Re: RE: (ukha_d) Mobile Phones (maybe OT)

["Simon Brazier" <simon.brazier@xxxxxxx>]

AFAIK, Vodafone issued a limited number of service provider licences to
a
few companies a few years ago. This gave you the right to basically buy
bulk
minutes from Vodafone, package them up into various tariffs yourselves,
and
then sell them on to the end user. Vodafone have since stopped issuing
these
service provider licences now - presumably in an effort to go the same
way
as Orange and run a lot of it themselves.

Any new phone companies coming onto the market can't buy minutes in
bulk
>from
providers to get their minutes, which they can then sell onto their own
customers using their own tariffs (with their own margins on top).

The problem with GPRS comes from the service providers and not
Vodafone.
Vodafone can provide GPRS, the phone manufacturers make phones that work
on
GPRS, the problem is that the service provider hasn't yet got around to
providing a system for packaging up the GPRS "minutes" that they
get from
Vodafone and then charging them (with their extra margin) to the end
user.
The companies you speak about, if they are not service providers
themselves,
probably haven't got a service provider that is offering GPRS billing at
the
moment.

On the subject of phones, I've actually got a Nokia 6210 and want to
upgrade
it to a 6310 to get GPRS/Bluetooth etc but apparently there have been a
few
reliability problems with the 6310.

On a seperate note, the company I work for is one of the biggest ISPs in
the
UK. I've read all the posts about unlimited and unmetered access, and
the
problems with ADSL, and I'm putting them to our sales manager to see if
we
can offer anything that is more suitable or would actually fit in with
what
people want. If anyone wants to mail me with a list of all the Cons
they
currently get with their ISP, and what Pros they'd like to see, I'll put
it
to the company and see what packages we can come up with.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Keay" <m@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] RE: (ukha_d) Mobile Phones (maybe OT)


> Phones4u is a totally seperate company which sell all four networks.
They
> also have a lot of market share and good relationships w/ providers
(based
> on size).
>
> Dialaphone are totally seperate and afaik they dont use
singlepoint
> anymore.
>
> I cant really see Vodafone becoming a "single airtime
provider" since
> afaik (this is just from what i've heard) Singlepoint have around 40%
of
> the vodafone contract market.
>
> Singlepoint actually do corporate customers too thru various
channels,
> including part of the Caudwell Group "4u ltd".
>
> I cant really see how a singlepoint customer cant use gprs while a
voda
> customer cant, unless this is a restriction on the vodafone network
either
> by singlepoint -or- vodafone for whatever business reason.
(Singlepoint
> dont have any equipment to upgrade to gprs, it's all vodafones
network).
>
> Hope that helps..
>
> Matthew (somewhat biased, probably wrong, and speaking of his own
> opinion).
>
> On Wed, 29 May 2002 peter.white@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > Do they have this vision?  Vodafone is certainly the comms
provider, but
in
> > terms of Service Providers they have well over 40 of these, of
which
Singlepoint
> > is by far the largest (under about 4 different brands,
including
Phones4U &
> > Dialaphone).
> >
> > Knowing Vodafone, and the volume of complaints they get, I don't
suppose
they'll
> > do much about it, as Singlepoint do specialise in mainstream,
vanilla,
> > consumers, as opposed to 'business' contracts.  No excuse
for
mis-selling
> > though.
> >
> > Pete
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: MIME:maccy@xxxxxxx at INTERNET
> > Sent: 29 May 2002 16:42
> > To: White, Peter; ukha_d@xxxxxxx at Internet
> > Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Mobile Phones (maybe OT)
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 29 May 2002, Andy Laurence wrote:
> > > No, it's not a Vodafone problem, it's a mixture of
Singlepoint and
> > phones4u.  > Vodafone have always been good to me in the
4-5 years or so
I've
> > been with > them.
> >
> > That's why I was thinking they might be able to help you out on
this
> > occasion, i.e. transfer your SP for you before the contract term
and/or
> > encourage Singlepoint to implement GPRS. Wouldn't this be in line
with
> > Vodafone's vision of one brand, one company? i.e. phase out the
SP
> > concept?
> >
> > Maccy
> >
> >
> >
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> m@xxxxxxx
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