Mobile Network Comparison

There’s another new kid on the MVNO block: White Mobile. With an aggressive pricing model and some catchy marketing, they are aiming to be the next big cut-price mobile network. And they aren’t holding anything back when going for the throats of their competitors. They are looking to the future with heavy investment into VoIP services and they are also keeping prices at rock bottom. With landline calls starting at just 3p per minute, mobile calls at just 6p per minute and texts priced as low as 5p each, it looks like they might be making some fairly substantial waves in the PAYG market soon.

Not only that, but they also have some other great offering such as free voicemail, free calls and texts to other White Mobile users and even cheap international calls.

Looks like they are offering a pretty well-rounded package. But are they the real deal and can they keep these prices so low forever? We got together with co-founder Graeme Hutchinson to find out more. He’s worked for the UK’s biggest virtual network Virgin Mobile along with ex-CEO of EE Tom Alexander, so it would be fair to say he’s got quite a pedigree in the mobile industry.

Hi Graeme, thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, to start with, please can you let us know a bit about how the company came about?

White Mobile is the collaboration between a number of very successful and highly experienced executives from the mobile phone and international calling card industry, led by Graeme Hutchinson, former Virgin Mobile Sales and Marketing Chief and co-founder.

When did the company launch? What have you been doing so far and how do you think it’s been going?

White Mobile launched in November 2012 and has been selling SIMs and top up services through several thousand retail outlets and via its website. To date sales and have been exceptionally strong which we believe is a direct result of our brilliant rates to both UK and international destinations, combined with a genuinely customer centric philosophy that we hope comes through in everything we do as an organisation.

What is your target market? How has adoption been so far and do you have growth forecasts?

Ultimately our target market is anyone in the UK who prefers straightforward pay as you go mobile services (as opposed to 30 day and longer contracts). In recent years the cost of pay as you go services have increased dramatically as operators try to force customers to take out contracts. White Mobile reverses this trend and has brought back brilliant value to pay as you go. Why should consumers get worse calling rates because they want to pay as they go? The answer is they shouldn’t and mobile operators are charging excessively for pay as you go. White Mobile is the UK’s pay as you go champion and offers the best value to UK consumers, whether for UK calls and texts or for international calls and text. Take up so far has been fantastic and our forecasts is for hundreds of thousands of White Mobile UK customers within the next three years.

Which network do you use to provide your infrastructure and why did you choose them?

EE. In our opinion the best network in the UK with the most ambitious and advanced network plans.

Why do you think so many people are stuck on expensive PAYG plans when there are so many cheap alternatives available now? What’s the main thing holding people back from switching?

Ultimately people have different reasons and motivations for wanting to pay as you go rather than be forced to commit to a contract. We recognise and respect that consumers should be free to make whatever choice they want regarding how they pay for their mobile service and should not be unduly punished with expensive call rates for pay as you go (which is what we now see from most UK operators). White Mobile changes all this so that consumers can pay and you go AND have exceptionally low rates.

You offer much cheaper international rates than most other companies – is your focus mainly on calling abroad or UK usage?

Both – White Mobile rates are extremely competitive for both UK and international services.

Some of our readers have expressed concern that your prices are too low to be maintainable. What can you say to reassure people you don’t intend to bait and switch after you’ve attracted a customer base?

Our business has been designed from the outset to be profitable from the pay as you go market and the typically lower spending mobile consumer. Our rates provide a decent profit margin even though they are the best available and we are committed to maintaining our competitive position in the UK market. We have no cynical plans to hike rates at a later date – that is simply not in our DNA. With our customer centric approach, driven by Graeme Hutchinson whose leadership helped Virgin Mobile to grow from zero to 5m customers in 5 years, we know we will not disappoint mobile consumers who switch to White Mobile.

What do you think the impact of 4G and the exponential rise of smartphones is going to be on data pricing?

Our data rates are the best available on pay as you go at just 2.5p per megabyte and we also offer data bundles that provide even better value for customers with higher data requirements. We are hugely excited about 4G and the rise of data services and expect to see more services being enabled via data and smartphone and tablet devices. These so called “over the top” services will become the norm and within our family of businesses we are already embarked on this journey with our FooCall and FooTalk smartphone apps.

Finally, where do you see the network in five years?

A profitable multi-national MVNO converged with IP services serving millions of customers with world class products and customer care.

Convincing or just marketing guff? What do you think? We’ve had a White Mobile SIM card for some time now so we’ll have a conclusive White Mobile review in the coming days when all our tests are fully completed. But for the time being, have you tried White Mobile or are you just tempted? Do you think they can keep prices this low? And have they done enough to convince you to switch for good?

Continue Reading

We hope you enjoyed reading the first half of our interview with OVIVO Founder Dariush Zand. We’ve got the second part ready for you now which will cover the tariffs currently available, the amount of adverts you can expect to watch and thoughts for the future of the mobile industry and mobile internet in general.

When do you launch and how can users get started with you?

We launched on April 16th! Visitors to www.ovivomobile.com can sign up for £5.00 and they will receive their SIM card in 2 business days direct to their home address. They will receive that £5.00 as credit in their account for any call charges made outside of their free allowance.

We have two simple tariffs: Ovivo for Smartphones – 200 Any Network Minutes, 200 Texts, 512MB, Free Ovivo to Ovivo Calls and Texts. And then, Ovivo for Tablets and Mobile Broadband – 1GB Free Mobile Internet. You receive this free allowance EACH MONTH with NO MINIMUM To-up required!

