Roaming Innovation: 3 Austria’s ‘Holiday All Inclusive’ Multi-Service Bundle
| Aug 5, 2009 | Wireless Services - Europe | Competitive Intelligence Report
| Analyst: Emma Mohr-McClune
Current Perspective: Slightly Positive
Vendor Importance: Moderate
Market Impact: High
Event Summary
August 3, 2009 – 3 Austria launched a new roaming services portfolio, reinstating 3LikeHome, together with a new, bundled roaming service innovation; Holiday All Inclusive. This service offers a bundle of 30 mobile voice minutes, 20 SMS, five MMS and 20 MB for handset email and surfing valid over 21 days, for EUR 19. This service is only available to postpaid users.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on 3 Austria’s new roaming service portfolio, and in particular its innovative Holiday All Inclusive bundle concept. This promotion is a smart response to consumer bill-shock fear, it’s just a pity the operator couldn’t get the service out earlier in the summer period.
• Vendor Importance: Moderate to 3 Austria, as the company needed a strong, differentiated roaming service beyond its standard 3LikeHome offer (roaming in 3 network markets at standard home rates). Holiday All Inclusive is yet another demonstration of just how far this operator can think outside the box.
• Market Impact: High on the Austrian mobile market, as Holiday All Inclusive represents the birth of another best practice from this disruptive market player. Moderate on the wider, European market, which is still looking for leadership in roaming innovation; here it is.
CLIENTS ONLY
Current Perspective
Competitive Positives and Concerns
Recommended Vendor Actions
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Recommended Competitor Actions
• A1 must now create a broader roaming bundle option, along the same lines as A1 cALL Inclusive, which goes beyond voice to include other services, as 3 Austria’s Holiday All Inclusive does. At the very least, this service should include texts, alongside the existing quota of call time.
• Orange Austria’s roaming services portfolio is woefully limited, and this needs addressing in the light of 3 Austria’s roaming innovation. Like most European mobile operators, Orange Austria offers a set of services for voice roaming, and a separate service for data roaming; users don’t like signing up to a series of services to serve a single purpose, particularly for a service carrying a long-term contractual obligation (Orange Europa Roaming Paket) but used irregularly.
• All European mobile operators should regard 3 Austria’s Holiday All Inclusive as a noteworthy innovation in the roaming services market. This bundle approach is one of the first to recognise the end-user’s need for a single purchase for varied service uses abroad.
• This service makes T-Mobile Austria’s roaming portfolio, still strictly divided into standard zones, price per minutes and service-specific offers, look particularly old-fashioned. T-Mobile Austria hasn’t met the EU regulation challenge with anything like the same level of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking demonstrated by its competitors.
Recommended End User / Customer Actions
• End-users should note that they will not get notification when they reach, and exceed, the maximum quota for each service within the Holiday All Inclusive bundle, and of course overuse will incur additional charges.
• End-users should further note that usage of the Holiday All Inclusive bundle credit only relates to calls, texts and MMS sent to the home market; Austria. Any calls or texts sent to any other market are outside the scope of this offer. This is a standard caveat of many roaming services.
• End-users who would like to stay in touch with friends and family back home when they travel abroad could do far worse than booking a Holiday All Inclusive bundle, particularly if they receive email on the mobile phone. Competing portfolios ask users to sign up to multiple services for multiple service usage requirements abroad.
• All consumers are advised to check the geographical applicability of any roaming service before they sign up. No service covers all markets (even those purporting to be ‘World’ services omit some markets).
CLIENTS ONLY
Current Perspective
Competitive Positives and Concerns
Recommended Vendor Actions
| Client access - Full report in Wireless Services - Europe
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