LTE is providing operators with a new lease on life, and not just in terms of being able to offer an improved user experience, a chance to sharpen branding messages and an opportunity to differentiate themselves from rivals. Operators are also seeing changes in consumer behavior, and initial signs are that LTE users are consuming more data than 3G customers.
Everything Everywhere (“EE”), the newly-created UK operator owned by Orange and T-Mobile, had a blank sheet of paper to define how it positioned in the UK market with its upcoming LTE launch. This would no doubt have been a daunting if thrilling prospect, and obviously not without a reasonable probability for failure. Rather than radical change, what EE has done is hone-in on the core operator functions while rethinking how it can differentiate in the market with them.
Now is an exciting time for Everything Everywhere (EE) as the soon-to-launch LTE operator works out how it can best ensure a successful LTE launch and create a strong and sustainable position in the UK mobile market.
Last week’s vote by the European Parliament, which was overwhelmingly in favour of new roaming rules, has both reduced the cost of roaming services for consumers and also paved the way for greater competition among operators for roaming customers. The near unanimous vote (578-10 in favour) for the new consumer-friendly regulations means not only that EU travellers will save money on voice, SMS and data roaming, but also that companies will soon be able to sell roaming services directly to users – who will be able to keep the same number they have for home mobile services.
Orange’s new roaming tariffs, launched at the Mobile Wold Congress in Barcelona today, are a good example of the type of new approach operators need to take to stimulate use of mobile services while abroad.
Orange’s new roaming tariffs, launched at the Mobile Wold Congress in Barcelona today, are a good example of the type of new approach operators need to take to stimulate use of mobile services while abroad.
Facebook and mobile operators became best friends at the Mobile World Congress today, as the social network giant pledged to help do away with fragmented mobile browser standards and to help operators bill for purchases made through internet applications. The move places Facebook at the heart of the mobile community, with the Internet giant acting as a champion for a mobile internet that works better for mobile operators and their customers, and one that operators can monetise more effectively than they do at present.
The proposals announced by the European Commission (EC) will effectively end the European Union mobile roaming market as it stands today. By requiring operators to open their networks to any mobile service provider based on regulated wholesale rates, the EC has consigned to history the bi-lateral approach to striking roaming wholesale agreements which has been in place since the advent of GSM.
If Apple decided to make a CDMA iPhone, the whoops of jubilation would be heard all the way from Verizon Wireless’headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ, to AT&T’s HQ in Dallas, TX, where the news would no doubt be greeted with stunned silence. Latest reports cite unnamed sources as confirming that Verizon Wireless will offer the iPhone in January, when they say AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple ends.
US software vendor Adobe has released the latest version of its mobile platform, Flash Player 10.1, in a move that draws clear battle-lines between different approaches to creating and selling smartphone content.
Universes expand and then contract. Similarly, mature mobile markets that have expanded over the past 20 years are on the verge of contracting over the next five years.
It’s unlikely that any senior Google executive will take very seriously Vodafone and Telefonica’s recent statements that they are thinking of charging search engines to use their networks.
Almost three years after the launch of the iPhone, it was clear at the recent FT World Telecoms conference that the mobile industry is still catching-up with the new paradigm the device has created.
The US Federal Communications Commission is taking its first look into the unregulated business of application stores, having sent letters to Apple, its US carrier partner and Google asking for answers as to why Apple blocked Google’s voice-over-IP (VoIP) application, which enables AT&T subscribers to make free voice calls.
MVNOs have a small but significant role in mobile markets. The overriding perception remains that they have the potential to disrupt network operators’ businesses, regardless of the actual damage they do to them. As such, the overriding perception among network operators is to be wary of virtual operators, unless they bring clear value to them that doesn’t threaten to diminish their own.
Vodafone UK’s launch of a Web application for the iPhone has caused much speculation that the operator is about to sell the iPhone in the UK, robbing O2 UK of its exclusivity with the device. If this were true, if would most likely mean that O2 decided not to meet Apple’s terms for retaining exclusive rights to sell the device.
3 UK’s introduction of free voice calls is the operator’s latest move to disrupt the business models of the incumbent mobile operators. What sets this move apart from 3′s other, equally headline-grabbing moves is that it strikes at what is still the heart of mobile operators’ business case: voice revenues.
The deal signed between Zain Kenya and Essar Telecom Kenya is a move that indicates operators in developing markets are following the lead of those in Europe by striking agreements to produce opex and capex savings.
Vodafone and O2 are discussing a network-sharing deal in the UK that would, if it gets off the ground, have major ramifications not just for the UK but also for the entire industry.
The Mobile World Congress was noticeably quieter this year but nonetheless produced a number of announcements that should increase the already considerable momentum behind mobile broadband. What was significant, and encouraging, was a theme of companies forming partnerships. Although commercial gain is obviously the main impetus behind these partnerships, they should also have the desired [...]
Lean and MeanWith summer supposedly fast approaching, many look to trim some fat and get in shape for the sunny months. The Informer has never been a huge fan of gyms; in fact his favourite machine in the gym is the one that sells chocolate. Telefonica’s UK arm O2, is one business that is looking to get lean for the holidays, though, and this week it announced that it is to trim 3,500 UK employees.
Cross-border opportunities are there, but Telenor has work to do in BulgariaPan-European operater group Telenor is making another move into Eastern Europe, this time buying Bulgaria’s Globul. The move makes sense for several reasons, but success won’t come easy in a country with high mobile penetration and a sluggish economy.
Telecoms.com speaks with Ali Agan, who has risen through the ranks of TeliaSonera Group to become CEO of KCell in Kazakhstan. With a young population Agan is keen to deploy LTE and exploit nascent demand for data services.
Jonathan Bell, VP of Marketing at OpenCloud, discusses how policy and pricing are just two dimensions along which telecoms operators can differentiate their propositions. By adding a third dimension, the service behaviour itself, operators can define and bring true innovation to the market that surpasses the traditional approaches of the past, he says.
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Calls for consolidation in the European mobile market grow louder by the week and four-operator markets look increasingly challenged. Now, those mobile operators that have already built scale seem to be suggesting that there is no option but to expand yet further through diversification.