Product category:
General insurance
News Release from: uSwitch | Subject: Insurance
Edited by the Insidemoneytalk Editorial
Team on 06 June 2007
Communications: Industry Insight and
Monthly Predictions from uSwitch.com
Please find below June's 'Communications Industry Insight' newsletter from uSwitch.com.
This edition highlights changes in the market over the past month, as well as expected changes in forthcoming weeks We hope you find this month's edition useful
This article was originally published on Insidemoneytalk on 6 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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If you would like to add a colleague to the distribution list, please email their details to michellem@lansons.com.
Comms News Reviewed: Mobile Roaming: On the 23rd May 2007, the EU voted on the European Commission's proposal for EU Roaming Regulation to reduce roaming costs by up to 70%.
This means that the roaming charges will be capped from summer 2007 onwards to euro0.49 per minute for making calls while abroad in an EU member country and euro0.24 per minute for receiving calls in an EU member country.
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Mobile Subscribers: With many Network operators publishing results for Q1 in the last month, here are the following updates in terms of subscribers: Virgin Mobile - Reported a customer loss of 61,300 in the 3 months ending 31st March 2007; it currently has 4.2m prepay customers and a total of 4.46m customers.
O2 - Added 118,000 net new customers during the quarter taking their base to 17.8 million, 8.6% higher than at this time last year.
Vodafone - UK's division added 472,000 in the first 3 months of 2007 taking its UK base to 17.4 million.
T-Mobile - Added 106,000 net new contract customers in the first quarter of 2007 taking it to 3.8million pay monthly customers.
The operator's overall subscriber base increased to 16.7 million.
Noodle Telecom: Will launch a brand new MVNO service later on this month, which claims it can beat customer mobile rates with a contract sim.
The Noodle service will cost around £4.95 per month with calls ranging from 6p to 16p for cross network calls.
The company is also launching 'Noodle Oodles', which will allow phone users contracted with another provider to access call charges of 2p per minute by refunding call termination charges.
Unused Minutes and Texts: uSwitch found that Britons lose out on ?1.8 billion in unused texts and minutes.
The study also found that the average Briton leaves almost 20 hours of their inclusive calls each year and 73 texts unused every month.
O2: Has revamped its pay monthly tariffs giving customers 500 texts on plans costing £35 upwards on 18 month contracts and 250 inclusive texts per month on 12 month pay monthly contracts.
Also, O2's broadband service, originally planned to launch this spring, has now been delayed until Autumn.
Tesco Telecoms: Is under investigation following accusations that the firm broke the Ofcom code of conduct by not acting on cancellation requests.
Ofcom could fine Tesco Telecom up to ten per cent of its total revenue.
Siemens Home Phone: Due to launch their new "extreme" home phone, the Gigaset E455.
Costing ?74.99, it will be highly durable and come equipped with a mobile SIM card, in an effort to remove the divide between Home and Mobile phone.
Deutsche Telekom: Deutsche Telecom have joined the rush of fixed communications providers to invest in up and coming VoIP technology, purchasing the company Jajah, which specialises in this new market.
This follows the buyout of VoIP service Skype by Ebay for ?1.4bn in 2005.
Virgin Media: Is introducing a traffic management policy that will 'throttle' the download speed of the top 5% of users during peak times.
Virgin have signed a four year deal with Cable and Wireless, allowing Virgin media to use ADSL2+ to provide media services over connections outside their cable network.
The Post Office: Will be launching a broadband service after signing a four year contract with BT Wholesale.
Meanwhile, latest results reveal that BT Retail is once again the largest broadband provider in the UK.
Ofcom: Released its latest Telecommunications Market data tables showing 12,993,000 broadband connections in the UK by Q4-2006.
Hitwise: The latest research from Hitwise has found that UK Internet users aged 55+ look set to overtake 35-44 year olds as the largest online demographic group.
uSwitch.com predicts: Mobile Roaming: With new EU legislation now in place, providers may begin trying to push their own, more lucrative roaming packages to customers, whilst also possibly introducing higher rates on texts within the EU and calls outside of the EU region (for example Switzerland, USA, Australia) in an attempt to re-coup lost profits.
We could also see a greater emphasis on inclusive tariffs that give customers discounted rates when going abroad for a fixed fee.
Media and Content: With more emphasis being placed on Mobile Internet and multimedia, we can expect to see an increasing number of exclusive tie-up's for content becoming common place.
This includes the BBC's recent tie-up with 3 to add extra channels to its mobile TV portfolio, meaning that customers will now be able to watch BBC1, BBC News 24 and BBC3 live on their mobile phones.
MVNO's (Mobile Virtual Network Operators): A number of new companies have begun to move into the MVNO market, as organisations such as ASDA and Noodle Telecom have begun to bring innovative products to the market in an attempt to take market share from the major Network Operators.
The Blyk launch later this year will offer free minutes and texts in reward for viewing adverts on mobile phones.
Mobile VoIP: The introduction of wider WiFi networks, such as the current area being tested in the City of London, will allow for VoIP calling on your mobile - adding momentum to this developing technology and saving consumers money.
IPTV: The use of Broadband TV (IPTV) is set to grow, with the BBC, ITV and now Tiscali joining existing IPTV providers offering such services.
Yet a recent independent survey commissioned by CacheLogic reveals that 85% of internet surfers have never downloaded a full-length TV programme or movie, largely due to concerns over poor internet performance and quality.
AOL: Following AOL's recent change in pricing policy, uSwitch.com expects other providers to follow suit, introducing two-tier pricing policies dependent on whether customers live in a LLU area.
For more information visit uSwitch.com or call 0800 093 06 07.
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