Vodafone and CPW team up on MVNO

[3GScottishUser]

Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse have launched a new contract MVNO called Talkmobile, which will be sold alongside Carphone's TalkTalk broadband brand.

The Talkmobile contracts come in nine, 12 and 18-month deals, starting at £12 per month with 50 free minutes and texts.

Carphone said the deal fulfilled demand for 'lower-commitment contracts with great handset prices'. The Talkmobile 18 contract for £18 per month has 100 free minutes and texts.

The nine-month Talkmobile plan offers handsets including a free Samsung C300 for £19.95 per month and a free Motorola W220 for £15 per month.

Talkmobile tariffs include 500 free UK texts to other Talkmobile numbers and customers can include international calls and texts in their free call and text bundles. All Talkmobile tariffs include 512KB of free data per month in the UK.

Vodafone said the deal was 'part of its commitment to grow its share of the wholesale market', which follows MVNO partnerships with Asda Mobile and TomTom.

The MVNO agreement further develops Vodafone's existing relationship with Onetel, acquired by Carphone in 2005.

Tim Stone, director of new business development and wholesale at Vodafone UK, said: 'In March, we set out the Vodafone UK strategy to drive revenue growth and, as part of this, our ambitions to grow our wholesale market share. We estimate the wholesale market is worth around £1bn, so we are excited by the partnerships we have formed over the last six months with leading brands that, together with their market experience, will allow us to deliver our strategy. This MVNO agreement with The Carphone Warehouse is no exception and we look forward to a successful future together.'

Carphone already has a pay-as-you-go MVNO business with T-Mobile called Fresh Mobile, launched in 1999. Using a Sim card, users get a flat rate of 15p per min to mobiles or landlines, on any network, any time.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/content/17126.asp

[gorilla]

The beeb (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7059960.stm) picked up that as well, however they quoted

Talkmobile will be a pay monthly service based around a nine-month contract.

That would be tempting for some.

[solo12002]

So what happend to the deal they had with T-Mobile and why have your own network to under cut it by offering another with another network. Sorry buy i think you still be better of with Three PAYG, it would be nice to see all the deals.

Do the networks not think me have enought of these MVNO's? They would be better of spending their time and money giving users a fair deal with clear easy to understand price plans than having a halfbaked network.

[gorilla]

It's certainly a curious development. Maybe it's just a way of getting voda contracts back into carphone shops?

[hecatae]

I can see the benefit, Take5 never really went anywhere.

[hecatae]

So what happened to the deal they had with T-Mobile and why have your own network to under cut it by offering another with another network.

TalkTalk and AOL

MobileWorld and TalkMobile

Fresh and TalkTalk Mobile

[solo12002]

mm Sorry that was my point:

TalkTalk and AOL

MobileWorld and TalkMobile

Fresh and TalkTalk Mobile

Why the hell get something else going with vodafone, and while I have not seen all of the details, it apears to be a nine month contact, sounds like virgin 6 month sim only crap and I dont think it will beat three new flat12 in respest of costs and mix of add ons.

[hecatae]

I'd hazard a guess at:

Vodafone is losing subscribers, therefore lots of excess network capacity available, CPW buy it cheap, sell it as TalkMobile.

[Ben]

I'd imagin it more likely that there's network capacity available due to customers migrating to 3G, releaving pressure in crowded areas.

Of course capacity may have nothing to do with it - it's possible that Vodafone is just exploring other revenue opportunities. They've been eager to get a piece of MVNO action for some time now.

The reason why CPW have so many competing products is, I would imagine, due to using the Nokia approach - they want a broad array of products available in-store so they've got something for everyone.

[solo12002]

" it's possible that Vodafone is just exploring other revenue opportunities. They've been eager to get a piece of MVNO action for some time now"
But dont they have that with asda Mobile and M & S and sailsbury?

[Ben]

They've been making inroads to be sure. I think they're after a Virgin or Tesco sized project, though, or a number of small MVNO's to add up to roughly the same pie. Vodafone doesn't want to alienate low spenders and have them on other networks, but I think they like the idea of having them looked after by a third party while they go after 3G and higher spenders.

[Hands0n]

It does make sense to diversify in business. And if that means taking on some new bed partners all the more revenue to the big red V. Under the guidance of their Chairman and CEO Vodafone will be eager for business that brings income to the coffers. We are now in a very saturated market - people are increasingly carrying around more than one phone even. All of the operators are looking for differentiation and failing almost universally - the buying public still regard them as mobile phone operators. This is despite anything that the operators have done to convince the buying public otherwise.

It makes sense to me that Vodafone would turn its attention back to its core business - selling mobile telephony. If it does so via an MVNO then more power to the network!