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Tag: MVNO

  • HKBN profit falls 66% in 1H17

    HKBN profit falls 66% in 1H17

    HKBN has reported a 66% decline in net profit for the first quarter of 2017 to HK$46 million ($5.9 million), due in part to investments associated with the operator’s entry into the mobile market as an MVNO.

    But revenue grew 25% to HK$1.53 billion as the company accelerated growth in both its residential and enterprise businesses.

    HKBN said that since the beginning of the financial year, the Hong Kong operator’s residential focus has shifted from subscriber to revenue growth.

    The company traded off a slowdown in broadband net additions – to 21,000 from 38,000 in the same quarter a year earlier – for an improvement in ARPU to HK$192 from HK$166 over the same period.

    Residential revenue accordingly grew 5% year-on-year to HK$941 million, with HKBN increasing its market share to around 37.6% by end-December, from 37.2% as of August 31.

    Enterprise business revenue meanwhile more than doubled to HK$569 million, as a result of the HK$650 million acquisition of New World Telecom (NWT) in March last year. HKBN recorded 1,000 enterprise net additions to take its total base to 51,000, while ARPU was flat at HK$1,467.

    “This interim results mark the beginning of our quad-play harvest,” HKBN CEO William Yeung said.

    “We have a monthly billing relationship with over 870,000 broadband households, representing over one-third of Hong Kong households. We will continue to leverage this to expand from our double-play centric business on broadband and fixed voice to quad-play, which includes OTT and mobile service offerings.”

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  • Thai MVNOs must use fingerprint SIM registration

    Thai MVNOs must use fingerprint SIM registration

    Thailand’s MVNOs will need to implement a new online fingerprint ID registration system for both prepaid and postpaid mobile SIMs by March, after regulator the NBTC declined to exempt them from complying with the new registration regime.

    The online registration system is being introduced as a requirement for both mobile operators and MVNOs as part of an NBTC decision from late last year.

    But MVNOs had been calling on the regulator to exempt them from the order on the grounds that it will impose additional costs that may make it difficult for them to compete with the major operators.

    NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith as stating that the regulator has decided that consumer interests must be put first, and a fingerprint system will be required to ensure greater security in mobile banking as Thailand moves towards becoming a cashless society.

    He also said operators will be able to deduct the costs of implementing the system from their annual universal service obligation fee.

    The new online fingerprint ID system will complement the existing compulsory SIM registration system. While operators are required to implement access to the system, end-users will choose whether to submit their fingerprints.

  • China Mobile deploys wideband Massive MIMO

    China Mobile deploys wideband Massive MIMO

    China Mobile Shanghai and Huawei have jointly deployed the world’s first wideband Massive MIMO site to help improve 4G network spectral efficiency.

    China Mobile has been focusing on the design of wideband Massive MIMO as part of its research on 5G. The technology been oriented specifically towards large-scale commercial use by the operator.

    Wideband Massive MIMO allows a single module to support the activation of three 2.6-GHz carriers, potentially allowing for a three-fold increase in the spectral efficiency of cells.

    The live deployment in Shanghai has achieved peak cell throughput rates of 72Mpbs using an uplink 8-stream capability configuration, as well as 630Mbps downlink.

    Huawei said the technology supports a smooth transition to CloudRAN architecture, while its in-house developed chips and optimization techniques helps provide processing capabilities four times higher than that of the industry standard.

    The technology is particularly suited to meeting specialized coverage requirements such as high-rise buildings.

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  • 60 companies apply for MVNO licenses in India

    60 companies apply for MVNO licenses in India

    India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) has published a list of 60 companies applying for an MVNO license in various cities.

    The companies have between them applied for 70 state, city or sub-district specific licenses across 11 of India’s 22 telecoms circles.

    The DoT is offering MVNO licenses under a unified license arrangement, with an entry fee of 75 million rupees ($1.1 million).

    MVNOs seeking to offer services on a pan-India basis will need to pay a 1.5 million rupee license fee and a 10.25 million rupee fee for a national and international long distance license.

