likely become the largest single UMA deployment.
the competitive new service offer. Telecom
competition in France is fierce with hard-hitting
plans from alternative operator Free, as well as
Neuf/Cegetel impacting Orange's market share.
An aggressive launch of unik served to combat
the VoIP pricing tactics of its competitors.
get unlimited calling to fixed lines in France
for just 10 per month.
leveraging its strength in broadband by tying
the service to its DSL service and to LiveBox in
its home services gateway.
acceptance of the service. Orange is quietly
estimating 1 million French unik subscribers in 2007
growing to nearly 3 million in 2008. That represents a
service take-rate of roughly 5% of Orange's 23 million
mobile subscribers growing to 13% in two full years.
Canary or Panther service plans offered by Orange UK,
the `Unique' service provides unlimited fixed line and
Orange mobile calling for an additional £10 per month.
calling minutes/month. Forty hours of talk time a
month should be enough to satisfy even the most
demanding consumer.
2006. CEO Robert Dotson commented that "UMA
is a natural extension for the company's offerings
because more than 10% of T-Mobile's subscribers
do not have a traditional wired home phone."
This was an initial driver for the service offer.
However, T-Mobile has also been very aggressive
on price and is looking to UMA as a way to
accelerate the substitution of fixed minutes of
use to their mobile network. As a bonus, T-Mobile
has also included its nationwide Wi-Fi Hotspot
network (notably in Starbucks) into the UMA
service plan.
or ubiquitous (in the US) cable broadband providers
for IP access to their customers. T-Mobile has worked
with Wi-Fi router companies to add improved service
and diagnostic capabilities and encourages consumers
to take the T-Mobile Wi-Fi router (free with service
subscription and mail-in rebate) in an effort to
overcome this lack of transport control.
any fixed or mobile line in the US. However, with
a nod to the service coverage issues, T-Mobile
subscribers can get a UMA phone without an
additional service plan to simply use Wi-Fi to
improve coverage in the home or office.
been hampered by the break-up of the company's
fixed and mobile units. Regulatory limits have
served to delay TIM from a major launch to date,
but it is expected to push unico nationwide once the
restrictions pass.