The UK Mobile Report

Vodafone halves cost of 3G data card

Vodafone is a mobile operator, right?

How about Vodafone being a remote access solution provider too?

Vodafone's swanky Park Lane, London, offices were the setting for a media briefing last Friday which laid bare the company's (relatively) new bid to be a solutions provider for medium to large firms.

The logic is simple. More and more workers need seamless mobility but don't have the in-house skills to make it as pervasive or as secure as it should be. Call an IT solutions provider? No, says Vodafone - call us.

So it was that Vodafone set out its stall, while admitting it was a minnow compared to the real players in this market, but all the while hinting that it had headhunted some top talent to ensure it had the manpower to make a difference.

At the heart of the debate is the use of Vodafone's  3G data card, take-up of which has been below expectations. Vodafone declined to release historical growth figures, but rather preferred to focus on new lower pricing which as ever is more favourable, and more flexible - from £25 per month or £8.50 per day for occassional use. This is a near halving in price but it will not apply to current customers -they will have to contact customer service to get on the new rates.

Meanwhile it also launched Vodafone Secure Remote Access, an alternative to iPass, the product that allows greater control over remote users - most of whom Vodafone suggested where either using their laptops for private surfing or nicking company data with USB devices.

Of more importance to large customers is Vodafone's desire to get more involved with developing your applications needs. It recognises that most such sales become BlackBerry sales but through its acquisition of Customer Relations Software firm Aspective it hopes to get closer to the action, and has a beefed up Enterprise Business Solution unit to push into such sales.

For those long in the technology business, it all looks fairly familiar. Core business begins to dry up? Start getting into the solutions business where there are new revenues from consultancy, implementation, training and maintenance. IBM and CapGemini will be watching with interest.

But there are potential gains for customers. Vodafone will been keen as mustard to get new business and will most likely offer very attractive terms. This was suggested by the fact that it declined giving any pricing details during the media briefing - suggesting nothing would be ruled in or out.

Vodafone says there are currently 280,000 data card users in the UK. (Ken Young)

Skype offers free landline calls

Internet phone provider Skype has launched Skype Pro, a service giving UK users free calls to UK landlines for €2 per month. Previously such calls cost €0.017 per minute. There remains a small set-up cost and VAT on each call.

Subscribers also get free voicemail and a discount on SkypeIN numbers.

The service is available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

For a limited period Skype is offering the service for €10 for five months with €5 of credit - effectively making it €1 per month for that period. "This is exceptional value to our 171 million subscribers," said Stefan Oberg, VP and GM of telecoms, Skype.

Notes: SkypeIn allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers dialed by regular phone subscribers to regular phone numbers

Vonage growth dips

Vonage's 3rd quarter financial results make interesting reading. Despite VoIP being a hot sector, new subscriber growth slowed to 204,591 compared with 256,000 in the previous quarter. 'Churn' increased from 2.3% to 2.6%.

The upside is that churn was down to 2.4% in September and that revenues went up 12% quarter on quarter. In the last 12 months it has almost doubled its subscriber base to 2.057 million.

* Churn is a measure of the proportion of subscribers who leave the service during a given period.

Truphone - analyst verdict

UK-based Truphone (formerly Software Cellular Network Ltd.) is offering free downloads for Nokia N80 handset users to allow mobile Voice over IP calls. Here is the analyst comment received so far.

Fred Huet, Director of Greenwich Consulting UK confirmed my suspicion that using Truphone may not be that easy at first, and that you still need to have a subscription to the WiFi hotspot wherever you plan to use it. He thinks uptake will increase when home WiFi offerings gain greater traction.

"The Truphone product is the latest in a variety of offerings to who are looking for cheaper calls by combining mobile handsets with WiFi technology.

"As the service is not operator or handset manufacturer supported, installation, set up and connection to a network will not be fully automatic and definitely "fiddly", especially to the less tech-savvy.

"Mobile VoIP over Wifi will be most attractive to those who are very cost conscious or who make a large volume of international roaming calls. As this is aimed at the E Series Nokia phones, business men who pay their own phone bills and travel frequently will be a key target group, although other mobile users who want to stop using traditional (PSTN) phones at home and use only VoIP (whether calling to VoIP or PSTN users) will be potential targets.

"Making calls this way will still require a broadband subscription or payment to a hotspot provider. To be fully free for mobile to mobile calls, both caller and receiver will need to be have Truphone installed and be connected to WiFi simultaneously. As this is unlikely for the majority of occasions (users are infrequently stationary in hotspots while on a mobile), most potential users will see only occasional benefits in this offering and the complexity of set-up will mean this product has limited take up.

"Widespread usage of Mobile VoIP will become commonplace when significant operators integrate it with home offerings ("Dual Mode" phones on a bundled tariff) or when mobile data charges fall or hit flat rate, allowing VoIP over cellular networks to become affordable. However operators will be looking to control "off portal" VoIP usage (whether "Dual Mode" or cellular), meaning they may be the most likely provider of popular Mobile VoIP services."  

Jean Litolff, of market researchers GfK, says: "The first WiFi enabled handsets emerged in October 2005 with two sim-free models to choose from (average price £259). From the end of April 2006, subsidised WiFi handsets were launched by the network operators, causing average prices to decrease to £32, which accelerated growth. In July this year WiFi enabled handsets represented 2.5% of handset sales."

GfK, of Nuremburg, Germany, is the world's forth largest market research firm.

Fring offers free mobile calls

Voice over IP (VoIP) calls on a 3G phone? Yes, says Isreal-based Fring. The Indie has the full story. It might not be very pretty yet, but VoIP is looking all set to disrupt the mobile business model as we know it. Expect it to fly fast among the texting generation (12-23 years) just as soon as the bugs are ironed out.