Mobile operator strategy N55

SFR, second French mobile operator, has a true MVNO strategy. After Debitel and Future

Telecom,  SFR has signed two new deals with respectively Cegetel, a sister company in

the Vivendi Universal group, and Neuf Telecom, a French CAP company. Most of the deals

 target SMBs and communities.

Vodafone has selected Ingram Micro to distribute its 3G business products, including

2G/3G data cards and RIM BlackBerry devices.

Orange had 50,000 UMTS subscribers at the end of February, and targets 500,000 at

year-end. Combining UMTS, EDGE and WiFi, Orange forecast 80% population coverage

 by year-end. SFR, main Orange’s competitor, has about the same target of 500,000 by

year-end.

Mobilcom could merge with its fixed subsidiary freenet.de.

In India, TRAI (the local regulator) has warned Reliance and Tata, two fixed wireless

operators, to stop offering full mobility on their fixed wireless offerings (CDMA-based

networks).

BT has signed a roaming agreement with Connexion by Boeing to offer its customers

an internet access in the sky.

3 UK invites UK mobile operators to bid for a £ 100m roaming deal a year.

PLDT (Philippines) is launching a high-speed Internet access service called “WeRoam”

using GPRS, EDGE, and Wi-Fi.

Vodafone is interested to buy from TWI its MobiFon and Oskar Mobil divisions,

respectively in Romania and Czech rep. Vodafone targets 1m 3G users in Germany by

year-end.

VMS (Vietnam) is investing $145m in the expansion of its GSM network.

China mobile operators are now targeting low-spending users and attract more current

PHS users. So they will combine cheap call plans and subsidise phones to compete with

PHS packages which are half the price of a cell call.

Telefonica could be interested in bidding for a Morocco license, confirms interest in Cesky

Telecom and Turk Telecom, but is not interested by Telemig (Brazil).