O2 launches into growing laptop market
O2 today unveiled its plans to enter the laptop market with a promise to couple market-leading home and mobile broadband with impressive devices and excellent customer service. With laptop sales expected to reach 9-10 million devices in 2009, O2 is ranging Samsung laptops to create exclusive packages that will give customers everything they need to be more connected, with minimum fuss and hassle.
O2 will introduce three new Pay Monthly deals, available online and at its 490 stores nationwide, on 27 February 2009. With broadband bundles set to take a large proportion of the overall laptop market within three years, O2 is entering this market in a strong position with an all-round package that will meet the consumer needs of style, substance, staying power, service and security head-on.
O2 CEO, Ronan Dunne, highlighted the great opportunity presented by the market today: "We all want to be better connected at all times and the substantial and continued growth in the laptop market is symptomatic of this desire. Laptops are rapidly eroding the desktop PC market and at the same time, the emergence of the mini-laptop has opened up a whole new market for ultra-portable devices – one that is expected to more than double in size in 2009 alone. To date, the subsidised laptop market has received some bad press due to poor equipment and frustrating customer service experiences. O2 is stepping into the market with a promise to turn this around by taking a holistic approach to the product offer. Our package ticks every box when it comes to the main purchase drivers in the market, which in turn means we are taking away the 'worry-factor' involved in buying a laptop."
O2's laptop package is designed to give customers everything they want at a price that they will love:
Style – Samsung's NC10 mini-laptop and R510 laptop models combine great design with looks for the ultimate in laptop style.
Substance – with strong specifications and great performance, Samsung's NC10 mini-laptop and R510 model deliver on functionality too.
Staying Power – Samsung's solid specifications deliver staying power and assure customers that their choice of device will meet their computing needs for years to come, rather than just months.
Service – Recognising the 'worry factor' that many consumers have when looking to buy a laptop, O2 will offer customers expert sales advice to meet their needs. This includes O2 Laptop Support at no additional cost for a limited period to help get them up and running, with a chargeable option to extend this cover, O2 Assistant software to allow computers to be fixed remotely and award-winning UK based customer service. In addition O2 is offering a 30-day Happiness Guarantee on all laptops and an extended two-year warranty on all devices at no extra cost.
Security – McAfee software to ensure customers feel secure online.
"The growth in the laptop market is clear to see and we want to be a part of it. But we want to ensure that our customers get a better experience, not just when they buy the package but throughout the duration of their contract with us. Our two year warranty and 30-day Happiness Guarantee are market leading and show our continued commitment to providing great service," adds Dunne.
"Our bundle packages, unique amongst those currently on the market, provide customers with everything they need and we are confident they will move people away from traditional laptop providers and into our stores."
Customers can purchase O2's new laptop packages at any of the 490 stores across the UK or by visiting our online shop at
www.o2.co.uk from 27 February 2009.
Labels: laptop, mobile broadband, netbook, o2
O2 offers designer mobile broadband dongle
Spruce up your laptop with this season's must-have accessory, a limited edition polka dot mobile broadband modem designed exclusively for O2 by fashion designer Henry Holland under his House of Holland label.
The House of Holland-designed skin will be included for free with
O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go from 27 February for a limited time only.
Checking your email or surfing the web on the go has never been more fashionable than with the House of Holland mobile broadband, featuring one of the hottest trends for 2009 – polka dots. "Henry Holland is one of the most exciting designers in London and the perfect partner to help us add some style to our mobile broadband offering. Our customers have been telling us that they continually crave individuality and this delivers stand-out, personalisation and a bit of fun" said Peter Rampling, O2's Marketing Director.
Henry Holland continues: "I'm really pleased to have been asked to design this for O2. It's a fun project and something great to give to all my friends and something I know they all need!"
The exclusive House of Holland O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go will be available from 27 February 2009 at O2 stores and from the O2 online shop at
www.O2.co.uk.
Labels: dongle, mobile broadband, o2, offers
O2 Tops J.D. Power and Associates UK Broadband Study
O2 ranks highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile broadband and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies, released today.
