Orange UK Launches Business Everywhere

On December 20th Orange UK gave some direction on its plans to launch Business Everywhere in the UK. The solution promises to grant end users aggregated usage billing and tariffs for 3G, GPRS and WiFi. The operator will launch tariffs in January. This announcement has occurred alongside Orange UK's launch of WiFi services, giving users access to 1,700 WiFi hotspots across the UK and a further 12,000 abroad, in conjunction with WiFi roaming partners such as BT Openzone and WeRoam.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Vodafone UK must now seek to integrate its WLAN and UMTS services, since a portfolio that touts separate data card products, separate pricing plans and separate billing processes for distinct technologies is no longer considered competitive. As a first step, Vodafone UK should fold WiFi usage into its "Unlimited" Mobile Connect 1GB offer for 3G/GPRS.

► Vodafone UK should continue to hype its Vodafone Travel Promise and, particularly, its Monthly Travel Tariff as a unique selling point. The Orange Group is still attempting to define an integrated roaming proposition for Business Everywhere.

► O2 must reduce its GBP 75 monthly subscription with its Max 1024 3G/GPRS tariff, since this is no longer competitive alongside competing offers such as Vodafone UK's GBP 45 per month with Vodafone Unlimited or Orange UK's GBP 45 with Orange Office Max 05. Pricing is still a number one priority for small businesses.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► SMEs looking for a comprehensive mobile data solution are well advised to await tariff details for Orange UK's Business Everywhere (due in January). No other mobile operator is currently able to offer such an integrated solution for WiFi and 3G.

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iPass Announces Plans to Acquire GoRemote

On December 12th iPass Inc. announced plans to acquire GoRemote in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately USD 76.5 million. The deal significantly changes the landscape of the remote access aggregator market. iPass gets the in-house broadband VPN piece it has lacked, allowing it to tout its “universal connectivity” proposition.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Euro-centric providers should understand that this merger will pose little immediate direct sales challenge in Europe, although iPass’ extension of new, in-house branch office and teleworker capabilities to direct customers in Europe will need to be monitored.

► Competitors should understand that iPass currently offers end-users the largest number of aggregated hotspots (recently updated to 35,000), even without factoring in this merger. Competitors should seek to take the heat out of this number game by downplaying the significance of hotspot counts in the light of new public or ‘free’ hotspot capabilities.

► BT and Equant need to make end-point management a standard feature of their respective remote access clients in 2006, and AT&T should better tout its own end-point management services (currently marketed as ‘firewall’ solutions). These competitors cannot allow the aggregators iPass and Fiberlink to consistently tout their leadership in this area.

► European competitors should note that GoRemote’s influence on iPass may manifest as a new predatory competitive streak. Competitors should note how, only some months ago, GoRemote sought to pinch customers by offering existing iPass customers special incentives via the ‘GoRemote Join The Revolution Program’.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Existing GoRemote customers should feel good about this potential merger. iPass’ plan to convert GoRemote to its lower-cost infrastructure, systems, architecture and processes should feed through into stronger product in the mid-term. The cost-benefits of an extended ‘Universal Connectivity’ proposition, complete with in-house broadband VPN could also be interesting.

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Yalta: A New Era of French Regulatory Scrutiny Dawns

On December 1st the French Competition Council published the results of a three-year investigation into pricing collusion allegations between the three mobile network operators (MNOs): Orange France, SFR and Bouygues Telecom. According to this investigation, all three MNOs are found guilty of colluding on price and market share fixing between 1997 and 2003. The Council further asserts that all three agreed on a ‘Yalta’ of market share in 2000, which led to an increase in prices and the introduction of higher-cost consumer policies. The council issued a collective EUR 534 million fine to all three operators.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► MVNOs should pressure ARCEP to appeal the EC’s May 2005 decision regarding its draft bill on ex ante wholesale market regulation. MVNOs should argue that the Competition Council’s investigation is implicit evidence of the artificial maintenance of ‘significant market power.’

► MVNOs should get behind the French Competition Council, since this body appears to have the most regulatory pull. MVNOs should remind the council of its recommendations to ARCEP (February 2005) of ex ante intervention in the wholesale market to make MVNO agreements fairer and more open-ended.

► All bodies seeking to enter the French mobile market as a MVNO should use this controversy to strike better wholesale terms.

► MVNOs should note a recent deal between the Industry Minister and the three MNOs that, if carried out properly, will ban 24-month postpaid contracts by Q3 2005. This limits the way MNOs will be able to control churn through ‘lock-in’ techniques, and MVNOs should see this as a postpaid acquisition opportunity.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Certainly, larger enterprises should ask their current MNO provider to explain the Competition Council investigation’s findings. Large enterprise customers should seek to understand how this pricing collusion has influenced pricing levels in the business sector.

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Mobistar Takes the Scenic Route to FMC

On December 8th Mobistar gave guidance on its convergence roadmap, including its plans to extend its recently-released consumer ADSL and fixed-telephony bundle ADSL Talk into the business space, and further plans to fold mobile into the mix.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Proximus should anticipate that Mobistar will fold a mobile offering into its ADSL Talk offer in the short-term for consumers. This could happen within the next few weeks.

► Competitors should further expect that Mobistar will extend its ADSL Talk offer to businesses. Once again, this is on the short-term roadmap.

► Competitors should not expect to see a FMC ‘converged’ fixed-mobile service ( such as BT’s BT Fusion) for either consumers or businesses in 2006. Mobistar has indicated that convergence is still a mid-to-long term proposition.

