UK mobile customer base saw its first quaterly decline for two years in Q1 08, losing on 119k subscribers to finish the quarter on 70.67million. The net declines was seen with O2, T-Mobile, Virgin and Tesco suffering widespread losses. Tesco lost a maximum of 100k, Virgin lost 68k, T-Mobile 71k and O2 79k. The highest figures for net additions of 114k were achieved by Orange, Hutchison came next with 75k and Vodafone gained 41k. Similar subscriber loss was seen in the Q1 07, but Vodafone’s strong performance, 723k net additons, ensured a growth in the total customer base.
On an annual basis, the Q1 08 loss was counterbalanced by a potent net additions of 1.89 million in the Q4 07, leaving the annual growth at 5.0%, almost exactly the same rate as the preceding 12 months (4.9%). However, no consistency could be seen on the operator level, Virgin, after seeing a growth of 3.2% in the previous year, it was down by 0.9% to 4.42million. O2 recorded a gain in the subscribers on year-on-year basis, but it’s growth rate of 4.7% was less than half the last year’s figure of 10.2%. Tesco’s growth rate halved from 35.9% to 17.9%, taking quater-end customer base to 1.65million.
T-Mobile and Orange, on the other hand, improved strikingly on the 0.9% annual growth in the Q1 07 by both of them. T-Mobile grew to 10.24million, a growth of 4.2%, while Orange grew at 4.4% to 15.76million, but did not advance Vodafone’s lead gained in the Q1 07.
Vodafone, the most consistent performer in the market, edged it’s 6.9% growth rate up to 7.7%, finishing the quater 0.85 million ahead of Orange on 16.6million. O2 scored a 20.05 million subscribers to become the market leader with quater-end.
UK’s T-Mobile faces a US$ 1.25 billion (£625 million) latent lawsuit for damages from a former reseller of SIM cards, VIP Communications. According to VIP Communications, the claim is based on the report prepared by T-Mobile internal staff to calculate the economic impact of VIP Communications’ business model valued at some £57 million per year.According to Mobile News, UK trade magazine, T-Mobile has not recieved a legal claim and dismissed the actions.
VIP Communications, a telecom reseller, until 2004 offered GSM Gateway products, these are routers which the direct office landline calls to mobile calls via GSM SIM card, which otherwise is costlier than network mobile to mobile calls. The business model is that a GSM Gateway would lower an office call costs. On the other hand, operators have been arguing that GSM Gateways create an abnormal concentration of outbound mobile call traffic in a specific area and disrupt their networks.
VIP Communications, in order to overturn the descision to block it from selling T-Mobile SIM cards for use in the GSM Gateways,is engaged in further legal action in the UK’s High Court of Appeal. VIP’s win will open a flood of litigations from the previous resellers who were all prohibited from selling the SIM cards around the same time.
Belgians are finally getting the chance to buy one of Apple’s coveted iPhones, at the highest prices in the world.
An Associated Press report also said the 8-gigabyte iPhone will retail for €525 euros (US$825), more than four times the US price of €126 (US$199).
The 16-gigabyte version costs €615 (US$966). The same phone would cost €190 (US$299) in the US.
Belgian Enterprise Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne blamed a local law that forbids companies subsidizing one product by charging more for something else, the Associated Press report said.
He said he will try to scrap this rule in September because it stops phone operators from selling handsets inexpensively along with fixed service contracts, as is common elsewhere. For instance, Dutch customers over the border can pay just €1 (US$1.57) for an iPhone if they pick a contract with operator T-Mobile.
The Belgian iPhone carrier, Mobistar, claims it isn’t worried that high prices will deter customers. It is expecting lines at stores in Brussels when the phones go on sale Friday.
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Most operators selling the iPhone worldwide subsidise the gadget but in India the story is different. Airtel and Vodafone, the two operators who will selling the iphone in india will not be in a position to subsidise the iphone due to the fear of unlocking and likely flooding of counterfeit iPhones in the market.
