Mobile Network Comparison

LycaMobile, the MVNO, has announced that it will expand its operations to the United States. The company already operates in several European countries as well as in Australia and it is looking to enter new markets to increase its revenues. At the moment, LycaMobile is the largest virtual mobile network in Europe when measured by revenue and brings in over $1 billion a year.

LycaMobile has now only been running for six years but already it is massively popular as a choice of virtual network. In particular, it have been aggressively marketing toward expatriates in the UK by offering cheap international calling packages. It also operates under the more budget GT Mobile brand in many markets in parallel to LycaMobile and recent figures show that it serves over 2 million calls every day. In the UK alone, there are over 5 million subscribers.

Not content with its 20 million customers in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, LycaMobile is due to launch in the US soon. The massive North American market is much less competitive than in Europe and they will be hoping they can quickly gain a large number of customers with slim margins and undercutting current prices. It’s also likely they will use the LycaMobile trademark of partnering with ethnic stores and marketing in public places such as train stations.

The chairman of LycaMobile, Subaskaran Allirajah has said that this move is indicative of the company’s international ambitions. Moving into the US will almost double the number of available customers they can now target. In comparison to existing virtual networks in the US, LycaMobile will pull off a first in that it will be the only operator that completely controls its billing and customer service provision. They will be hoping that this fuller control will allow for a better service to tempt customers over.

The company’s chief executive Milind Kangle is understandably optimistic despite the competition in North America. He said that LycaMobile aims to double its revenues by entering the US market. At first they will concentrate their marketing efforts on highly-concentrated states including California, Texas as well as New York and New Jersey on the east coast. Initially only 18 states will have a service from the MVNO.

The parent network LycaMobile will use has not been officially announced yet although industry rumours point toward T-Mobile. It’s also likely that they will try to strike a deal to be able to provide 4G services to US customers.

The launch in the US is the biggest launch yet in LycaMobile’s history and they are offering two bundles to start with. The cheapest begins at $39 per month and comes with unlimited allowances for calls, texts and data as well as inclusive international calls to fifty countries. If you’re willing to pay $49 instead, you will get free international call allowances to an additional fifteen foreign countries.

What do you make of this move? Do you think that LycaMobile will struggle in the North American market or will it quickly expand? Do their bundles sound like good value for money? And do you think their efforts abroad could hamper their services here in the UK? We want to hear your opinions!

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Samsung and O₂ were big winners at the 2012 Mobile Industry Awards last week. The glitzy ceremony, run by Mobile Today was held at The Brewery in London on 14th June and included gongs for all aspects of the mobile phone industry. Handset manufacturer Samsung scooped an unprecedented three awards while O2 took home the coveted Best Network award and their subsidiary Giffgaff doubled up with the best MVNO award. Other big winners were Phones4U as well as HTC who picked up the Best Manufacturer Field Marketing Team Award and the Hottest New Phone Award for the One X.

One of the biggest stories of the night was the Phone of the Year award. The field was tough with the iPhone 4S, Sony Xperia S, Nokia Lumia 800 and HTC Sensation XE all nominated. But, in the end, the iPhone-beating Samsung Galaxy S II took the prize and most people would say deservedly so. Boasting an incredible camera, a recent update to the lighting-fast and uber-powerful Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android OS and stunning good looks, it’s really be the standout handset over the last 12 months.

Customer-run virtual network Giffgaff proved it’s really coming of age by scooping the Best MVNO award. Up against tough competition such as the huge Tesco Mobile and Lycamobile, they capitalised on their innovative business practises and massive growth over the last year to earn the award. Hopefully they will continue to go from strength to strength next year too.

Samsung really proved their worth though with a hat-trick of gongs scored. They beat off the likes of Apple, HTC, Nokia and Sony for the Best Manufacturer award. They then picked up the Power 50 Person of the Year award with their UK chief Simon Stanford. Stanford has previously put in stints working for mobile industry giants such as Everything Everywhere and O2 and has helped massively expanded the marketshare of Samsung phones in the UK. Others on the shortlist included Phil Dobson , Ed Richards, David Dyson and Olaf Swantee but in the end they were no match for the Samsung man. Finally, Samsung completed the trifecta with the highly-regarded Phone of the Year award which went to the Galaxy SII. Who knows whether they’ll complete the double with the Galaxy SIII in 2013?

Another exciting award was the Hottest Tablet for 2012 Award which was unsurprisingly won by Apple’s new iPad. There never really was much competition despite nominations for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition and Orange Tahiti and, at the end of the day, the latest and greatest iPad deservedly romped home. Hopefully Android and Windows tablets will provide some stiffer competition by this time next year.

The rest of the prizes included O₂ winning the Best Network award having been praised for its customer bonuses and no doubt helped by its sponsorship of major entertainment venues. 3 got Best Mobile Broadband, Uplands fended off rivals Quore, Savin and Communicate Better to take home the Best Dealer gong while Micro-P won Best Hardware Distributor. Avenir Accessories made it two when they were awarded the Best Accessories Distributor prize after Avenir Telecom got Best Airtime Distributor. One of the most anticipated awards of the night, the Shop Idol 2012 was won by Nicola Black of Phones4U whose company also got the Best High Street Retailer prize.

Do you think that anyone was looked over in this year’s awards? Who do you think was most deserving of their win? And what are your picks for the 2013 awards?

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LycaMobile have been revealed to have paid absolutely no corporation tax at all the last three years. Even though they generated a turnover of almost £150 million in the years between 2008 and 2010, they have yet to pay HMRC any tax at all.

Bringing the company into even more disrepute, LycaMobile donated £136,000 Conservative party in the current quarter and another £40,000 in the quarter before that. So, even though they claim not be making any profit at all, they have enough spare cash around give to the big business-friendly, average man-hating Tories. In fact, they’re one of the Cameron’s biggest donors.

John Mann, the Labour MP who has campaigned for greater scrutiny of party funding, said:

If the company can afford to give to the Tories, they can afford to pay British taxes. Maybe the Tories should consider giving money to the Inland Revenue.

The company is based in London and was founded by Subaskaran Allirajah who also runs Lycatel which sells international calling cards, an even more lucrative business. He said that LycaMobile have yet to make any business profits which is why they haven’t paid any tax. However, there were ready been in trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading adverts about international call prices and the company has been threatened with being dissolved by Companies House because of the severely delayed filing of accounts this year.

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