► Competitors should be advised that the first signs of a Mobistar convergence strategy implementation will probably take the form of an integration of fixed-and-mobile services within Mobistar VPN, its larger enterprise on-net mobile service.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Beyond cost-savings, the primary benefits of bundled fixed and mobile services is streamlined support and single-billing. Mobistar Fix offers a sturdy composite proposition for small businesses. This ‘bundled’ service approach is fast becoming Mobistar’s unique selling point in the mobile market.

► Competitors should be advised that the first signs of a Mobistar convergence strategy implementation will probably take the form of an integration of fixed-and-mobile services within Mobistar VPN, its larger enterprise on-net mobile service.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Beyond cost-savings, the primary benefits of bundled fixed and mobile services is streamlined support and single-billing. Mobistar Fix offers a sturdy composite proposition for small businesses. This ‘bundled’ service approach is fast becoming Mobistar’s unique selling point in the mobile market.

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Vodafone UK Launches Business E-mail

On November 24th Vodafone UK added its own branded Business E-mail solution complementing BlackBerry services and support for Microsoft Windows Mobile-based e-mail services. Offering the widest choice in the UK market, Vodafone brings e-mail to all businesses.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► RIM needs to join with handset manufacturers to promote BlackBerry Connect handsets as an integral part of its device range. With Vodafone intending to offer ten Business E-mail handsets of its own, the existing two-device BlackBerry range looks a little thin and unappealing by comparison.

► Competitors in the business services market need to match Vodafone’s range of e-mail services or carve a market niche with just one solution. Vodafone has raised the e-mail stakes with its choice of solutions, and competitors need to emulate this or risk losing out.

► O2 needs to anticipate Vodafone’s next move into business applications (‘beyond e-mail’) and tout its own success in this area. With O2 currently leading the UK market in data revenues, the company needs to ensure that its partners stay loyal to the company and that O2 maintains its data applications customer base.

► T-Mobile should consider offering a range of business e-mail solutions to complement the company’s web’n’walk mobile Internet strategy.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Business customers considering a mobile e-mail solution should look at Vodafone’s range since the company offers the widest range of solutions in the market. However, customers should ensure that the solution proposed meets their business needs and budget and should take into account the cost of new mobile devices and licensing fees.

► Customers should question Vodafone as to the roadmap for its device management solution and consider their needs for securing data on the mobile device outside of e-mail and PIM data. Customers should ensure that data backup and restore is made available as soon as possible.

► Customers should consider the purchase of a mobile e-mail solution as the first step in a mobility strategy. However, customers should ensure that they have a robust mobility strategy that embraces the changes that mobility can offer, rather than just considering mobile e-mail as a ‘bolt-on’ to existing unchanged work practices.

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Orange France and Wanadoo Launch Converged Services Option

On December 8th France Telecom launched ‘Mes services perso,’ a converged services option for both Orange and Wanadoo customers. The option costs EUR 7 per month and is limited to the first 100,000 customers, or until May 24, 2006. Mes services perso opens up IM, e-mail, SMS and videotelephony options between Wanadoo customers (using France Telecom’s multimedia software LiveCom of Wanadoo), Orange World, and Orange Messenger (Mobile IM), as well as the ability to synchronize address books between Orange World and the Wanadoo portal.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Bouygues Telecom must recognize that its Broadband i-mode proposition is out of step with the spirit of the times - mobile content is one thing, the ability to share and store all content in an any-to-any environment is the future. This is about more than ‘mobile content,’ it’s about ‘the converged lifestyle.’

► Bouygues Telecom should start blowing the regulatory whistle – it should find a more sympathetic ear in the market’s post-Yalta environment. Bouygues Telecom should argue that France Telecom’s NeXT strategy is nothing more than the creation of a massive walled garden.

► Bouygues Telecom should start re-selling consumer ADSL services in order to create a PC-mobile middle ground for Broadband i-mode (EDGE) users. This ADSL resale plan was announced over a year ago, but has yet to appear.

► SFR should understand that lack of PC-interoperability will become a major weakness going forward. SFR should be looking for new ways to reach out to large, established PC-based communities.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Cost-conscious consumers should balk at the EUR 7 per month subscription charge for ‘Mes servicos perso’ – this is an over-priced subscription for interoperability features which are set to become commodities in the coming years.

► End users already entrenched in one of the key IM communities (Yahoo!, Messenger, etc.) should be advised that seamless interoperability from ‘any’ mobile to ‘any’ IM software user is still a long way off.

► End users should note that the ‘interoperable e-mail’ feature cited by ‘Mes servicos perso’ is of the pull-variety. This service only flags users of unread mail once a day, by SMS.

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Free Advisory Report

The French MVNO Market Expands, in all Directions

The French MVNO market has been late to flower, and the fruit looks very strange indeed. Whereas the focus of early MVNO markets has been the low-cost consumer sector, the French MVNO market - just one year old - is already highly diverse. In the rest of Europe, the term ‘MVNO' has become synonymous with cheap, unsophisticated consumer-centric tariffs: online SIM-only and ‘no-frills' offers, intense price depreciation and the proliferation of youth-centric brands.

However, of the ten French MVNOs created to date, only two offer a classic prepaid tariff. Three offer subscriptions with some inclusive value-added ‘unlimited calling' - considered throughout Europe to be the cutting edge of tariff innovation.

Furthermore, 40% of all French MVNOs have successfully negotiated for GPRS or UMTS capacity leasing, with clear ambitions to compete in the higher-value mobile content space. What's going on?

Read the full Advisory Report

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