The J.D. Power and Associates study measures performance and reliability; billing; cost of the service; customer service/technical support; and offerings and promotions. O2 ranked highest in the study scoring 712 points out of a possible 1000 for mobile broadband and 767 points for fixed broadband.
"This is a fantastic recognition of the focus we’ve had on the customer experience," said Peter Rampling, O2's Marketing Director. "For both our mobile and home broadband services, we took our time coming to market to place the necessary emphasis on getting the customer experience right. This report demonstrates that we were right to take this approach."
O2 research in October 2008 found that one in ten people using mobile broadband in the UK felt they had been mis-sold the service by their provider. On the back of this, O2 re-launched its mobile broadband offering, reducing prices, creating a new coverage checker and introducing a new 50-day Happiness Guarantee. In December, O2 launched one of the UK's best value Pay & Go Mobile Broadband offerings and has quickly made strong in-roads into this sector of the market.
See all O2's mobile broadband deals here.
Labels: mobile broadband, o2
O2: "We won't do a Carphone with laptops"
O2 UK chief Ronan Dunne reckons O2 would "lack ambition" if it were to follow current model for laptop retail in mobile space
Telefonica O2 UK chief executive Ronan Dunne (pictured) said last week O2 will not sell laptops in the manner of rival network and multiple retailers. Dunne said such a move would be a step back, towards an old box-shifting model of mobile retail.
O2 will likely range laptops in its stores early next year, but will work web content and services into the bundles to drive mobile broadband revenues. O2 wants devices optimised to drive traffic across the O2 network, whether that is mobile phones or laptops.
He said: "If O2 is just moving laptops sold in PC World and Carphone Warehouse, then we lack ambition. If a connected world is a better world, the question is how to move that model forward."
Dunne explained: "We are seeing a huge uplift in the laptop market in the UK at the same time as a surge in mobile broadband sales, and I'm not sure which is driving which.
"But all that is really happening is the mobile model is being replicated [in the laptop sales]. That doesn't give value to customers. We have to innovate around this whole connected world."
He added: "Next year, you will see significant innovation from us in the whole connected world space, beyond just shifting hardware."
Labels: laptop, mobile broadband, o2
O2 launches best value PAYG mobile broadband
O2 today launches the UK's leading priced mobile broadband Pay & Go service as it continues to re-instate consumer confidence in mobile broadband.
By launching its USB modem at £29.99, O2 is following up its commitment to offer its customers great products with clear pricing and no strings attached.
Pay & Go mobile broadband customers will also benefit from O2's new coverage checker and 50-day Happiness Guarantee. Since these new customer-focused measures were launched in November, O2 has seen a considerable drop in the number of returned USB modems, showing that simple, honest advice has led to consumers being better informed at the time of purchase.
O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go offers users a fast and easy way to access the internet at home and on the move, without the need for long-term contracts. Customers will be able to access download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps and will have unlimited access to over 6,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK, through our partners at The Cloud.
O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go is available in a range of options starting at just £2 a day for 500MB, £7.50 a week for 1GB or £15 a month for 3GB depending on their needs, all with unlimited Wi-Fi access.
Peter Rampling, O2 Marketing Director said: "Last month we stated our intention to clean up the mobile broadband market and give consumers the fairest and most honest deals. Our O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go will appeal to those customers who want to snack on the internet without the need to commit to a long term contract. Our younger customers want to live online and can do so with Pay & Go at affordable prices"
Getting O2 Mobile Broadband Pay & Go started couldn't be simpler; simply slot the small USB memory stick into the USB port of a computer and it sets up automatically on a PC or Mac in just a few minutes.
You can purchase this great O2 PAYG offer
online or instore.
Labels: mobile broadband, o2, offers, PAYG
O2 to double mobile broadband speeds
O2 is to double its HSDPA 3G-enabled
mobile broadband speeds in selected areas of London in December.
O2, currently claiming speeds of 3.6Mbps, will increase them to 7.2Mbps across certain 'pockets' of London for all of its
mobile broadband customers.
O2 also confirmed the speed improvements will be rolled out across other areas of the UK in early 2009.