    There were no applications for the Bangalore circle and only one each for Punjab, Maharashra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. By contrast, Gujarat received 22 applications, Mumbai received 12, Uttar Pradesh got 11 and there were eight in Delhi.

    Some companies applied for more than one city or circle specific license, with Mumbai’s Telenet Services making seven applications.

    MVNOs will be able to partner with multiple operators, but with the exception of data services, will be able to have only one MNO provider per access service type.

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  • ABS-CBN scales back MVNO ambitions

    ABS-CBN scales back MVNO ambitions

    Philippine media group ABS-CBN has scaled back its MVNO business in response to a declining subscriber base.

    The company has cut the annual fees it is paying network provider Globe Telecom in half as part of efforts to curb losses from its ABS-CBN Mobile operations.

    ABS-CBN CFO Aldrin Cerrado told the publication that the company plans to continue its mobile operations but has scaled down its ambitions, and has not yet decided whether to renew its MVNO agreement with Globe after it expires in two years.

    He said the company’s annual fee for using Globe’s network has been reduced from 400 million pesos ($8.6 million) per year to 200 million pesos.

    The cuts came after the MVNO reported a 13% decline in subscriber base for the first six months of 2016 to 520,000.

    In addition, ABS-CBN’s strategy had been based on luring customers via offering exclusive access to television content via its iWant TV app. But the company has since altered its model to open up access to iWant TV to Globe and rival mobile operator Smart.

  • HKBN awarded MVNO license

    HKBN awarded MVNO license

    Hong Kong ISP HKBN has secured a license from telecoms regulator OFCA to offer MVNO services in the market.

    OFCA has granted HKBN an expanded services-based operator license to allow the company to offer mobile services using the infrastructure of established mobile network operators.

    The company has signed an agreement with China Mobile Hong Kong, and is in discussions with two other mobile operators, with the goal of launching mobile services for both residential and corporate customers.

    HKBN said it expects to soft-launch mobile services in as early as August this year to complement its existing fixed line services.

    With the addition of MVNO services the company will be able to introduce quad-play offers combining broadband, fixed line telephone, OTT entertainment and mobile services in the same package.

    “This is a strong move to maximize shareholder value by offering a full suite of fixed and mobile services, leveraging our quickly expanding broadband customer base of over 800,000 households,” HKBN CEO and co-owner William Yeung said.

    “Replicating our success in the fixed broadband market,our mobile service will come with strong value propositions, aiming to delight customers with the best customer experience at highly competitive prices.”

    HKBN recently announced that the majority of the company’s supervisory and management-level employees have now invested in the company under its co-ownership program.

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  • New 4G MVNO launching in Singapore

    New 4G MVNO launching in Singapore

    A new 4G MVNO is launching in Singapore that aims to give consumers a new way to interact and consume telco services.

    Digital telco Circles.Life will target the data savvy consumer segment in Singapore. The operator will use M1’s infrastructure under an MVNO model similar to the one Virgin Mobile had with Singtel when the company entered the market in 2001.

    “Virgin Mobile was some time ago,” Circles.Life co-founder and director Abhishek Gupta said.

    “Rigid network technology in the past did not provide MVNOs flexibility in service offerings. They were not able to track data usage and customer buying patterns and found it difficult to respond to customer needs quickly. Our approach is unique because we take advantage of the latest technologies to build a next generation full service 4G digital mobile network.”

    Gupta added that as an MVNO, the company can work towards highly efficient usage of their resources and prioritize innovation to deliver improved services and a richer experience to customers.

    Circles.Life co-founder Rameez Ansar added that as an incentive to subscribers, the telco would also hand out periodic free boosts to their data plans determined by length of contract and other factors.

    Using a digital platform the company designed, Circles.Life will allow consumers to pick and choose bundles they want. The basic plan priced at S$28 a month comes with 3GB of mobile data, 100 minutes of talktime, and bonus data that range from 0.5GB to 4GB when customers use the firm’s app or perform actions like referring friends to sign up.

