Ahead of the anticipated launch of a Facebook-branded smartphone on Thursday, one industry analyst has warned of the increasing disruption that the social network could bring to the mobile communications industry. In a research note issued Tuesday, Strand Consult said that “companies such as Facebook are rendering mobile operators into dumb pipes [and] all smartphones into dumb terminals.”
Customers in the US now have more options to gain access to LTE services as Sprint’s MVNO Boost Mobile brand unveils two LTE handsets available on pre-pay. The two handsets are the HTC One SV and the Boost Force, a Boost Mobile branded Android handset. Customers buy the phones outright and then are required to pre-pay a service plan that cost $55 a month and provides unlimited LTE internet access, texts and voice.
UK operator EE, the Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom joint venture, has announced that a new MVNO will soon be running on its network. Phones 4u, an independent mobile retailer well-known on UK high streets, will launch LIFE Mobile in March.
UK operator Everything Everywhere claims that it will be able to get new MVNOs up and running on its network in just ten minutes after signing a deal with a mobile virtual network aggregator (MVNA). The operator, formed by the merger between T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, is looking to grow the number of MVNOs it supports on its network and has enlisted the services of Atmovia to help out. The
After years of discussions about the potential of the MVNO business model for Latin America, it appears that regional players have come to a consensus that MVNOs can bring significant benefits to mobile operators. This was possibly the main message for the 200 delegates gathered in Sao Paulo in May for the third annual MVNOs Industry Summit. The main evidence that something is moving, and that we are finally evolving from the theory to the practice of MVNOs, is that for the first time since its inception in 2010 the event hosted several case-study presentations from regional MVNOs: Porto Seguro in Brazil, Virgin Mobile in Chile, UFF and ETB in Colombia, and FullMovil in Costa Rica.
China Telecom has introduced its own MVNO into the UK market, becoming the first Chinese operator to launch a service outside China. CTExcelbiz is running on Everything Everywhere’s network and offer a customised service to the UK’s Chinese population.
China Telecom launched its long-awaited UK MVNO this week, under the snappy name of CTExcelbiz. Using Everything Everywhere’s network, it’s aimed at Chinese residents of the UK, as well as students and tourists, and promises to meet the specific communication requirements of the UK’s Chinese population, voicemail services in Chinese, bilingual customer service and free on-network calls. China Telecom is the first Chinese operator to launch an overseas MVNO, and has a potential market of around 500,000 customers of Chinese descent, in addition to the estimated 1 million Chinese tourists who visit each year. The UK is just China Telecom’s first stop in launching MVNO services throughout Western Europe and the rest of the world.
The thought of Apple becoming an MVNO and offering its customers IP voice and messaging services as a cheap alternative to conventional voice and SMS is one that keeps many mobile operator CEOs awake at night. It is not just the loss of voice and SMS revenues that alarms operators. It is the risk that the operator would lose so much of its retail business. Network operators would become invisible to many of their (previous) customers.
China Telecom’s European arm is to launch consumer facing services for the first time outside of China after striking an MVNO deal with UK carrier Everything Everywhere.
A new MVNO has launched in the UK, targeted exclusively at the African migrant community, claiming to be the first player to launch prepaid mobile credit transfer over SMS between the UK and Africa. The service effectively allows African callers to reverse charge calls to the UK.
The European arm of Chinese carrier China Telecom will name the host of its forthcoming UK MVNO play before September, managing director Ou Yan told Telecoms.com. China Telecom Europe will be launching a UK MVNO before the end of Q112, targeting the half a million Chinese living in Britain with a SIM-only, Chinese content offering.
Almost one third of mobile subscribers in the Netherlands are customers of virtual operators, according to a report published this week by Dutch analyst house Telecom Paper. The total number of MVNO subs in the market has now hit 6.6 million, or 32.8 per cent of the total subscriber base, the analyst said.
UK network venture Everything Everywhere, a collaboration between T-Mobile and Orange, said Thursday it has won three new mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) – Priyo, The Phone Co-op and RMmobile.
Europe’s third-largest operator in subscriber terms, Turkcell, has announced its intention to expand into the European market, starting with Germany in April this year. As part of the newly formed subsidiary Turkcell Europe, the German venture will involve the launch of 1200 retail locations and will initially target Turkish citizens living and travelling in Germany with pre-and-postpaid offerings.
K-based Vodafone and Gamma Telecom have signed a Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator (MVNA) wholesale agreement, which will enable Gamma’s channel partners to become full MVNOs. The deal is Vodafone UK’s first MVNA which specifically targets the business market and combines Gamma’s channel partnerships with Vodafone’s network. Gamma’s partners will retain their own customer relationships, and have direct control over price and branding, so they can offer a wider range of converged fixed and mobile solutions to small business.
For a long time, Informa Telecoms & Media analysts have felt like lone voices in the wilderness, banging on about the potential for MVNOs in Saudi Arabia, only to be met with apparent indifference and even scorn.
UK operator Vodafone’s wholesale division and Cognatel have agreed to create a mobile virtual network aggregator (MVNA), caiming to give MVNOs easier access to the Vodafone network backed by flexible billing and CRM solutions.
Turkish operator Turkcell has announced a five-year wholesale agreement with German incumbent Deutsche Telekom to offer mobile services in the market. Turkcell has set up a subsidiary called Turkcell Europe and plans to offer services in Germany from early 2011, focusing on the Turkish population living in the country.
Pan-European MVNO Lebara, expanded its presence in the UK market with the addition of post paid contracts. The plans offer 2500 international or UK minutes and three month contracts, with prices ranging from just £10 up to £40. All plans include up to 2000 Lebara-to-Lebara call minutes and text messages and up to 10MB of mobile internet access per day free until November 1.Lebara piggybacks on the Vodafone UK network.
The fifth operational MVNO has launched in Oman in the shape of Samatel, which follows in the wake of Friendi and its sub brand Halafoni, Renna, Mazoon, and Apna. Samatel will be hosted on the Nawras network and is reportedly targeting low-end mass market and small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is also pinning hopes on loyalty programs. The company is using of an operating and technology platform provided by Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) Effortel.
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.