Labels: mobile broadband, network coverage, o2, quick-news
1 in 10 mobile broadband customers feel they were mis-sold
New research commissioned by UK mobile operator,
O2 shows that over one in ten
mobile broadband users feel that they were mis-sold on what it offered. The main source of irritation is that consumers feel that they were deceived on the cost of the service with nearly a third complaining that the ongoing cost was higher than expected. One-fifth were also upset that they were unable to use mobile broadband where they wanted it despite being told by providers that there would be coverage. Another 13 percent were frustrated that there was no returns guarantee if the service wasn't right for them and around half wanted inclusive Wi-Fi as standard.
On the back of this, O2 has announced a total refresh of its
mobile broadband offering.
The refresh includes making it easier for customers to be certain of their ongoing spend including a price reduction on core mobile broadband tariffs, the launch of a new coverage checker and a 50-day Happiness Guarantee which allows customers, who purchased directly from O2, to return the device to O2 within 50 days of purchase with no termination fees being charged and any costs for purchasing the device being refunded.
The first of these is making it easier for customers to be certain of their spend. The biggest issue in the market at the moment is the cost of using data abroad.
To help save what could be an unexpected surprise on their bill, international roaming will not be automatically enabled for all new O2 Mobile Broadband customers. New customers will need to contact O2 Customer Service to have roaming activated so that O2 can explain the likely costs.
"Across the industry there are too many customers whose mobile broadband expectations have been set too high and have then been disappointed, which is a terrible shame given there are loads of people who are having a great time with mobile broadband," said Peter Rampling, Marketing Director, O2. "We want to continue to try to set the right expectation so all our mobile broadband customers know what sort of service they are going to get. And rather than just say it, we are underwriting this commitment with our unique 50 day happiness guarantee."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, o2
O2 has the right idea: fixed-mobile broadband combo
Combined fixed-mobile operators would do well to follow the example of
O2 UK and bundle fixed broadband with a
mobile broadband subscription, says Analysys Mason. As discussed in a report recently published by Analysys Mason, O2 UK is using DSL as a valuable addition to mobile broadband.
"For MNOs that are present in the local loop unbundling (LLUB) market, fixed costs are high and they need to achieve scale quickly," says Matt Hatton, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason, "Combined fixed-mobile operators can build much-needed scale in their fixed businesses, which until now have been only modestly successful."
Since September 2008, O2 UK has been offering subscribers one year of free 8Mbit/s DSL when they sign up for
their standard mobile broadband service. The package costs £20 per month and has a data usage limit of 3GB per month. Most mobile broadband contracts in the UK have a data limit of 3GB per month, but competing plans cost £15 per month. In effect, O2 UK is charging £5 per month for the fixed DSL connection, plus access to The Cloud's 7500 Wi-Fi hotspots.
"Before September's announcement, O2 UK was failing to sign up mobile broadband customers as quickly as its competitors, particularly
3 UK and
Vodafone UK, and had to do something to take a share of the growing market" explains Hatton. "Unfortunately, O2 UK's 3G coverage and capacity are worse than its competitors, making it difficult to attract subscribers and support a large mobile-broadband subscriber base. Combining mobile broadband with DSL brings benefits in the form of reducing traffic load on the wide-area network."
Hatton adds, "Most MNOs - rightly - continue to be concerned that the traffic generated by the rapidly increasing numbers of mobile-broadband subscribers will make unsustainable demands on their network. MNOs should be considering ways to offload as much traffic from the wide-area network as possible. Furthermore, as we have seen with voice contracts, most bundling will encourage customer loyalty and reduce churn, albeit with a risk of cannibalising revenue."
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, o2
Apple and O2 in mobile broadband hookup?
O2 in discussions to bundle Apple laptops with fixed and mobile broadband.
Mobile Today reports that
O2 is believed to be looking to capitalise on its relationship with Apple by bringing the manufacturer's laptops to its customers.
The idea is to bundle laptops with fixed and
mobile broadband. The laptops wouldn't be free, but would be subsidised under the scheme. O2 and Apple are understood to be discussing a deal. However, a spokeswoman said there were no current plans.
Labels: industry insight, o2, quick-news
T-Mobile has best website
Benchmarking company Global Reviews finds
T-Mobile's website rates best for customer satisfaction among all UK network operators
T-Mobile has come top of an independent customer poll of mobile networks' websites.