As its well known that the latest 8-GB iPhone (Version 2.0) is being sold at $199 (Rs 8,000) and the 16-GB priced at $299 (Rs 11,960) by AT&T in the US,however this is not the scenario in India.The phone is given free by O2 in the UK, while T-Mobile prices it at a meagre 1 euro (Rs 67.92) in Germany. The 8-gb version of the gizmo is likely to be priced between Rs 16,000 and 18,000, while the 16-gb would cost around Rs 24,000 to Rs 28,000 in the country.This
price hike doen’t end here.It’s likely that the prices in india would also be higher by around $25-30 (Rs 1,000-1,200) as companies are expected to levy handling and other charges.
The secret behind the cheap pricing of handsets by AT&T, O2 and T-Mobile is that they are bundling iPhones with their services.This is not all as they have
accepted the fact that they are subsidising but its extent is not known.
As for Airtel and Vodafone, they are unlikely to subsidise them as bundling is not a “successful formula” in the country and penalty clauses are not strictly adhered to leading to lengthy court battles.Industry Sources have said that without subsides the iPhone would cost around $400, double the price offered by AT&T in the US.Bharti Airtel spokesperson said: “We have plans of bringing in the iPhone before the close of the year, though a specific launch date is yet to be announced. It is too premature to comment on pricing details.”
While Vodafone-Essar did not respond to queries, an Apple spokesperson based out of Singapore said: “Apple does not comment on speculation.”
It seems that the recent inflation in India has hit every aspect of our lives, even the most awaited iPhone.
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Europe’s mobile phone industry will today mount a last-ditch effort to ward off strict price caps on text messages and data downloads within the EU by admonition that heavy regulation is cutting capital spending and profit margins.
With Viviane Reding, EU telecoms commissioner, poised to propose a new round of price caps this month, mobile operators claim their capital spending has already slipped from 13% of revenues in 2005 to 11% last year - and could fall further.
The GSM Association - the global trade body representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators - citing data from a study by management consultants, says the industry’s return on capital employed was as low as 7% in 2007 or less than half that of other significant sectors such as steel and software.
Sources said this gives the lie to Reding’s claim that it is making excessive profits from “roaming” services in the EU.
Reding’s deadline for the operators to supply her with convincing evidence that they have cut or plan to cut text and data charges for subscribers travelling within the EU ran out on Monday. She is threatening to propose new caps on top of the year-old limits on phone calls within the next three weeks.
It is understood that only two-thirds - 64 out of 95 - of operators responded to a letter she sent last month asking chief executives to provide public details of retail roaming prices for texts and data downloads and confidential information on wholesale charges from July 1. Some operators said it would take months to provide such details.
Reding has also urged the industry to introduce specific measures such as warnings to prevent “bill shocks” for data roaming services such as downloading videos when travelling overseas.
The GSMA says that several operators have substantially cut prices for data roaming, with T-Mobile UK slashing charges by 80% from July 1, for instance, and Vodafone reducing the price per megabyte by 45%. It is acknowledged that some roaming text charges are too high.
The telecoms commissioner, who insists she is reluctant to regulate, is said to be ready to intervene again, preparing to cut roaming text charges by up to two-thirds and impose strict caps on the price of data downloads which now cost on average €5.24 (£4) a megabyte.
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T-Mobile will soon launch its US$10 landline phone service across the U.S., the company planned to announce Wednesday.
Already available in Seattle and Dallas, the service will be offered to T-Mobile customers elsewhere starting July 2. The $10 monthly subscription includes unlimited local and long-distance calling as well as services including voicemail, call forwarding and call waiting.
The service has a few drawbacks but should appeal to certain people, including existing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) users looking for a better deal, said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “You can cut down on expenses because it beats Vonage by a significant amount,” he said. Vonage currently has a $15 per month limited promotion, with its standard rate at $30 per month.
