Germany's Mvno List Grows

[snaimon]

Newer article from tt:

http://www.teltarif.de/arch/2005/kw47/s19524.html (Nov 23 -- FT Deutschland)

"Weiter hei?t es, dass Kurth die von den zwei gro?en Netzbetreibern T-Mobile und Vodafone zum Jahresende angek?ndigte Senkung der Terminierungsentgelte auf 11 Cent je Minute im europ?ischen Vergleich f?r akzeptabel halte."

Kurth believes the proposed drop of termination rates by 2 large networks, T-MO and Vodafone De, down to 11 cents per minute by year's end would be acceptable.

[Effendi]

Snaimon, European mobile rates are higher than US ones because you don't pay when you receive calls. Anyway, your operator gets some money when someone calls you, thanks to the termination fee, which is usually different from carrier to carrier.
I can explain the situation in Italy, I think in Germany or France it's pretty the same.

The Government sets some termination fees for the operators with high penetration in the number of users; i.e. TIM and Vodafone have a lower termination fee than Wind, while 3, the last arrived, has no obbligations in terms of termination fee, and in fact they have the highest one (I think more than 15 ?cent/min).
In Italy we still have very high termination fee, that's also why many operators have "autorecharge" tariffs so the more you receive, the more you get money on your prepaid! That's quite a typical Italian thing, in other countries it doesn't happen often, but if I'm not wrong O2 Germany has something similar on their Loop prepaid.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Effendi

In Italy we still have very high termination fee, that's also why many operators have "autorecharge" tariffs so the more you receive, the more you get money on your prepaid! That's quite a typical Italian thing, in other countries it doesn't happen often, but if I'm not wrong O2 Germany has something similar on their Loop prepaid.

In Poland, Tak Tak has something like this, named "Bonus Tak Tak" (nowadays not advertised at all ). It costs 1.22 PLN to activate. "Autorecharge" is done for off-net (not from Era and Heyah) incoming calls (and not in roaming). Each 10 minutes counted with 1-second accuracy gives one Eraunit (on-net/landline minute convertible to 4 on-net SMSes). Collected units are added to the Eraunit subcredit once a month if their umulated value reaches the multiple of 5 Eraunits. Really not a big deal

[snaimon]

Thanks Effendi, Przemolog.

I believe there is also a D1 Germany option XtraClever which also adds 1 cent per minute received to the user's prepaid balance -- allowed on certain tarifs. A common device to encourage calling.

One point of the teletarif articles as they pertain to Germany is that there is a huge suspicion that INFLATED termination fees are a lucrative source of revenues for providers --- if I recall it is 6.5 Billion (Milliarden) Euro per year. Some kind of regulation is being discussed and to avoid any intervention, the two largest carriers are voluntarily reducing these fees. The quote above indicates that the proposed 11 cents is still much too high.

I would be curious as to any estimates for termination fees in other European countries. As noted, Andy cited fines in the French market and those rates seem to be quite high. That is another thread here in Europe.

I am not sure if we have US termination fees. I would imagine that in the US this is the equivalent of ROAMING agreements. T-MO has some such agreements and offers POST PAID customers FREE nationwide roaming. T-MO prepaid does NOT allow any roaming. My mother had a prepaid Verizon phone and was charged 99 cents per minute for some calls made in her own home when she was apparently on a roaming service. That happened only once or twice. I had SunCom POST PAID service once and unknowingly made a call roaming on the ATT network and also paid through the nose.

Stan

[snaimon]

New article today (Dec 13) on teltarif.de about Lidl's efforts. Seems they WANT TO but do not have a partner just yet willing to go as low as they want.

As for me, I can wait until the dust settles in the German market, IF it ever setttles. No point in changing the D1 tarifs until we figure out what happens after 31.1.2006 and 28.2.2006 when the LIMITED pricing options expire. Worse comes to worse and I just stick with my 9 e-cents weekend/holiday rates to landlines on the XtraOne. One of the cards has a 0 balance and I COULD theoretically replace it with a 2nd SIMYO. I am in no rush to decide.

Some folks are upset about the fine print -- they either switched their D1 tarif class or bought new D1 Xtra Click & Go cards but did not realize the reduced rates MIGHT NOT BE PERMANENT.

[Triband81]

No rates are ever permanent when it comes to the established big boys in the German wireless sector. The MVNOs are unlikely to raise their prices so going with them will always be a safe step.

I'm pretty sure if LIDL teams up with a network, it'll probably be O2 since they haven't taken anyone else along for the ride other than Tchibo.

[Effendi]

Medion, Aldi Mobile Discount Offer Exceeds Expectations

FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- German telecommunications company Medion AG said Thursday it sold 300,000 starter packs during its 14-day mobile phone offer with discount retailer Aldi, exceeding the company's expectations.

The starter-pack special offer of prepaid SIM card plus EUR10 of initial call credit was limited to two weeks but the pre-paid cards for the "Aldi Talk" product will continue to be sold, said Peter Staab, Medion's director of investor relations.

Aldi Talk went on sale in early December through the discount retailer's 4,000-plus outlets around Germany.

Calls and text messages from one Aldi Talk customer to another cost EUR0.05 a minute and EUR0.05 per SMS. Calls and texts to fixed lines or to customers of other mobile networks cost EUR0.15 per minute or per SMS.

Dutch Telecommunication operator Royal KPN NV's German mobile unit E-Plus is providing mobile network capacity as well as customer service via its call centers to Medion for Aldi Talk.

The offer marked consumer electronics company Medion's branching out into a new product offering. Traditionally, Medion sold computer hardware through Aldi channels.

Earlier this month, German business publication Manager-Magazine reported that telecom giant Deutsche Telekom AG planned to cut its prepaid mobile calling prices in the T-Mobile network to EUR0.05 cents a minute from EUR0.15, in response to Aldi's entry into the market.

Company Web site: http://www.medion.de

-By Simon Steiner, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 500; simon.steiner@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

[snaimon]

There has been some negative speculation on teltarif.de. First the 300 K number was NOT starter packages. Sales have been suspended and it is again speculated that the stop was neither planned nor voluntary but the result a court order. To reinforce this, just when retail sales are booming, why would a saavy marketing firm like Aldi stop sales of a HOT item. Some forum writers are even saying this was a blunder on Aldi's part and that sales have been very slow in comparison to the expected # of sales.

Personally, I have no inside knowledge sitting here in the US. But I tend to think that something went awry with planning on this. ALDI Talk was supposed to limit the 5 cent rate to other ALDI Talk phones, but at present the rate applies across the board to all E+ customers. That might be a technical glitch that E+, the provider, will wish to correct before mass distribution continues -- to limit the damage to their revenue stream.

Stan

[Triband81]

If there is a problem with E-Plus' network capacity, it would probably be related to the fact that they have most of the German MVNOs on their network. I wonder how they'll fare around New Year's. It's a bit difficult to get an SMS through sometimes.