don't trust a mobile phone company to censor the internet.

 

[IceCub]

HTTPS their ass!

 

[fivemack]

O2's current level of advertising to its low-end customers is hopeless - it texts me roughly daily with adverts for cars and sports betting.

Mobile advertising is a horrible user experience at the moment (in particular, it's very expensive to the carriers, who would have to switch from 100MB free data per month to 300MB free data to keep their low-end customers happy in a world full of data-intensive mobile ads) and I'm pleased that the carriers are starting to notice this.

Obviously running an ad blocker on modern Apple hardware fixes some of the problems.

 

[Mr_Cynical]

Coincidentally this would also require the kind of intrusive packet inspection that the Snooper's Charter wants. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this announcement.

 

[Hat Monster]

Anyone thinking O2 or EE has its customers' 'experience' at heart has clearly never dealt with either company.

This is going to be a shakedown of ad networks (and by that, everyone knows I mean "Google"), nothing more.

 

[Seannation]

"O2's motivation seems to be similar to EE's: they're worried about how invasive, intrusive, or otherwise crappy mobile ads might create a bad experience for their customers. "We are holding ourselves to the highest standards with our own advertising. We are looking at these technologies to see if they can help our customers with some of the bad practices and disruptive experiences that are happening," Franks said."

Hah. No, this is because O2 doesn't want to invest in infrastructure to carry the extra bandwidth that ads use.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Seannation[/url]":3e083pcx]"O2's motivation seems to be similar to EE's: they're worried about how invasive, intrusive, or otherwise crappy mobile ads might create a bad experience for their customers. "We are holding ourselves to the highest standards with our own advertising. We are looking at these technologies to see if they can help our customers with some of the bad practices and disruptive experiences that are happening," Franks said."

Hah. No, this is because O2 doesn't want to invest in infrastructure to carry the extra bandwidth that ads use.

O2 doesn't want to invest, period. Their current strategy is a sale of the company at any price.

 

[r3loaded]

Alternatively, the networks could simply offer unlimited data (a la Three) and let the user decide whether to block ads on their own devices without having to worry about bandwidth consumption.

 

[Chilly8]

alagemo[/url]":3rlv3g2l]Surely they're only looking at doing this so they (like the guys who run ad-block) can sell access to customers to advertisers?

I don't trust a mobile phone company to censor the internet.

When I go to start my filtered VPN, aimed at peoples in schools, offices, net cafes, etc, there will no no access told to advertisers, no matter how much money they pay. Ads will be blocked, no exceptions.