[3GScottishUser]

An article by Jon Chalmers from Telecom Redux (30/08/2006):

Hutchison scooped the pool in GSM operating. Now, in the 3G arena in markets like Italy and the UK, it’s not doing very well at all. In fact it’s doing poorly*.

Hutchison Whampoa was pretty nifty when it bought a UK cellular company, re-branded it as ‘Orange’ and sold it to Mannesmann. Or not quite. Mannesmann bought Orange and Vodafone bought Mannesmann and sold Orange to France Telecom. So far, so nebulous.

Vodafone may have thought it had a brand but Orange knew that it had one. It’s the brand, rather than the customer base, that owners Hutchison eventually sold in 2000 for a cool €50bn.

Even while counting these returns, Hutchison nudged its way back into European 3G. It flounced around in markets like Germany, Italy and the UK. In Germany it partnered serial soulmate KPN; in Italy is upped the ante on Deutsche Telekom to secure one of two 3G licences awarded outside the incumbent GSM trio. In the UK, home to the world’s most excessive 3G licence auction, it ‘triumphed’ alongside T-Mobile, Orange, 02 and Vodafone.

But Hutchison has failed to repeat its Orange magic where 3 is concerned. An IPO of its Italian arm was rudely binned last year. Now its UK subscriber figures are going into reverse.

This time Hutchison looks to have messed up: supposing you started up a 3G mobile operator and nobody came. You would look lonely, stupid – and ripe for takeover by another struggling for survivial in a flat and saturated market.

* = crap

http://www.telecomredux.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3495&Itemid=35

[Ben]

Lmao, and I thought the asterix was your doing! ;)

Analysts don't have much to be confident of in 3 these days. I think commentary like the above is likely to gain momentum unless something rapidly changes.

[3GScottishUser]

I agree.

There seems to be little evidence of 3 around at the moment in the UK. Dealers like CPW have not featured anything from 3 on their front pages for some time now and after a dominating the cashback deals for a long while, it's all gone deathly quiet everywhere with the exception of their own direct marketing. What happened to the new tariffs? The big push into SME's? The expansion of the UK range with Samsung products?

Their handset range has definately improved greatly lately but it's pointless having the range if you hav'nt got the distribution. The pre-pay market (still Britains biggest sector) is history for 3 presently with few WePay takers replacing the churning subscribers moving to cheaper alternatives. Ofcom's action to extend termination cost price controls to 3G will be a very heavy blow for 3 and will slash their income drastically and this will hit their ARPU hard next year.

Are we about to see another massive push this Autumn to try and gain a real foothold or are we witnessing a slow wind down with a disposal the most likely prospect?

Is Li Ka Shing the ultimate owner of 3 now simply throwing good money away?

If the answer to the above is no.... what should 3 UK be doing now that they are not doing already?

[getti]

In the magazine 'Mobile Choice' they picked 3 for the best online deal and best high street deal with the double texts/calls and 1/2 price line rental.

Direct Text 1400 beats Flext 35 and is £5 cheaper but does not get talked about as much.

Dont get me wrong i am not mad about 3 now and it will take a lot for them to build up my trust/confidence again after the N73 fook up but the offers ARE good.

Im sure Chaslam will back me up on this as i talked him into getting one on 3 and he loves it so far.

Especially with 512mb free a month data

[3g-g]

In the magazine 'Mobile Choice' they picked 3 for the best online deal and best high street deal with the double texts/calls and 1/2 price line rental.

Direct Text 1400 beats Flext 35 and is £5 cheaper but does not get talked about as much.

Dont get me wrong i am not mad about 3 now and it will take a lot for them to build up my trust/confidence again after the N73 fook up but the offers ARE good.

Im sure Chaslam will back me up on this as i talked him into getting one on 3 and he loves it so far.

Especially with 512mb free a month data


You're quite right, some of the deals to be had on Three are great, but that can't be enough to sustain them in the saturated UK market. What HWL did with Orange at first was the complete shake up of the UK mobile comms market, and, to a lesser extent they did that with Three also. However, when Orange was launched the brand was given so much attention, that's what people liked, I just don't think they gave it as much thought this time round, and they're paying the price now. How many people still think, and call Three, 3G! They've blurred the line between the technology and the company name, fair enough 3G is what Three do, however, when you talk about a 3G phone on Orange or T-Mobile, some people I know anyway, presume that you're on Three, usually asking, "I thought you're phone was on Orange and not 3G?". There are plenty of happy people on Three, however, you're less likely to head to a forum or similar to congratulae them, hence the usual threads of poor CS, call coverage etc, it's usually damning tales of woe 90% of the time.

Three have missed the boat IMO, it could of been done so much better, in my mind they've only turned up to make a quick buck. We'll see if anyone else buys them out and turns things around, or if they're due to become another Dolphin (and no, I don't mean a Orange package!!).

[Hands0n]

Do you know what? The saddest thing about 3 is that for them to have made a success of their entry in the market all they had to do is get the Customer Service equation right. They did not at the outset, the did nothing during the past three years to put it right, and now they are languishing with a massive disaffected ex-Customer base. Each one of these disaffected is likely to be costing 3 at least 10 new customers each.

Even sadder, it is going to be too late now for 3 to turn that particular boat around. All the most excellent deals to be had count for nothing when there is Mumbai in the background just waiting to sabbotage all and any customer goodwill in a single phone call.

[3GScottishUser]

BTW if you do a quick look around 3's deals are not as great as they once were. you no longer need to sacrifice good custmer care and solid call reliabilty for price. Remember 3 is still the only network that does not allow you to select GSM if you want to and the data services are full of exeptions when you have to roam onto either 02 or their new GSM partner Orange.

I had a look at Vodafone and you can get their 200 Anytime tariff with STC and 1150 SMS a month for £30. Or Orange provide Canary 30 at the same cost with 325 X/net mins, 100 On-Net Off Peak Mins, 650 SMS plus free broadband up to 8Mb/s and a free wireless router with free off peak VoIP calls to UK landlines. Videocalling on Orange is charged at the same cost as voice calls when roaming in Europe. Needless to say the above deals have lots of handset options and dealers can offer tempting cashback deals.

The market has been moving so fast lately that you just cant have any preconceptions about who offers the best value, you have to do some homework before signing the dotted line or pushing the 'buy now' key.