The offer is only available to existing T-Mobile customers who have mobile subscriptions costing $39.99 per month and up, and who have broadband in their homes. Users must also buy a router priced at $50 with a two-year contract, or $150 with a shorter contract. UMA was designed so that mobile operators could use Wi-Fi to extend mobile coverage into the home. It sends calls over the Internet to the nearest node in a wireless network, and from there the call is transferred via the mobile operator’s existing back-end network.
T-Mobile developed the landline service after launching HotSpot@Home, which requires users to have a special mobile phone that connects to the cellular network when they’re outside and the Wi-Fi network at home. While some HotSpot@Home customers might decide to give up their home phones because of improved coverage in the house, the operator found that a certain segment of customer didn’t want to for several specific reasons, said Britt Wehrman, director of product development for T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile@Home, which can be used in conjunction with HotSpot@Home, is designed to address that segment of the market.
One reason is that the form factor of a home phone can be better for long conversations than a mobile phone, he said. Another reason is that some families like to have a central phone number for the family. As an example, when Wehrman and his wife go out, they like to have a home phone number to call the babysitter on, he said.
While subscribers can use any existing home phone, T-Mobile is selling cordless phones with preprogrammed features, such as a dedicated button to call voicemail and another for T-Mobile customer service.
The phones T-Mobile is selling attempt to address one shortcoming of the service — subscribers won’t be able to use existing phone wall jacks throughout their house to plug in multiple phones. So if a user wants more than one phone in the home, they have to use so-called “satellite” phones, such as the ones T-Mobile is selling. Such packages include two or more phones: One plugs into the T-Mobile router, and the others include a base station and phone that connect cordlessly to the phone that is plugged into the router.
Another drawback is that users can’t attach fax machines or home alarm systems to the T-Mobile home phone service, Golvin said.
While Golvin didn’t expect that a significant number of people would switch to T-Mobile in order to get the new service, T-Mobile said that 45 percent of users of the service in Seattle and Dallas had switched from other mobile operators.
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Despite its ingenuity, T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home hasn’t been the biggest headline-generating service, but T-Mobile is looking to curb that and increase popularity by adding two stylish handsets to the HotSpot @Home service.
The new cell phones include the Nokia 6301 and Samsung SGH-t339, which joins the existing HotSpot @Home phones including the Samsung T409 and BlackBerry Curve.
The HotSpot @Home service works by merging cellular technology with voice over IP technology. The HotSpot @Home cell phones include Wi-Fi. When within a Wi-Fi network the cell phones will operate over the broadband network, therefore saving you precious and expensive mobile minutes. While leaving the broadband network the cell phones are capable of automatically switching.
Enabling the HotSpot @Home service is a $10 extra to any T-Mobile service plan It also requires a Wi-Fi-enabled cell phone like the recently added Nokia 6301 and Samsung SGH-t339 and access to a wireless Internet connection.
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Virgin Mobile, the offspring sprung from Sprint and sent off on its own into the wireless world, isn’t showing much respect for its parent.
Well that’s one way to look at Virgin’s brand new “Totally Everything” unlimited calling plans for $79.99 a month. An extra $10 a month adds unlimited text messaging.
Hmmm. That sounds familiar. Oh yeah, Sprint has a “Simply Everything” unlimited calling and messaging plan for…$89.99. Sprint, of course, also has a much more expansive flagship unlimited plan for $99.99 a month that lets a subscriber enjoy “Everything your phone, PDA or smartphone can do nationwide — text, surf, email, listen, watch, find and, of course, talk — on one simple plan.”
Adam Fendelman at About.com noticed the similarities. “What’s perhaps most interesting is that Virgin Mobile, which itself is a reseller of Sprint mobile service, is even undercutting Sprint,” he wrote.
So what drove Virgin to make this move?
“Unlimited is the buzzword in the wireless world right now,”
Bob Stohrer, chief marketing officer at Virgin Mobile, said in this Marketwatch report. “We think that the plan and the value on its own will resonate with consumers. As importantly, we think it provides an important halo for all of our products.”
