Vodafone spurns UK's Rummble for FourSquare

I saw Vodafone’s FourSquare deal announcement this morning and immediately wondered what the hell had happened to their rumoured deal with UK location-and-recommendation service, Rummble.

The word on the grapevine is that Rummble — having worked really hard on a very neat looking Vodafone 360 app — were due to get all sorts of on-handset distribution and a heck of a lot of Vodafone love. This is good news given Rummble is a home-grown British startup very well deserving of the attentions of the likes of Big Red.

But no.

I can’t quite imagine the frustration of the Rummble team wondering why Vodafone has plonked out this announcement.

The message is quite clear for British and European startups (as TechCrunch points out regarding Bambuser): Don’t expect a leg up from British operators.

Can anyone give me an example of a British mobile startup that’s been ‘made’ (or at least, substantially helped out) through it’s association with a British mobile operator? There must be some?