Outside of the bundle charges are the cheapest in the UK – 6p per minute (standard rate calls and mobiles), text and megabyte. If you bring your mobile number to Ovivo, you will also receive a £5.00 bonus and through our Ovivo Rewards Facebook Application, you can recommend the service to your friends and earn reward points when they sign up. These can be exchanged for free credit, but we will be looking to offer special promotions in the future.

What sort of ratio of advert-viewing-to-free-service can we expect?

At present, you will see an ad break when browsing as soon as you accumulate 2MB of Data Usage or after 15 Minutes, whichever happens first. However, we don’t serve up these adverts if (for example) you are in the middle of a transaction on a website. We try to minimise the customer intrusion. We are of course fine tuning the experience as we go, but the key point is that as time goes by, the advertising will become more and more relevant, targeted and therefore of value to our customers.

What do you think the impact of 4G and the exponential rise of smartphones is going to be on data pricing and where do you see the network in five years?

Very interesting question! As a consumer myself, I welcome 4G/LTE and the general evolution of networks. As a former Technologist, the technology behind LTE will address a lot of the challenges networks face as a result of the Smartphone explosion (capacity constraints, battery consumption as a result of handing over between 3G and 2G, rollout constraints, etc.). From a commercial perspective, the opportunities are endless with 4G allowing carriers and MVNOs to deliver much more media rich advertising and applications that add even more value to the customer experience. It will take time though for its rollout but likely we will continue to see as a result, the steady decline of data pricing from a wholesale perspective, which in turn will allow Ovivo to continue providing lots of free usage each month and monetise our service through Mobile Advertising and Value Added Applications. Looking historically, the average spend of a mobile phone user hasn’t changed much in 20 years…the speed of the network has, the capabilities of the phone and the usage has sky-rocketed. This trend will continue.

So there you are – hopefully that answered some of your questions about OVIVO. However, we really want to get together with Dariush to ask him a bit more about the network so if you have any questions of your own, please post them in the comments section so we can ask OVIVO for you.

Continue Reading

Last week we came across a rather novel new network called OVIVO. Just like Samba Mobile (who we recently interviewed), they claim to offer completely free mobile internet. However, they also go one step further by offering completely free calls and texts too.

How do they manage this you ask? Well, they are an advert-supported network. So, basically, they get paid to show you targeted ads and use this money to pay off your phone bill for you. Does it work? Well, that remains to be seen but they claim to offer you 200 minutes, 200 texts and 500 MB of data every month without you having to pay a penny. If you’re interested and want to know a little bit more, read on as we ask some questions to Dariush Zand, CEO and Founder of OVIVO Mobile.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, first of all can you explain a little more about the genesis of the company and the ideas behind it?

We started Ovivo in September 2011, although I personally have been in the Telecommunications business since 1995 in broad range of roles and companies (sales, Marketing, Technology, Operators, Equipment Manufacturers, etc.). The key driver behind the business was to Innovate and drive change…a move away from the existing billing paradigm of carriers worldwide. We learned from studies such as this that a substantial amount of customers’ bundles are unused and with contract durations of over 18 months, the model does not favour the consumer. However changing this model and moving to a more Internet orientated model of providing service requires a careful, yet exciting approach. Hence Ovivo was born, to drive this change and achieve what to date the industry has viewed as not being possible. Our company identity and logo reflects this – an Ibis, carrying a Rhino on its head is achieving what most thought to believe as impossible! Not any more.

What can users expect from the adverts they have to view and how are you choosing advertisers?

Initially we are working with key Advertising Network Partners (Google, Bliss Media, Inmobi, Adfonic and Linking Mobile) to place relevant advertising for our target segments. As we grow, we will augment this with dedicated advertising campaigns and seek to deliver true added value to a highly consumable, yet cost conscious segment, the student market. Where we go from there, will include much more targeted profiling (Hyper local in some cases) and relevant to add value to customers and entice click through and conversions.

The MVNO market is incredibly competitive and saturated – apart from your pricing plan, how else are you going to distinguish yourselves and get the word out?

You’re quite right, it is a very saturated market with (at last count) 60+ MVNOs in the UK alone! Price is always a key differentiator, but we hope to attract our initial customers through the innovative nature of our brand, service and promise. With over 2.5m students in the UK, we have a substantial market opportunity to prove our model, drive further innovation and roll it out to the broader market.

This revenue model has been attempted many times before in other markets – why do you think it will work better now and in this particular niche?

We’ve been referred to as “The Ghost of Blyk” and “Blyk 2.0” on a number of occasions! I personally welcome the reference as Blyk were pioneers trying to do something in an industry where the market simply wasn’t ready, the value chain did not exist and the technology wasn’t available. Thanks to the Smartphone revolution, the Advertising Ecosystem and extensibility created by pioneers such as Google and Bliss, the Technology advancements of our Partners such as Moben International and the fact that we are now seeing the take-off or Mobile Advertising, the time is right for the Ad-funded MVNO. Why in this particular student Niche segment? Very simply, because we need to prove our model with the Consumers of tomorrow, where even though they may have cash constraints, they are perceived as extremely lucrative by brands looking to win their custom and raise awareness of their brand at an early point of their consumer lives.

What is your target market? How has adoption been so far and do you have growth forecasts?

Students today, extending through to general Smartphone users (those who want and buy the latest gadgets) and Visitors to the UK. Initial take-up and interest has been very promising, however, I can’t disclose actual figures or our growth forecasts at this stage as it is commercially confidential.

Hope that answered some of your questions. Check back in a few days the second part of the interview with Dariush. In the meantime, please subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter so you’ll know when to check back.

Continue Reading