Is UK heading towards merger era?
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: European Union has given its blessing to the most talked about deal of the season and the celebration will soon begin with the consummation of the proposed merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK. The telecom sector of UK is vital and highly competitive and the main players have always and loudly protested their support of the benefits of competition.
But with the finalization of the proposed merger, the big five have come down to big four. The current market leader in UK, O2 will be pushed a place down the hierarchy. Vodafone will go further down the order and will be casting around for some way to bolster its fortunes. All these mobile operators will try to cope up with the new and a powerful competition in the form of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merger and by “competition” they all will mean merging themselves.
Though O2 will not be allowed to merge with Vodafone as the regulators in the UK and in Europe would not allow it too but the two can share their networks on a full fledged way.
The merger is paving the way towards a new trend of merger and collaboration of the entities that have control of two huge networks running the sector by themselves. The new trend will also provide access and services to a variety of MVNOs.
Until and unless a line is drawn by the regulator between the big two, the end user will be disadvantaged by the consolidation.
France fourth 3G license awarded to Free Mobile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Free Mobile, a subsidiary of broadband group Iliad, became the fourth mobile network to get 3G mobile network licence at the cost of EUR 240 million from French telecommunications regulator Arcep.
The company’s target is to cover 90 percent of the population with its 3G network within eight years, to launch the service within two years and to host MVNOs. The frequency license will be provided to Free Mobile in January.
Free Mobile was the only candidate for the 5 MHz licence in the 2.1GHz band in a procedure launched on 1 August and its application was accepted in consideration of all applicable criteria.
Clear and innovative services at competitive prices particularly designed to help facilitate access to the mobile internet is what the company plans to offer to the consumers.
The applications for remaining 10 MHz of spectrum of the 2.1 GHz band will be called in the first half of next year with the purpose to enable the deployment of new generation and very high-speed mobile networks.
KCC asks mobile operators to slash call charges (South Korea)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Choi See-joong, the Chairman of South Korean regulator, has reportedly asked mobile operators to lower call charges on the back of an OECD report highlighting the country as one of the world’s most expensive for mobile phone use .
As per his recommendations, a similar pledge by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to cut mobile rates by 20%. The regulator is considering a variety of methods to force rate reductions, including the banning of handset subsidies to promote cheaper call rates, expanding pre-paid tariffs and most notably allowing the introduction of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). However, all three telcos are not in favour of this. SK Telecom has claimed that government interference could have a negative effect on competitiveness in the wireless sector.
New MVNO launched targeting Chinese Americans
A new MVNO targeting Chinese-Americans officially launched today, offering cheap international calls to Asia and a Razr phone with menus in Chinese.
Red Pocket Mobile soft-launched about two weeks ago, according to Max Smetannikov, vice president of business development for Global Advertising Strategies, which specializes in helping MVNOs market to multicultural groups. At the Informa MVNO Sustainable Business Models conference, Smetannikov said that Red Pocket would begin a major marketing push in Chinese-language media today. He added that out of “several thousand” handsets that already had been provided to distributors in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, “half the product is gone.”
Smetannikov said that the 4 million Chinese-Americans in the United States make an estimated 150 million minutes worth of calls home each month, and that the demographic is particularly well educated and wealthy. Red Pocket will be a prepaid service that allows its customers to directly dial international calls with no extra steps. Red Pocket will let its customers “use a cell phone like a normal person and call internationally and not lose your shirt,” Smetannikov said.
The service will run on Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s GSM network and is offering two Motorola Inc. handsets, the Razr (for $200) and the C139 (for $50). Both phones will come with factory-installed Chinese menus, and customers will be able to get mobile content in Chinese, Smetannikov added.
The company is named after the traditional red envelope in which the Chinese distribute money to friends and family during New Year celebrations. The company’s logo is based on a stamp that, up until recently, Chinese citizens used in lieu of a signature, according to Smetannikov.
Red Pocket Mobile’s goal is to have about 100,000 subscribers by the end of 2008.
Since we’ve already got Helio, which is nominally targeting Korean Americans (and trendy youth in general),it makes sense to have an MVNO for the much larger and more influential Chinese American demographic.
