This is an interesting story.
European probably use the mobile phone frequently and eventually
you have to raise the price tag. The other things I would guess
is, well, 3 G spectrum has costed them too much. Better start
to recoup the money early than later.
There was report from NTT DoCoMo a few weeks back saying the
Europe is probably not going to pay off on their 3G as
they have spent too much on spectrum and the same statment
is released from Japan Telcom. Both companies are the early
3G deployers ( except maybe in US, Sprint PCS is goign to
have CDMA2000 at the end of 2001. having 2000 in 2001. Hmm... :) )
and they are probably speaking from their current development
and budget. Not sure if the government will 'give the money back'
a little bit ( in some form) just to relax the short coming.
I guess it is along way to watch 'meaningful' size video
for a 120 min movie on the mobile phone at afford price.
(meaning, it costs like maybe $20( which is twice of the $10
movie ticket price in NYC.) a long , long way.
Hubert
On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, James Governor wrote:
> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 09:41:19 -0500
> From: James Governor <jgovernor@illuminata.com>
> Reply-To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
> To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
> Subject: (keitai-l) end of UK pre-pay glut?
>
> this article from The Register points to change in game. prepay may have
> worked as a mechanism to get many more users online...... but are these
> users profitable enough?
>
> Mobile industry turns back on pre-pay market
> By: Kieren McCarthy
> Posted: 26/03/2001 at 12:37 GMT
>
>
> As we predicted on Friday, the decision by One2One to double the price of
> its pay-as-you-go phones and concentrate instead on contract customers has
> sparked similar action by other UK mobile companies.
>
> Once One2One said it would increase its pre-pay phones from £40 to £70, the
> competitive pressure was off. A spokesman for the company also predicted
> that the market would follow. Presumably, after One2One wasn't deluged with
> bad press, the others have decided they no longer wanted to subsidise the
> pre-pay market when they can get more profit and "loyalty" out of the
> contract phone market.
>
> Orange is reportedly doubling its Just Talk pre-pay pricing, although its
> spokesman was pretty circumspect with us. No confirm nor deny again. We'll
> be the first to hear when it officially announces that it is to increase the
> price of its pre-pay package, apparently.
>
> Vodafone has got in on the act as well. The company pointedly failed to get
> back to us on Friday. It is doing the same again today although we have
> learned that it is going exactly the same route as One2One. Vodafone is to
> cut the "bonus" paid to distributors for signing pre-pay customers -
> effectively pushing the price for its pre-pay offering up to £70, in line
> with One2One.
>
> Apparently it will also put an end to its all-in-one offering, which came
> with a year's contract line rental and monthly minutes.
>
> Are we looking at the end of the pre-pay market? No. But there is a definite
> shift away from pre-pays. As ever, the industry is moving very quickly (like
> superfit sheep) and as such none are too keen on talking to journalists at
> the moment. There's a lot of concern floating round mobile company boards
> currently, especially considering the nagging problem of 3G phones. The form
> er chief technologist at BT, Peter Cochrane, has raised the possibility of
> 3G phones never even appearing in a recent interview with the BBC. ®
>
> Update
> Vodafone has finally got back to us. Yes, it is effectively pushing the
> price of pre-pays up by "reducing subsidies". It is also putting an end to
> the all-in-one service. This, according to the spokeswoman, is not
> newsworthy and is simply a matter of pre-announced strategy.
>
> Vodafone's new focus is on "customer development not customer acquisition".
> A circular conversation then evolved, the sum of which is that Vodafone's
> pre-pay service will be more expensive but no new contract packages or
> services are to released on the market.
>
> Quite why the mobile companies don't just admit that the price pressure is
> off pre-pay phones and so they are raising the price to encourage more
> people to switch to contracts, we don't know.
>
> Related Story
> One2One doubles price of pay-as-you-go phones
>
>
> [ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
>
>
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Mon Mar 26 19:09:23 2001