Independent benchmarking company Global Reviews asked more than 1,000 web customers for their views of the UK networks' websites. It assessed sites against more than 500 criteria, including content and usability.
While all the networks' sites increased their scores for online customer satisfaction since the last tally in January, T-mobile came first with 68 per cent, while 3 was last with 53 per cent.
Networks scored well compared with other sectors. Their average was 60 per cent, 20 per cent higher than the hotel sector and 12 per cent better than credit card websites.
A Global Reviews spokeswoman said: "T-Mobile received high scores in almost all categories and a significant improvement in site utility. But it improved just one per cent since January and others are gaining."
"Orange improved nine per cent, O2 five, 3 by four and Virgin Mobile three. Overall the industry average is up by seven per cent."
On
Orange, she said: "It made big improvements across the board and its score for customer support online has increased from 45 to 61 per cent."
Despite coming last,
3 Mobile also made strides forward. The spokesperson added: "3 is catching up fast."
"It saw a 15 per cent increase in the quality of its content and tools score, nine per cent in customer support and six per cent in the process. Site utility is the next areas it needs to focus on."
Vodafone increased its score but only made it to third place, while
O2 came fourth. Virgin came fifth but was one of the most improved sites.
Labels: 3-Mobile, information, o2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone
O2 goes underground
O2 is to become the first to enable mobile phones on the Glasgow Subway underground railway network.
O2 will also be the first mobile phone operator in the UK to utilise a multi-user distributed antenna system which enables mobile phones to work underground.
The Glasgow Subway is the world's third oldest underground railway, after the London Underground and the Istanbul Tünel.
The contract, negotiated with transmission provider
Arqiva and
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), will see
O2 services installed in five of Glasgow’s busiest Subway stations - Buchanan Street, St Enoch, Kelvinbridge, Hillhead and Partick. The installation will go 'live' in December 2008 and could potentially provide a benchmark for rollout in other underground stations such as London, in future.
Although initially limited to platforms and station concourses in the Glasgow Subway, the technology installed by Arqiva could eventually be used to provide coverage around the rest of the SPT underground network.
The service will work for both GSM and 3G phones and so will enable the use of
mobile broadband.
Gordon Maclennan, Assistant Chief Executive (Operations) of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport said it was great news: "This has been sometime in the planning but I’m delighted that we can offer this service to our passengers in time for Christmas. It’s a first for Glasgow and it opens the door for wider [mobile] coverage in the Underground in future. Accessibility and connectivity are key parts of our continuous Subway modernisation programme."
Labels: industry insight, network coverage, o2
Prepaid key to mobile broadband growth?
Operators should look to prepaid offerings to maximise the mobile broadband opportunity in Q4 2008, rather than pinning their hopes on mobile broadband substituting fixed services, according to a new report by global advisory firm Ovum, titled 'Mobile broadband operator strategies in Western Europe'.
The research, which highlights the approaches available to operators in maximising the opportunity for mobile broadband, finds that
mobile broadband services are best positioned as complementary to fixed.
"Fixed broadband penetration across Western Europe is simply too high," commented Steven Hartley, senior analyst at Ovum and the report's author. "Mobile broadband can not compete with fixed on speed or capacity, particularly as high bandwidth applications such as IPTV take off."
There will be some consumer segments for which mobile broadband could be a realistic substitute for a fixed service, such as students and itinerant workers; those in short-term shared or rented accommodation; and those simply unable to access a fixed services. But, according to Hartley, the window of opportunity to target these segments is closing rapidly:
"The size of the substitution opportunity is limited and operator activity to date means these segments are becoming saturated. Therefore, the potential for a long-term fixed mobile substitution strategy in Western Europe in the future looks unlikely."
Ovum says that operators in Western Europe to date have focussed on maximising the potential of mobile broadband through contract offerings. This makes sense as a customer locked into a contract provides a stable revenue stream.
However, the pool of customers willing to commit to an average of a two year contract for
mobile broadband will naturally shrink over time. This is particularly true where mobile broadband is most likely to be used in addition to a fixed broadband service. Furthermore, as the cost of USB modems (or dongles) continues to fall a major barrier for entry is removed for the consumer. For the operator this also means no hardware subsidy to recoup, says Ovum.
