Qualcomm and Teleepoch
Enter Into a 3G CDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement, October
6, 2007
MTN chooses Cambridge Broadband
Networks for multi-service wireless network in Rwanda, October 6,
2007
Brazilian government to
publish 3G bidding rules soon, October 6, 2007
KTF 3G service suffers
from technical problems, October 6, 2007
Argentina’s Personal
lunches 3G service in Rosario, October 6, 2007
Russia has it's first 3G
network, October 6, 2007
AT&T could drop Alcatel-Lucent
as 3G mobile network supplier, October 6, 2007
Enea Extends License Agreement
with ZTE for 3G Handsets, October 2, 2007
LG to unveil premium handsets
in Brazil, October 2, 2007
KTF 3G subscribers doubled
in less than 3 months, October 2, 2007
3G policy in India will
be non-uniform, October 2, 2007
- previous news
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The first 3G sales experiences - from 3
June 4, 2003
After all the hype around 3G and "3" and all the services that
will be available at high speed over the network - what is the main selling
point for a new "3" mobile phone? Unbelievably it is the price
of the voice traffic!
Just a few weeks after "3" launched their mobile phones to
the public, the first indications of what the consumers first buying experience
are have been collected and analysed by Strand Consult. The company have
visited a number of "3" outlets - both some of their own and
some independent retailers. Everywhere the sales pitch from the salespersons
has been the same almost word for word: "3" offers the lowest
price on voice minutes.
The three main factors with this strategy that could be unfortunate are
the following:
- "3" are not focusing on the mobile services that should be
generating 20 - 40% of 3G revenues
- "3" are buying customers by offering the lowest minute prices
in the UK
-The two above factors can influence the customers perception of "3"
- to the effect that "3" is just a new discount brand - rather
than the first 3G mobile operator in Europe.
During the last few years there has been a lot of discussion about 3G
- and of course a lot of delay in launching. One of the biggest issues
has simply been the huge price of the 3G licenses. This makes it enormously
disappointing that "3" are not focusing more on their mobile
services - as the mobile services seems like the most likely way to get
a return on investment on the 3G licenses.
Already in 2002, some UK mobile operators were making cautious statements
that they would like to making around 50% of their revenue from mobile
services by the end of the decade - simply because the price of voice
minutes are still declining and simply not enough to finance the 3G licenses
- let alone investments in 3G technology and services.
Many countries in Europe are right now seeing voice minutes dropping
as 2G and 2.5G battle on price to steal customers from each other. From
a business point of view, this has to be the most brutal way of committing
collectively suicide for the mobile operators. The only way forward is
to focus on new revenue streams and the most obvious is data traffic revenue
from mobile services.
The huge explosion in data traffic from mobile services will not come
before customers understand what they can use mobile services for - and
have a handset that can handle these new services. Right now, Vodafone
Live are showing mobile users in many countries some of the many new possibilities
that have emerged with the newest colour, MMS and Java enabled mobile
phones and in only five months acquired over 1 million subscribers to
the Vodafone Live service.
Even though it must have been a blow to "3" that Vodafone Live
launched their service before "3" was ready - and many of the
Vodafone services are similar to those of "3", I am certain
that most in the business thought that "3" would follow a similar
strategy to Vodafone Live - focusing on services, branded content and
of course video calls - something that Vodafone on their 2.5G network
cannot offer.
It is greatly disappointing that "3" have decided basically
join in the voice minute price war rather than focus on all the mobile
services - especially video calls - that "3" offers - services
- even though they are similar to Vodafone Live - that ought to be the
backbone of a healthy 3G mobile market. Now one has to worry that "3"
are setting the stage for a somewhat less healthy 3G market where once
again the focus in on price and price alone.
Perhaps this is not what "3" had in mind when creating their
price policy strategy. One can hope that they had more in mind that when
customers purchase the "Kit" price plane for £59,95 the
average ARPU (average revenue pr. customer) would be much higher than
the current ARPU for mobile customers in the UK. Maybe they also hoped
that their sales force would present "3"'s offering with much
more focus on the mobile services than seems to be the case. In some of
the shops some of the salesmen did try to demo some services for us, but
had difficulty with them, maybe because it is still very new for them
as well. Just telling us that "3" has the cheapest voice minutes
is from an uncertain salesman's point of view, by far the easiest way
of selling a "3" phone with subscription for now, but from a
long term strategy point of view, the most unfortunate sales pitch possible.
Everyone knew that "3" had to start from scratch and go out
and convince customers to switch to 3G, but it does seem a great pity
that customers will have absolutely no idea why they should choose a 3G
phone - other than cheap voice minutes.
According to Strand Consults latest reports "How to make money on
mobile services" and "How to make money on mobile services"
Facts & Figures, there will be over 6.8 million 3G subscribers in
the UK by the end of 2005. Each of those users will on average in 2005
spend a little over 16 Euro pr. month on mobile services, generating a
total revenue in 2005 for 3G mobile services in the UK of 1.320 billion
Euro.
"How to make money on mobile services" is a comprehensive report
about the development and value of all types of mobile services in 16
mobile markets in Europe from 2002 to 2005. The mobile services are split
into type of service, network technology, service technology, country
and each figure is also split up into the operators perspective and content
providers perspective - not only giving a very clear picture country by
country as to which types of services will have the most success on the
different platforms and when it will happen - but also how big a share
of the revenues from any given service in any country the content providers
can expect.
There is no doubt that the 3G market will take off and that mobile consumers
will start using mobile applications - but "3"'s strategy could
have an effect on exactly how lucrative the 3G market could become from
the mobile operators' point of view.
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3G Motorola A920