The carrier that began as a joint venture between Sprint and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group announced today that starting July 1 it would join the wireless industry’s unlimited party. Virgin sells its own brand of service over Sprint’s network, contributing more than 5 million wholesale subscribes to Sprint’s overall customer count.
Sprint is betting big that its expansive and relatively fast “now network” will make it stand out from rivals and return it to a growth track. The newly launched Samsung Instinct phones are whizzes at navigating the ‘Net, watching TV, listening to music and doing other data-oriented functions.
In an effort to avoid any nasty, or at least annoyingly surprising, extra charges on a subscriber’s monthly bill, Sprint is requiring that Instinct purchasers also sign up for one of its Simply Everything unlimited or other data plans.
All the calls, all the data, all the Simply Everything for one don’t-worry-about-any-extra-charges price.
Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and other carriers also have unlimited calling plans, though most of them charge extra for data services.
It will be interesting to see whether this unlimited gambit brings a much-needed surge for Virgin. The carrier primarily reaches out to the youth market, relying primarily at least in the past on its no-contract prepaid services.
Some wireless analysts see this new plan as possible competition on the edges for Sprint, though others see it hitting a carrier such as T-Mobile more directly.
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Google Inc. is learning that changing the cellphone industry isn’t easy.
The Internet giant and more than 30 partners announced in November a bold plan for a new breed of handsets based on a suite of mobile software called Android. At the time, Google said it planned to have the new phones on the market by the second half of this year.
Google now says that the handsets won’t arrive until the fourth quarter. And some cellular carriers and makers of programs that work with Android are struggling to meet that schedule, people familiar with the situation say.
T-Mobile USA expects to deliver an Android-powered phone in the fourth period. But that launch is taking up so much of Google’s attention and resources that Sprint Nextel Corp., which had hoped to launch an Android phone this year, won’t be able to, a person familiar with the matter said.
China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world with nearly 400 million subscriber accounts, had planned to launch an Android phone in the third quarter but it has run into issues that will likely delay the launch until late this year or early 2009, a person familiar with the matter says.
Meanwhile, the Android software has yet to win broad support from large mobile-software developers. Some say it is difficult to develop programs while Google is making changes as it finishes its own software.
This month Apple Inc. created a stir when it unveiled a cheaper, faster version of the iPhone that supports slick games and entertainment services. While Apple controls most aspects of hardware and software development for the iPhone, Google has to rally many different hardware, service and software providers to support its technology platform.
There is no evidence that Android won’t be able to gain momentum over time. But wireless carriers throughout the industry are confronting challenges as they seek to customize the Android software — which includes an operating system and programs that work with it — to promote their own Internet services. Some handset makers are taking longer than they thought to integrate Android, test it and build custom user interfaces to meet carrier specifications.
Those challenges are affecting large cellphone makers like Samsung Electronics Co. and smaller ones that are aiming to provide devices that will be branded by carriers, people familiar with the situation say. Samsung didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google, says managing the software-development effort while giving its partners the opportunity to lobby for new features takes time. “This is where the pain happens,” he says. “We are very, very close.”
One hold-up at Sprint is that the carrier would like to develop its own branded services based on Android, rather than just carry a phone with the built-in features Google plans to offer, the person familiar with the situation says. A management shake-up at Sprint, which brought in a new chief executive this year and, more recently, a new executive overseeing product development, may have also contributed to the delay. Sprint is now considering scrapping plans for an Android phone for its current third-generation broadband network and developing one that will work on the faster “4G” network it is helping to fund along with several partners, including Google, the person adds.
China Mobile and a cellphone maker it is working with have had trouble translating the Android software from Roman characters into Chinese and have had difficulty merging China Mobile’s own branded data services into it, the person familiar with the matter says. A spokeswoman for China Mobile declined to comment.
