[3GScottishUser]

From Mobile Today (22/04/2005):

Orange had a blistering connection rate in February and March, denting the run-rates of 3 and, more severely, T-Mobile in the process.

According to senior sources, all the operators suffered a tough January but T-Mobile has apparently struggled to recover in the remaining two months of the first quarter of the year. In contrast, one distributor said that Orange was connecting 30% more in March this year compared to last year.

Orange’s surge has been fuelled by rich commission deals and its double minutes offers. Dealers reported a typical Orange connection, such as a Nokia 6230 on Orange’s mid-tier Your Plan 200 tariff, yielding as much as £250 commission.

Chris Hough, Orange’s head of independent retail, said the operator had 3 in its sights: ‘We weren’t prepared to let 3 buy the market. The other networks let 3 dominate.’

He suggested that even bigger commissions are being lined up for price plans starting from Your Plan 300, but incentives for smaller tariffs could dip in the second half of the year.

Hough said the acquisition hunt was driven by the critical decision of France Telecom to sanction funds after hearing the volume strategy from VP for Orange UK, Bernard Ghillebaert.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_320.shtml

[Ben]

YP200 giving £250 commission? :o That only leaves £110 for Orange! I know all the networks do this, but knowing that so much of our money goes on acquisition costs when we could be paying far less on our bills is so annoying. When we come to upgrades we should be getting a lot, lot more!

Interesting to hear Orange have been "denting the run-rates of 3" - I sincerely hope we finally see a decent pricewar!

[jman]

Its about time Orange took the bull-by-the-horns and started to offer customer better value for money, it will be interesting to see where this go's. Like you Ben, I would like to see some type of price war happening, the networks todate have been very reluctant to adopt the direct approch.

[3GScottishUser]

Yep, the above confirims the true commisssion rates and dispels the silly notion (suggested elsewhere) that £700+ was being paid to aquire customers. That was complete nonsense as proved by the above.

[Hands0n]

Bring on the price war, finally! Too much complacency for too long. And the attrition that was inevitable for H3 will come about if they dont sort out their own problems. Any price war will put an end to the tariff discriminator that H3 had. The incumbents did not need to jump in as quickly .... but now that they are beginning to do so ..... and when the gloves come off completely ..... I reckon that we'll benefit financially for some time to come.

Next up? Handsets and how they're sold - the manufacturers need to get jiggy with it and get the mobile ops to unbundle. Cheap retail of handsets sans contract is the way forward for them. Unless they really only want to sell me one new handset a year (or 18 months or 24 months if I take up the mobile ops extended contracts). That can hardly be good for their continued profit growth. Stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap!

I digress :)

[Skyblue]

I was quite shocked at being credited £100 for exchanging an old Virgin Mobile Panasonic GD67 by Orange at new year. Even though I didn't expect this when I signed up - they told me afterwards! Now that's customer care...