T-Mobile To Review Pre Pay Tariffs
Published March 2005
T-Mobile To Review Pre Pay Tariffs
(Source: Cellular News) - T-Mobile International AG's (TMO.YY) U.K. division will review its tariffs on prepaid telecommunications services in the spring, said the division's managing director, Brian McBride. Competition in the U.K. prepay market has been intense in the past month, as low-cost rivals easyMobile and Carphone Warehouse Group PLC (CPW.LN) have traded blows in a price war.
Both those companies, as well market entrant Toucan Mobile and established low-cost operator Virgin Mobile Holdings PLC (VMOB.LN), lease capacity on T-Mobile's U.K. network. T-Mobile is the mobile-telecom arm of German company Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). McBride said that following the saturation of the U.K. mobile phone market, the company has decided to tailor its mobile phone service to reduce churn.
It has initially focused on the contract market, launching the U-Fix contract service Thursday. McBride said that it will then look at its prepay model, as well as the provision of mobile broadband services. U-Fix aims to address the issue of churn by giving customers more control over their mobile phone bill, reducing unpredictability and customer dissatisfaction.
U-Fix will offer users services for either GBP15 or GBP25 a month, with bigger bundled minutes included when the customer chooses to use the phone at offpeak times. The user will have a choice of three handsets if they take up the offer. McBride said the service is aimed at students, people that have just started earning salaries and parents looking to control their children's mobile phone spending. He said despite being a contract service, U-Fix costs less a month than most prepay users already spend but with far better call tariffs.
"It's appeal will be very wide," he said. He also said at offpeak times, U-Fix offers voice calls for 3.3 pence a minute, including free texts, "which must compare extremely well to so-called low-cost operators." For a promotional period, Carphone Warehouse is offering voice calls at five pence a minute and charging 1.7 pence a text. EasyMobile offers voice for 6 pence a minute and charges 2 pence a text. U-Fix will be backed by a multi-million pound advertising campaign.
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