Vodafone Announces YouTube Mobile, with Vodafone live!

On February 9th The Vodafone Group announced an agreement to launch YouTube Mobile, allowing customers to access new videos daily, upload content and forward links to favorite videos to friends and family as well as browse and search content across multiple categories. The service will launch in the UK initially, and rolled out later to key Vodafone markets in Europe.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Although the Vodafone Group has given no details of its pricing strategy for its YouTube Mobile service, competitors should note that its live!-embedded position will force the operator to align its pricing structure with Vodafone live! to some extent. Unlike the planned on-device MySpace Mobile and eBay Mobile services, the Vodafone Group has fewer options in spinning out a stand-alone YouTube Mobile service, as distinct from Vodafone live!.

► Competitors should anticipate a new Vodafone mobile data pricing strategy. The Vodafone Group may well feel forced to duplicate 3Group’s position on mobile data roaming with X-Series.

► Although YouTube Mobile will be accessibly via any video-ready Vodafone live! device, competitors should expect the Vodafone Group to start marketing this service alongside its anticipated range of new handsets pre-embedded with MySpace Mobile and eBay Mobile on-device clients.

► Competitors should be wary of first-to-market claims for online mobile brands. The alternatives in access technology means that the market will demonstrate quite a bit of service differentiation in the short-to-mid term. For example, Vodafone UK will launch its eBay Mobile service as a downloadable or device-embedded application. This service is likely to differ from that of 3UK’s eBay Mobile service, accessible through a web browser, which will be different again to O2 UK’s eBay Mobile service, as accessible via i-mode or O2 Active. In theory, all three vendors could claim a ‘UK market first’, with eBay Mobile. In practice, all three services will serve up a very different user experience.

Orange Business Services Launches ‘WiFi-Enabled’ Unik for Professionals

On January 29th Orange Business Services launched ‘Unik for Professionals’ and positioned it as a new generation fixed and mobile telephony tailor-made solution. Targeted towards the SOHO and prosumer market, the Livebox Pro offers 24/7 unlimited calls to all national and international landlines (Europe, USA and Canada).

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Competitors of Orange Business Services should ask the customers to question the difference in service delivery capabilities (Business LiveBox and LiveBox Pro) and customer experience between the various Unik variants being rolled out by Orange Business Services.

► BT Global Services should point out that BT Corporate Fusion is a more complete and holistic enterprise grade offering with feature sets (including call management, hotspot access, application integration) which are beyond Unik’s current delivery capabilities.

► Neuf Cegetel should position TWIN as a competing product to Orange Business Services’ LiveBox Pro terminal and point out that it has been in the FMC space since 2005.

iPass Partners with Inmarsat in Its Quest for Coverage Domination

On January 29th iPass entered into an agreement with Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, to become a new distribution partner for its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service. This partnership enhances iPass’ portfolio, with the addition of satellite services to its existing portfolio of 3G, WiFi hotspots, DSL and Ethernet access capabilities.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► AT&T, France Telecom and BT have existing relationships with Inmarsat and they have been providing access in remote areas using BGAN. Therefore, there is an opportunity for the large operators to integrate their satellite offerings with their RAS clients and bring the same to the market.

► Fiberlink should strategically consider whether it needs to have a similar partnership. Currently, Fiberlink has significant ground to cover in terms of extending its WiFi and 3G access capabilities, building its professional services team and extending its market share. Therefore, Fiberlink has enough on its plate to work on without following iPass.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Customers in the energy and media spaces should give a favourable ear to the iPass offering, because the player offers strong RAS capabilities on a global level. However, they should confirm with iPass on the service level agreements and speeds-feeds, because they vary significantly between different access environments.

► Companies in the energy space need to evaluate the L-band (BGAN) service vis-à-vis having an extended-C (X-C) or Ku-band service. This is because, in an oil rig environment, one requires sturdy equipment and strong signal strength. In addition, there is the question of scalability, where more users can be added on a single terminal.

► Media customers should check with iPass on its backhaul capabilities as well as how it will provision these capabilities. This is because media companies would use high amounts of video feeds for streaming from the remote terminal, where typically the uplink speeds are slow. As a result, a fast backhaul is required to get the video feed to the central broadcast station.