MVNO

KPN acquires Dutch MVNO, adding to growing empire

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:32:21 -0400

Strengthening its position in its domestic market, the Netherlands' largest telecoms company, KPN, has concluded a deal for an undisclosed amount to acquire the Dutch MVNO operations of debitel Germany. This move will bring around 530,000 new customers to KPN along with reported revenues of €247 million and 130 employees.

This move follows KPN's buyout of Telfort in 2005 and preparations announced earlier this month to launch an MVNO in France using Bouygues Telecom's network. While branding and pricing have not been disclosed, it is thought that KPN will replicate the business model of its Spanish no-frills MVNO brand Simyo (launched in June on the Orange network), and use Spanish distribution partner 20:20 Mobile to help launch the service in mainland France.

For more on this story:
- go to Cellular News and Mobile News

Related article:
KPN goes live with mobile TV, France issues licences. KPN story

Utility Warehouse, UK

paul rasmussen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:35:13 -0400

Innovation: Offers heavily discounted utility services using bundled packages.

This UK-based MVNO emulates the U-Switch model (a utilities price comparison service) by bundling together the many utilities required within a household--including fixed-line voice, broadband, gas, electricity and cellular services.

By bundling these services, Utility Warehouse believes it can offer an attractive price to consumers by offering heavily discounted packages. The company has invested significantly in CRM and offers a single invoice for all utilities consumed within the household.

Albeit that the company charges a small membership fee, a recent survey of utility providers rated Utility Warehouse as the best, while the major gas and electricity suppliers were judged to be abysmal in their ability to produce accurate invoicing and provide acceptable customer support.

Breizh Mobile, France

paul rasmussen — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:51:30 -0400

Innovation: Targeting low penetration regions with an emphasis on cultural ties.

Breizh Mobile is a regional MVNO operating in the Brittany and Loire-Atlantique regions of France and is part of the larger Omer Telecom’s MVNO business.

This company, which also operates the Virgin Mobile MVNO in France, has a strategy of targeting under-penetrated regions of France with locally-branded mini-MVNOs, such as Breizh Mobile. This particular MVNO has specialised in attracting residents to the service who consider themselves Bretons rather than French. The company continues to offer cut-price services while maintaining a strong regional identity.

With the French government encouraging the launch of more MVNOs to provoke more intense competition, Breizh Mobile looks likely to prosper given its decision to focus on consumers wanting to work with a clearly identifiable local provider.

Yes Telecom, UK

paul rasmussen — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:31:44 -0400

Innovation: provides specific customer service for business users offering higher levels of tailoring and support than is typically available from existing MNOs.

This UK-based MVNO aims to differentiate itself in the market by providing corporate users with significantly improved levels of service. The company maintains that it is able to offer a high quality of service to its 100,000 subscribers due to the reduced challenges of running the cellular network.

With its focus on providing services of appeal to business users, Yes Telecom also works with Vodafone dealers to help them deliver higher levels of customer relationship management (CRM) -- an aspect that the majority of mobile operators continue to struggle with. Overall, Yes Telecom believes it can continue to differentiate itself by offering highly tailored solutions to corporate users reinforced by a comprehensive support package.

RSCC Mobile, Belgium

paul rasmussen — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:29:43 -0400

Innovation: Demonstrating the application of pinpoint marketing available through the niche MVNO approach.

This MVNO has focused upon a specific community with an offering that aims to provide a service of high value to soccer supporters. In this particular case the Royal Sporting Club de Charleroi (RSCC)--the soccer team of Charleroi, Belgium, launched its MVNO service in October 2004 with the particular aim of providing relevant and sought-after updates to its fan base.

The MVNO service is run on a day-to-day basis by Transatel--a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE), with RSCC leveraging its expertise in reaching its base of supporters to offer voice and limited data services (score-updates and various other infotainment services related to the club).

The route provides RSCC with a timely and effective method of communicating with its supporters and enabling greater customer retention. The cost of running the MVNO service is low due to the involvement of the MVNE.

Blyk marches on

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:38:58 -0400

One year after it launched, the CEO of Blyk, the UK ad-funded MVNO, has announced that the company had signed up 200,000 users by early September 2008--double its initial target for its first 12 months of operation. However, by proving mobile advertising can attract users, Blyk is goading the much larger MNOs to move towards mobile advertising. Article

Virgin signs six year extension with T-Mobile

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:18:45 -0400

The UK-based MVNO, Virgin Mobile, will launch HSPA-based services later this year following a renegotiation of its wholesale deal with T-Mobile. Virgin, which had been hampered by its inability to offer 3G handsets and services, had been in discussions with other operators but is now believed to have secured better terms with a new six-year deal with its existing partner T-Mobile.

While the two companies have had bitter disagreements in the past, T-Mobile would appear to have been keen to retain Virgin as an MVNO given the growing interest by other network operators to form similar partnerships. However, Virgin would have had a nightmare in switching to another network, which would have entailed all their existing customers changing their SIM cards.

The inclusion of HSPA will enable Virgin to compete with other mobile broadband offerings, including 3G dongles on prepay tariffs.

For more on this story:
- go to Mobile Today

Related articles:
Virgin's French MVNO operation on track. Virgin France story
Vodafone stymies Virgin Mobile's Indian venture. Vodafone story

iPhone boosts data 30x for T-Mobile Germany

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Speaking at Deutsche Telekom's AGM, the CEO, Rene Obermann, let slip that the iPhone had done wonders to T-Mobile Germany's data traffic. Obermann revealed that German iPhone customers use mobile internet services thirty times more than other cell phone subscribers, while one third of all T-Mobile iPhone customers have chosen the most expensive plan.

This level of success perhaps prompted T-Mobile's CEO, Hamid Akhavan, to state that the company expected to remain the sole seller of the handset in Germany. "We have a very good relationship with Apple... at least in Germany it is exclusive, and we expect it to remain as such," he said. 'If and when there is a 3G iPhone we expect to have it exclusively in Germany as well," he added.

While T-Mobile is reported to have sold over 100,000 iPhones since last November, Apple has recently started to make deals with more than one operator in all the major European countries, with the exception of Germany.

For more on this story:
-read Phones Review and i4u.com

Related stories:
iPhone patents forecast GPS, games...and an MVNO? 3G iPhone story

Early success for ad-funded mobile network

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Blyk, Europe's first ad-funded mobile network, signed up 100,000 U.K. customers in its first six months of operation. An MVNO utilising the Orange network, Blyk offers free calls and texts to 16 to 24 year-olds willing to receive six targeted advertising texts or pictures every day. The rapid uptake of its service has meant that Blyk reached its first year target in six months.

For more information:
- go to Silicon News and Mobile Europe

Ad-supported MVNO ahead of user target

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

With over 100,000 signed-up members to its MVNO service, U.K.-based Blyk is claiming to be six months ahead of schedule since it launched in September 2007. The company says that the ad campaigns that fund the service--Blyk gives its customers free texts and minutes every month in return for receiving up to six advertising messages per day--have generated industry leading average response rates approaching 30 per cent.

According to Shaun Gregory, CEO, in the first six months Blyk had built up a deep knowledge of its users which has now exceeded many established youth media players. "Young people have embraced Blyk because it makes phone bills and contracts a thing of the past. We believe that communication should be free, like most other forms of media in the U.K." Blyk plans to launch in the Netherlands in the second half of 2008 followed by other European markets and has recently attracted new investors Goldman Sachs and Industrial and Financial Investments Company.

For more on this story:
- read Cellular News

Related stories:
Ad-supported MVNO Blyk premieres in UK. Blyk article
Ex-Nokia president launching ad-funded MVNO. Blyk article