Truphone soon to issue German numbers from +49 1529-range

[inquisitor]

In last week's issue of the German regulatory authoritiy's official journal it was announced that Vodafone Germany has let its so far unused mobile number range starting with +49 1529 to Truphone GmbH and that use will finallly start on February 1st, 2013:

Die Vodafone D2 GmbH hat mitgeteilt, daß ab dem 01.02.2013 mit der Nutzung des Rufnummernblocks (0)1529 innerhalb des Nummernraums für das öffentliche Telefonnetz/ISDN begonnen wird. Die Rufnummern des Nummernblocks werden im Rahmen einer Netznutzungsvereinbarung durch die Truphone GmbH genutzt.

Their German subsidiary in the form of a limited company (GmbH), which resides at law firm Jones Day's address, was already established in May 2011. Shortly after that the first rumours about Truphone joining the German market came up which are materializing only now.

However the fact that the German regulatory authority seeks to decrease interconnection fees for German mobile networks from currently € 0.036/0.039 to € 0.0185 starting from December (subject to consultation procedure and EC approval) will probably prohibit free incoming calls on the German number outside of Germany.

Let's see what their plans are...

[Stu]

It will also be interesting to see whether non-Germans will be able to bet German secondary numbers.

[inquisitor]

In contrast to German geographical numbers I am not aware of any legal restriction that would hinder Truphone from assigning German mobile numbers to non-residents. Yuilop and sipgate both had products based on German mobile numbers (leased from the now bankrupt MVNO vistream) for months without any regulatory intervention despite they never verified customers' addresses. However yuilop and sipgate were both a thorn in other MNOs' side as they caused assymetrical call flows that converted into cash outflows for competitors (usually the ratio between costs for terminating calls to competitors' networks and the income from inbound calls from competitiors were more or less balanced which those VoIP-services overthrew). Rumour says that vistream's file for bankruptcy was partly caused by Deutsche Telekom who withheld interconnection fee payments to vistream due to suspicions of fraud connected with these innovative services.
Sipgate are currently in the process of becoming their own MVNO, too, (though with a domestic focus) and therefore have also leased a mobile numbering range, +49 1579 from E-Plus, but there seem to be issues in getting networks interconnected, allegedly due to resistance from the other German MNOs who dislike all these new market entrants with their revolutionary business models. I fear Truphone will face similar issues.
So even once Truphone assings German numbers it remains to be seen how reachable they will be.

[Stu]

The other players may already be interconnected to these Vodaphone numbers. Who knows.

[inquisitor]

I can't rule out that Truphone will just let their numbers run over Vodafone's existing infrastructure but all competitors who have leased such a huge number range before did that to become a so-called full MVNO who establishes its own peering with other operators, which would offer a larger scope technically and financially.
Does anyone happen to have access to the ITU's mobile network code (MNC) database so he could tell if Truphone has been assigned their own MNC under the German mobile country code (MCC, 262 for Germany)?
If so this would indicate they are intending to become a full MVNO.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Stu

The other players may already be interconnected to these Vodaphone numbers. Who knows.

As such providers have their own routing hardware a interconnect to Vodafone is not sufficient. The carriers have to connect directly to them (or use a carrier that is connected - on ViStream/Telogic it seems that most carriers routed via Deutsche Telekom which was connected)...

[tux]

Interesting: they are still alive.