As a result, Ovum is predicting that the next opportunity for mobile broadband in Western Europe will be prepaid offerings. With a prepaid approach operators can attract users who appreciate the mobility and simplicity of mobile broadband on some occasions, but are unwilling to commit to a long-term contract. As such, it is a model in which mobile broadband complements the already high fixed broadband penetration in Western Europe.
"What's more the timing for a focus on prepaid is perfect. With Christmas approaching everyone wins - those purchasing a bundle as a gift have no contract commitment, end users have a flexible mobile broadband service and operators gain new customers and revenues," concluded Hartley.
An interesting standpoint given the current widely-held view that mobile broadband has the potential to eat into fixed broadband revenue. Should we expect more rolling contracts like those currently offered by
Vodafone,
T-Mobile and
O2? Watch this space.
Labels: industry insight, mobile broadband, o2, T-Mobile, Vodafone
iPhone pre-pay available from September 16th
O2 has announced the 3G iPhone will be available on prepay from September 16.
The 8GB model will be priced at £349.99 and the 16GB at £399.99. The price includes unlimited web browsing and Wi-Fi for the first 12 months. The prepay 3G iPhone will be available from
O2 stores and
The Carphone Warehouse stores.
At the end of the 12 months customers can continue to receive unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for £10 per month.
Prepay customers will be able to use their 3G iPhone on all of O2's prepay tariffs, but new SIMs will be set up to the Favourite Place tariff as a default.
Existing O2 prepay customers who want to purchase the device may be eligible to receive 10 per cent of the value of their top ups over the past 18 months (up to £200) credited to use on their new iPhone.
Labels: Carphone Warehouse, o2, offers
What is a MVNO?
A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is a mobile operator that does not own its own spectrum and usually does not have its own network infrastructure. Instead, MVNO's have business arrangements with traditional mobile operators to buy minutes of use (MOU) for sale to their own customers.
There are three primary MVNO's in the UK currently: Virgin Mobile (
T-Mobile), Tesco Mobile (
O2) and BT Mobile (
Vodafone).
The MVNO market-leader
T-Mobile's new MVNO partnership with Ikea went live today. You can expect to see many more such partnerships announced over the coming months. All UK network operators are pursuing new MVNO business in order to grow their service revenues.
The UK wholesale market is estimated to be worth £1 billion at present, and to grow to twice that by 2012.
Labels: BT Mobile, industry insight, o2, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone
Ireland leads the way in mobile broadband revolution
Does 3G technology offer a viable alternative to fixed-line broadband?
When it comes to broadband, Ireland scarcely figures on most European league tables – with one exception. According to research by the telecoms consultancy Analysys Mason, Ireland is second only to Austria in adopting mobile broadband.
That’s no mean feat for a technology launched just last year and a country that, according to the telecoms regulator ComReg, has around 800,000 fixed-line broadband connections in total. Unlike many other European countries, 3G mobile broadband is an extremely strong competitor to fixed-line services in Ireland.
There are currently more than 230,000 mobile broadband subscribers in Ireland;
3 Mobile claims 90,000 users,
Vodafone some 84,000 and
O2 some 60,000. Such is the demand that one operator says customers are signing up at the rate of over 200 a day.
Read the full story on
siliconrepublic.comLabels: 3-Mobile, industry insight, mobile broadband, o2, Vodafone
O2 offer free home broadband incentive
Today, O2 announced it will offer free Home Broadband to customers who sign up to their mobile broadband package.
Choose O2 Mobile Broadband for £20 a month and they'll give you the choice of taking either:
- Free O2 Home Broadband Standard package for your first 12 months; or
- Save £7.50 (inc. VAT) on O2 Business Broadband Standard package for 12 months.
If you want to upgrade our Standard package, you can take our Premium or Ultimate packages and receive a £7.50 (inc. VAT) per month discount. Customers living outside of our network area may still be able to get our Broadband Access package and receive a £7.50 (inc. VAT) per month discount.
This is a great deal for people looking for a basic home broadband service to supplement their mobile broadband and effectively gives you all the broadband you need for £20 all in.
Labels: mobile broadband, o2, offers