AT&T Inc., the U.S. carrier for the iPhone, is still working with Google to determine if it is feasible to launch an Android phone.
Google’s Mr. Rubin declines to discuss specific partners. But he says Google is working hard to help them develop new features and drive down costs, collaborating with chip makers and other technology providers so handset makers and carriers don’t have to design Android-based phones from scratch.
Google has provided prototypes for carriers and handset manufacturers, though their final versions are likely to vary greatly. One prototype has a long touch-screen, similar to the Apple iPhone, a swivel-out full keyboard, and a trackball for navigation similar to the kind on some BlackBerrys.
For Google, the struggle likely will be worth it if the company can build a big foothold in the mobile market. The Mountain View, Calif., company dominates search on the personal computer, but it also wants to play a central role as Internet activity and eventually advertising dollars move to cellphones.
Until recently, wireless carriers have often called the shots on what consumers see on cellphones, taking a cut of revenues from providers of add-on services and software. Google is trying to make the process more open and less expensive. It is making Android available to handset makers for free — hoping the investment will eventually pay off in advertising revenue — and on an open-source basis that makes it easier to add custom programming.
Meanwhile, rivals have a head start. Apple, for example, expects to sell 10 million of its iPhones this year. Research in Motion Ltd., which has roughly 14 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts, recently announced a new BlackBerry device that makes it easier for consumers to download music, watch videos and browse the Web. Microsoft Corp. also has a sizable position in high-end cellphones.
Google executives say the company eventually hopes to power many cellphones at various price-points. But the company is likely to start by zeroing in on higher-end phones that have hardware features to handle advanced services.
The effort hinges on convincing partners to exploit the operating system, which supports capabilities such as the ability to build applications that know a phone’s location. Some software developers already have built flashy demos, ranging from security software that scans a person’s iris to an address book integrated with instant-messaging and other tools. Google says it has received roughly 1,800 submissions to a contest for developing Android-based application programs.
But some developers say it is easier to work with Apple’s programming tools than Google’s because of the familiarity with the company’s Macintosh operating system. As a result, a wide range of software companies have been scrambling to build new iPhone applications.
Apple and RIM “have superseded the excitement and hype” around Android, says Nihal Mehta, co-founder of Buzzd Inc., a location-based city guide and social network. Mr. Mehta says the company prioritized its iPhone application over an Android version because Apple’s guidelines are easier to follow and there aren’t any Android phones in the market to use in testing software.
Others developers cite hassles of creating programs while Android is still being completed. One is Louis Gump, vice president of mobile for Weather Channel Interactive, which has built an Android-based mobile weather application. Overall, he says, he has been impressed by the Google software, which has enabled his company to build features such as the ability to look up the weather in a particular neighborhood.
But he says Weather Channel has had to “rewrite a few things” so far, and Google’s most recent revision of Android “is going to require some significant work,” he says.
Others — such as Greystripe Inc., whose technology inserts ads into mobile games — are staying away until Google clarifies key points, such as how applications will be distributed and how developers will earn revenue from them.
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T-Mobile and Intercasting announced that they have added leading social networking sites Bebo and Piczo to T-Mobile’s ground-breaking My Social Sites service.
UK users can now stay in touch with their favourite social networking sites with just one click.
The My Social Sites application also allows users to upload pictures from their mobile phone direct to the sites.
My Social Sites is a mobile application that provides users with a single and easy to use interface, which allows social networkers to manage their most important sites in a simple way, direct from their mobile phone.
Bebo and Piczo will be added to the existing My Social Sites – Xanga, LiveJournal, BlackPlanet and Vox and mobile community, Rabble.
The technology behind My Social Sites is provided by Intercasting and its award-winning ANTHEM platform. The ANTHEM platform provides social networking category management for T-Mobile through applications, messaging and embedded handset features. Users can add popular new social networking sites as they become available to their mobile devices.
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UK mobile operators suffer a loss of 119k subscribers in Q1 08 (UK)
