FMC in the UK: Game On!

Today Vodafone announced, during a presentation at the Femtocell World Summit, a new femtocell product for the UK market available July 1. No actual press release yet, but there are several reports from the event.

Details of the offer a bit sketchy, but according to the Register (and other insiders), the Vodafone Access Gateway will cost t £160 as a one-off price. Alternatively there are bundled options with specific phones which run a monthly fee of £15 – £30. There may also be an option for subscribers with high-tariff packages to receive a femtocell for free.

It’s not clear what subscribers get in return. Most obviously, a femto offers excellent indoor coverage. Perhaps users will also get some type of discounted calling when attached to the femtocell.

Of course, Orange has offered it’s Unique service, based on Wi-Fi, in the UK for some time now. While there has never been nation-wide promotion of Unique, it’s estimated the company has sold between 250,000 and 500,000 Unique-enabled devices.

This leaves T-Mobile and O2/Telefonica as the two operators in the UK without some type of Home Zone service bundle. Looks like it’s Game On! for FMC in the UK.

Orange UK targets teleworkers

As reported at Pocket-Lint, a UK based technology blog, Orange UK is making available a ‘comprehensive portfolio of solutions’ in a service called ‘Open Office’. The service takes advantage of Orange’s new Unique offer with a new a tariff bundle.

Orange continues to push Unique forward.

Orange launches "Open Office" for flexible workers

"Flexible solutions for forward-thinking firms"

by Amy-Mae Elliott

4 September 2007 12:15 GMT - Orange Business Services today announced the launch of Open Office, that they describe as a comprehensive portfolio of solutions designed to offer unrivalled choice and convenience for flexible workers.

With more and more people working from home with Open Office, Orange customers will be able to select from a range of "flexible working tools" that includes home broadband, dedicated tariff bundles.

The "Unique" UMA (Universal Mobile Access) phone service is also included, which allows customers to use a single handset for all their calls, whether at home over wi-fi or on the move using the Orange mobile network.

A range of mobile email platforms will also be offered, including BlackBerry and Microsoft, alongside the Orange Business Everywhere mobile laptop offering.

The dedicated tariff bundles will be available for the full portfolio of Orange business handsets. For those that opt for Unique, the service will be available with the BlackBerry 8820, the Nokia 6086 and the Samsung P260 from mid-September, with other devices available during the autumn.

Orange goes FREE

One of the anticipated dual-mode handset commercial launches is Orange in the UK. They have trialed the service for some time now. Things looked quite promising when two week ago Blackberry announced the first operator for the UMA-enabled 8820 was to be Orange UK.

But after checking the web site last week, it looks like Orange has some more tricks up its sleeve.

When subscribers sign up for the ‘Unique’ offer, they receive ‘unlimited’ calling to Orange UK mobiles as well as fixed lines in the UK. In addition, they receive ‘unlimited’ calling to fixed lines in 25 countries in Europe plus the US.

The best part is, this is all FREE with any service plan above £30.

Simply ‘purchase’ a Unique enabled phone (which is also FREE with an 18 mos service commitment), and Orange UK subscribers automatically get calls the Orange UK mobiles, UK fixed lines, and calls to fixed lines in 25 other countries for FREE.

How can that be?

Certainly it’s no secret that the UK has an incredible competitive mobile market. Churn is a costly issue. In all fairness, in the Orange UK T&Cs, ‘unlimited’ actually means ‘fair use’ which is defined as 1,000/month of UK calling and 1,000/month of international calling. Still, that’s quite a bit of calling for no charge.

One can image that the Orange team struggled with how to inspire the UK consumer with something new and Unique? It’s a crowded market, how does one win new subscribers and hold on to existing customers? FREE is a word that gets people’s attention.

At the end of the day, Orange is really looking to lock up subscribers between their mobile and broadband service. But offering these types of incentives, Orange is looking to convert (or sign up new) broadband subscribers.

The rumor is that Orange will start a marketing push after the summer.