Internet charges to be folded into monthly price plans; fair usage policy applies.
Vodafone Thursday announced it is to begin bundling unlimited Internet access with its existing monthly tariffs in a bid to reduce the confusion over mobile data charging.
Until now Vodafone’s contract customers paid an additional fee of £7.50 for Internet access, but now it will be included as part of its existing price plans, which start at £25.
“Customers who select a £40 or higher price plan will also for the first time have the choice of unlimited texts, unlimited landline calls or unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls,” said the operator.
Vodafone said a fair usage policy of 500 megabytes per month applies, but pointed out that browsing 50 Web pages would only use on average approximately 1 megabyte.
According to the operator, streaming three 90 second video clips from YouTube would be equivalent to 4.5 megabytes.
Confusion over data pricing in the U.K. market has long been seen as a key barrier to the uptake of mobile Internet services.
Still, all of the country’s major mobile network operators (MNOs) have been working to clear up the confusion by launching their respective flat-rate data tariffs.
In the same announcement, Vodafone said the top five most viewed sites on its mobile Internet service are Facebook, Google, BBC, MSN and Bebo.
“Favourites for customers include quick access to Facebook, MySpace or Bebo to share pictures and news, YouTube to check out videos on the move, and fast connections to eBay to make that last minute bid,” said Vodafone.
Meanwhile comparison site Broadband Expert this week revealed that mobile broadband access speeds experienced by consumers are still slower than those advertised by operators.
Download speeds ranged from 2.3 Mbps on Vodafone to 1.1 Mbps on T-Mobile, and 1 Mbps for 3UK customers, said Broadband Expert in a statement.
“Vodafone clocked by far the fastest download speeds, though advertising for their latest offering promises much faster speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps,” the firm said.
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U.K. mobile operator to sell latest RAZR handset, but analyst notes U.S. vendor should focus more on product portfolio than distribution channels.
3 UK announced Tuesday it has added Motorola’s latest RAZR incarnation, the RAZR2 V9, to the range of handsets on offer to its consumers.
The newest addition to Motorola’s long-running RAZR line up is HSDPA enabled, features a more powerful processor, and becomes the first handset from the U.S. vendor to be sold by 3 UK in 18 months.
“Motorola’s renewed focus on powerful 3G handsets like the RAZR2 V9 means we can welcome them back into 3’s growing portfolio,” said Fergal Walker, director of products at 3 UK.
Still, while this is good news for both companies, particularly troubled Motorola, industry analyst firm Ovum believes the positive impacts of the deal with 3 UK are at best negligible.
“Surely we can’t still be talking about [the RAZR] can we?” said Steven Hartley, senior analyst, Ovum.
“From Motorola’s point of view it’s good to establish new distribution channels but more immediate is the need to refresh the product portfolio,” he told Total Telecom.
Indeed, Ovum contended back in July 2007 that the troubled U.S. vendor had failed to prepare for the end of the RAZR’s lifecycle, yet eight months later Moto is still relying on effectively the same design.
“The form factor when it came out was good. It’s still OK now, but the industry has moved on. There are so many other designs out there,” said Hartley.
Hartley added that as a result, 3 UK is unlikely to experience much benefit from adding the RAZR to its range.
“It’s nice to have an extra vendor in your portfolio… but it won’t have people rushing out to buy a RAZR from 3,” he commented. “3 need handsets that will shake things up, and the RAZR is not going to do that.”
The analyst noted that the longer it takes for Motorola to come up with a successful follow-up to the RAZR, the more it implies that its erstwhile flagship handset design was down to little more than luck.
“Nokia on the other hand is like a juggernaut – it’s one model after another across all segments with them,” said Hartley.
In the fourth quarter alone Nokia shipped 130 million devices compared to Motorola’s 40.9 million.
Last year Samsung overtook Motorola to become the number two handset vendor in the world based on unit shipments. But Hartley believes that rather than concentrating solely on regaining its position in the market, Moto should also keep one eye on world number four, Sony Ericsson.
“Samsung are definitely trying to reinforce their position, not by actively going after Motorola, but they are looking to pull away this year,” he said.
“Sony Ericsson have never chased the mass market, they’ve typically kept their portfolio at the high-end of the price range and protected their ASPs (average selling prices). I can’t see them directly going for Motorola’s ground, so a lot will depend on how aggressive Sony Ericsson are as to whether they take the number three spot this year,” he added.
However, growth at any of the big handset vendors looks set to slow due to growing anxiety over a global economic downturn.
“All players are likely to take a hit as a result of a lower overall market,” warned Nomura analyst Richard Windsor, commenting on chipmaker Texas Instruments’ move to cut its first-quarter guidance in a research note on Tuesday.
Windsor expects estimated first quarter handset shipments at Nokia and Sony Ericsson to decline by 5%, with Motorola’s falling 5.1%.
This will come as unwelcome news to Motorola CEO Greg Brown, who took direct control over the struggling mobile devices business in early February, replacing devices head Stu Reed. On Monday Reed then resigned from the company with immediate effect.
“Stamping his authority on the handset division and introducing some fresh blood might help, but the problem seems to be out of the CEO’s hands, and up to the R&D and design teams to work out,” said Hartley.
He said the pressure on Brown to turn the business round will have been increased by billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s renewed efforts to shake up the business.
The activist shareholder in February named four board nominees he hopes will back the spin-off or sale of Motorola’s handset division.
“I’m not sure how much time Icahn will give the management. From his point of view it’s all about realising investor value, and if the value of Motorola’s brand continues to move in the wrong direction, the more he will push for a break-up of the company,” said Hartley.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Groove Mobile, the world’s leading mobile music commerce platform, announced today that it will add music videos to its successful mobile music offering with mobile media company, 3, in the UK. In addition to over the air (OTA) downloads, the expanded video offering will allow users to dual download to a PC videos they purchased via cell phone.
The Groove Mobile powered video download service will also allow customers who purchase videos OTA to receive an optimized mobile version of the video directly to their handset and have the option to download a higher quality WMV file of the video to their personal computers. Customers then have the flexibility of playing the videos on their PC or laptop or transferring them to their media center.
“We are pleased to expand our platform to include support for music videos, which are poised to be the next big seller in mobile content,” said Adam Sexton, Chief Marketing Officer of Groove Mobile. “By providing a unified shopping experience for audio and video, and enabling a combined mobile and PC solution, 3 UK and Groove Mobile continue to push the envelope and define expectations for the ultimate mobile music experience.”
The service will launch with 1,000 videos, three times the available catalogue of the previous mobile-only service. The expanded video music store will include music videos from all four major record labels: Universal Music Group, EMI, Warner Music Group and Sony BMG, in addition to leading independent music labels. To facilitate music discovery and cross-selling opportunities the new store presents unique song pages where users can access both related audio tracks and videos.
The cost for video downloads will be GBP 1.49, with audio tracks still at GBP 1.29 for existing 3 customers. In the event that a customer loses or deletes a video, they are able to re-download the video up to three times, free of charge.
“Groove Mobile has been an outstanding partner for 3UK, and we are pleased to expand this partnership with this best of breed OTA video service,” said Pete Northing, Director of Content Services of 3UK. “The unified Groove Mobile platform will allow us to take full advantage of cross selling opportunities, and take music video sales to new heights.”
Groove Mobile began powering the 3 Music Store in September of 2006. Groove Mobile also powers the award winning Sprint Music Store in the United States.
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Vodafone launches bundled Web tariffs