    The CirclesCare app also gives customers a personalized dashboard to allow them to tweak their plans such as top up mobile data or buy talk-time. These will be reflected in the next billing cycle, which follows the calendar month.

    Users also get free caller number display, free roaming, and unlimited data on Whatsapp.

    Circles.Life registration starts today and is offering new sign-ups bonuses like a low $4 registration fee, free SIM card, free delivery, and free number porting or 80% off “lucky numbers”.

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  • Virgin Mobile Australia launches unused data ‘auction’

    Virgin Mobile Australia launches unused data ‘auction’

    Australian MVNO Virgin Mobile has launched a publicity stunt to promote its new data rollover postpaid plans by hosting an auction allowing local consumers to ‘bid’ for items using unused data allocations.

    The company will auction off 30 items over 30 days, with the top prize being an A$43,000 ($33,000) vacation package to the private Wadigi Island in Fiji.

    Consumers can place ‘bids’ on Virgin Mobile’s Facebook page by posting their most recent mobile bill showing how much unused data was left over. The person with the highest amount of unused data wins the prize for that day, or in the event of a tie whoever placed a bid first will win.

    Virgin Mobile Australia head of brand and consumer marketing Philippa Duant commented that the stunt aims to raise awareness of the company’s data rollover plans, that are designed to give subscribers a second chance at using their allocation.

    “Terabytes upon terabytes of unused mobile data are being taken back from consumers every month by other telcos,” she said.

    “At Virgin Mobile we don’t think it’s fair that something they’ve paid for is snatched away – they should get a second chance to use it and what better way than through a unique auction that offers the opportunity to live like [Virgin Group co-founder] Sir Richard Branson on your own private island.”

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  • Malaysia provides Tweakker with entry into Asian MVNO market

    Malaysia provides Tweakker with entry into Asian MVNO market

    Spirent Communications has announced  that the firm’s mobile device intelligence unit -Tweakker, has won its first contract with a mobile virtual network operator [MVNO] in Asia. Called redONE , the contract enables the MVNO to embed Tweakker’s self-care smartphone Device Guides on its website with a link to Tweakker’s cloud. After training provided by Tweakker, customer care agents will be able to reference them to minimize the time it takes when on-boarding new subscribers if they experience difficulties in getting online.

    During calls, agents will simply direct callers to the correct place in the self-care device guide library on redONE’s website through a link delivered by SMS or email. “Over 51 per cent of Malaysia’s 35 million mobile subscribers now have smartphones and this figure can only rise in the years ahead as feature phones gradually disappear,” said redONE’s CEO, Farid Yunus.

    He continued, “With a highly-diverse smartphone market, the only way our care agents can handle our growth and on-boarding connectivity issues as a result is having access to Tweakker’s how-to Device Guides.”

    Tweakker’s general manager Dennis Poulsen added, “This groundbreaking contract in the Asian market paves the way for Tweakker to quickly expand its presence in this young, vibrant smartphone region.”

    “redONE and other agile MVNOs know only too well the painful consequences of poor customer care.”

    “Tweakker’s market-proven Device Guides will help them to deliver best-practice customer engagement and solution.”

    Founded in 2012, redONE built its customer base to one million in just under three years.

    With plans to open more retail outlets across the country next year, the MVNO expects to double its customer base by end 2016 through ambitious customer acquisition campaigns. Key to achieving its growth target will be the ability to offer postpaid mobile plans at the lowest rates as well as delivering the best possible customer engagement on-boarding experience.

    Tweakker’s cloud-based Device Guides enable mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to provide end-users flexible self-care and high quality customer care experience with radically reduced customer care costs.

    Through its market leading device intelligence library and APN Setup, Tweakker provides MVNOs fast and seamless zero-touch on-boarding for new subscribers ensuring rapid revenue uptake.

    By connecting with Spirent’s device library, MVNOs can tap into the world’s richest and most accurate device capability data, with over 150 data points per device, and to enrich their subscriber insight for marketing and business decision purposes.