[3GScottishUser]

From Guardian Unlimited (08/08/2005):

The company is also relaunching its pre-pay and contract services in the autumn. This is partly to put pressure on its rivals and also to generate excitement about 3G during the festive season.

The traditional network operators, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, show little interest in promoting the new technology and are grappling with a difficult balancing act. They must protect the revenues from their existing networks while also trying to prove to investors that they can make a return from the billions they have poured into 3G. In contrast, 3 only has a new 3G network.

The company is also understood to be working on a new mobile music service and has been in talks with satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1544466,00.html


So what can we expect?

Removal of the 30 day time restriction on ThreePay pretty likely.
Price Caps for contract customers like 3 Australia.

I predict something radical as the if they want some rapid growth in the UK. Whatever they do they will have to try and generate some real revenue from customers, money that is'nt just numbers floating around from networks to dealers and customers with the latter paying nothing or next to nothing.

Rate price caps in the poll below. (See here for details of how caps work http://www.three.com.au/index.cfm?pid=2202&pageid=2202)

[3g-g]

I just don't understand. I've asked before and I'll ask again, how on earth is the company keeping it's head above water? (Apart from the richest guy in Asia bankrolling it) If it were any other new company it'd of been down the pan ages ago.

Now correct me if I'm wrong. Three have done very little, if anything, since last festive season with regards to promoting themselves. They're still pumping out the same old crappy adverts, "watch music videos on your mobile, watch sport on your mobile", you know the ones, and we're all very aware that you can do that thankyouverymuch Three, no need to keep going on about it. So, do they send the marketing guys home from February thru October?? Can they not come up with anything exciting and "out of the box" at any other point in the year other than relying on the season of goodwill to punt Threepay in the shops? We know it's cheap, that's why parents buy their kids them, if it gets lost of broken who cares, it was only £30 anyway... The other 4 must of been counting their blessings, they've all had almost a full year of being allowed to promote their own 3G networks, and show that they're reliable. Voda have come out with a few good incentives, as have Orange, prepay is getting a shake up, as well as all the networks wishing to reward loyalty for their contract customers staying with them... What have 3 done? Oh yeah, it isn't October yet, the marketing guys aren't in. :rolleyes:

I noticed on one of those crazy Sky shopping channels the other night they're trying to sell the Moto C975 for £25.. on a 18 month contract!! However, you did get (and this would of swung it for me) a 17" no brand LCD TV. It's a sad day when you've got to bribe customers into taking out contracts. Here's an idea... Just make everything cheaper!!! Then more people will take it up!

[3GScottishUser]

I suspect what you will find is that the bulk of the promotional budget will have been given to the dealers to provide as incentives. It's a classic 'hands-off' approach allowing the retail sector to choose what they think will be most attriactive to customers as the primary consideration for 3 is box shifting.

Its a numbers game and with little or no ThreePay product around the contract route seems like the one that they have chosen to exploit for now. At least if folks are tied into a contract they are at least guaranteed to be able to count them as subscribers for 18 - 24 months, prepay customers can stop topping-up very soon after buying into the network.

Things look set to change in the Autumn when cheaper 3G pre-pay handsets arrive. Those will sell at about £70-80 and willl cover their cost within a couple of months of top-ups rather than the previous ones which probably took a llot longer to break even. Top-ups will last longer (probably 60 days) and I suspect customers will get a bundle (as with the current £15 ThreePay Top-Up) rather than a set number of minutes to encoursge use of non-voice services (which will no doubt be expensive walled garden extras). Moving from minutes and texts to 'caps' will do the same for contract customers and even although the caps are restricted (they were'nt in Aus when they first appeared) the savings loook pretty good when you show them. For example if you set a standard call rate of say 10p/min X/Net you can then offer a 'cap' product at £19/month with say 300 minutes of voice and 75 texts plus 30 minutes of videocalling. That translates to 'standard pricing' of £52.50/month for what you get on a £19/month capped deal, and allows them to show a saving of £33.50/month!!! Of course inclusive minutes and texts etc have always cost less when bundled with contracts but the above exploits the savings in companrison with the standard pricing.

It'll be interesting to see how the above works if it is chosen as a new way of presenting the packages. Remember that in Australia handsets are charged for so caps are lower, a monthly charge to pay off the handset over the contract period which has to be added to get an accurate figure.

I reckon 'caps' are coming. Vodafone's 'Stop the Clock' and 'Passport' are early examples of capping and it'll be interesting to see who will be first to exploit capping to its full potential. I suspect there will be serious head scratching going on right now in telco execs office all over the UK.

[Hands0n]

Running a biz I think price caps are a tantalising prospect, providing that I can run my biz use within the capped allowances. So I vote a positive "Yes" to capping. Even if it is re-badging bundled minutes, if the numbers work out then it has to be a positive benefit to me.