Selling multi-play to the masses

From a standing start just 12 months ago, mobile has rapidly become a multi-play market, with retail staff increasingly asked to sell an array of communications services other than straight voice subscriptions.

Orange launched its own ܘfree ‘ broadband service last year. This bundles its WiFi home hub with its regular mobile tariffs to enable customers to make voice in the home calls across the Internet. The network expects dealers to help push it to customers in 2007.
To qualify for the service via the dealer channel, customers need to spend more than £30 a month and sign an 18-month contract.
An Orange spokesman says: We don ‘t have a fixed-line service like TalkTalk at the moment, though that could change in the future. Orange broadband users are encouraged to install a Livebox and make their voice calls across the Internet through the Livebox.
Orange says it will launch HSDPA  fast mobile broadband  later this year, along with an IPTV offering similar to the BT Vision service (see box on next page) in the second half of 2007.
As it stands, Orange dealers will not receive any additional sales commission from the network for pushing its broadband offering alongside voice subscriptions. The fact it is a ܘfree ‘ service perhaps explains the lack of a financial incentive for dealers. But dealers can take heart still on the grounds that  in line with every network ‘s objectives  the broadband offer locks customers into a higher number of network services and, in theory, reduces churn.
Across the pond, for example, US dealers do not receive extra commission from US networks Cingular and Verizon when they sign customers to their free WiFi services. But they promote the offering anyway on the basis that it is, first and foremost, a driver of footfall, but also because it helps cut down churn.
In contrast, T-Mobile and 3 have chosen not to launch a multi-play offering along the same lines as Orange in the UK.
T-Mobile argues that, because its network now covers 90 per cent of the UK ‘s population, it can satisfy its customer base for connectivity with airtime and mobile broadband services. It cites its Web ‘n ‘Walk offering, which will, like rival offers, get an HSDPA power boost in due course.
Mobile broadband is central to 3 ‘s strategy as well. 3 launched its X-Series service range just before Christmas on the Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson W950i. Its number of compatible handsets will grow this year, of course. But the real draw for subscribers is its budget, flat-rate subscription fee.
Unlimited VoIP
Its entry-level ܘSilver Plan ‘  which offers users unlimited VoIP calls via Skype, unlimited instant messaging with Windows or Yahoo! users and unlimited Internet browsing  costs just £5 a month, while its bells-and-whistles ܘGold Plan ‘  which adds mobile TV via a Slingbox set-top box to the mix  is an attractive £10 a month. The Silver Plan is available on a six-month contract, whereas users need to opt in to a year-long contract to access the Gold Plan.
3 appears highly unlikely to launch a fixed-line broadband service as the X-Series covers most bases, although 3 refuses to rule out the possibility.
The X-Series offering is about mobile broadband, says a 3 spokesman. HSDPA allows us to move data at around three times more than the 300-400kbits per second you used to get from standard 3G data services. It ‘s as fast as most users ‘ desktop broadband services, with the key advantage that it is mobile.
Like fixed line broadband, the upload speed on 3 ‘s X-Series mobile broadband service is lower than its download rate, but 3 reckons this will change in the near-future with the launch of yet another acronym  HSUPA. HSUPA, or high-speed uplink packet access, will allow data uploads at speeds of around 1.4Mbit per second when 3 starts offering the service later this year.
Data cards only
This full upload speed will almost certainly only be available on PC data cards initially, owing to the transmission power levels required to upload data at these kinds of speeds.
It does, however, show that mobile broadband can be superior to fixed line broadband where users want to upload, as well as download, content.
While Orange is pinning its multi-play hopes on fixed-line broadband and T-Mobile and 3 are opting for mobile broadband, O2 and Vodafone represent the dark horses in the race.
O2 acquired Be Internet, a fixed-line broadband Internet service provider, in the summer of last year, since when it has said very little about its plans to cross-sell the service alongside straight voice.
Sources suggest that a spring offensive is being planned by O2, under the working title ܘOxygen ‘, at which stage the company will promote a bundle of traditional mobile, fixed-line broadband and fixed-line home phone services.
Clear strategy
Vodafone ‘s multi-play strategy is better defined. Its Vodafone ܘAt Home ‘ service launched earlier this month through Vodafone Retail stores. This extends its tie-up with BT, to which it provides mobile airtime for BT ‘s own BT Fusion service. At £25 a month, it includes the customer ‘s BT line-rental charge and offers them broadband at up to 8Mbit per second, plus discounted home phone calls as part of the deal.
Like Orange, however, Vodafone requires customers to sign up for an 18-month deal on their contract mobile and, if they leave their contract, they will be expected to pay an additional £10 a month to retain their home phone/broadband service.
According to Vodafone UK director of consumer business Tim Yates, customers signing on the dotted line for Vodafone At Home are also being offered a discounted mobile 3G modem so they can hook up to its broadband services while on the move.
At Home will provide nationwide broadband coverage from day one, he says. It will also offer the flexibility and convenience of going wireless at home and being able to access the Internet on a laptop away from home on Vodafone ‘s 3G broadband network.

What is multi-play?

Multi-play is a telecoms term for multiple communications channels and adds mobile to the ܘtriple-play ‘ concept.
Triple-play is a marketing term for the provision of the three services: high-speed Internet, television (video-on-demand or regular broadcasts) and a telephone service over a single broadband connection.
Triple-play services are already available from cable companies, while multi-play is already here thanks to the Virgin Mobile link with NTL/Telewest.
Multi-play adds mobile to the service mix but, crucially from a sales perspective, while multi-play relies on offering customers an integrated range of services, the services themselves are not interoperative  with the exception of the mobile element.
This means that a customer opting for quad-play from, say Virgin Mobile, cannot easily churn to, say, Orange ‘s ܘUnique ‘ service without changing their hardware.
Which is precisely what the network operators are driving for  reduced churn.

BT ‘s broadband Vision

If you want to see where broadband is headed, look no further than your nearest BT store, where BT Vision is being promoted.
BT Vision is an amalgam of fixed-line broadband and the Freeview digital terrestrial TV service. Its main appeal is that it offers Sky+-style functionality without a regular monthly subscription, although customers are required to take out a BT broadband package.
With the new service, customers have access to a library of on-demand content via their broadband connection, as well as more than 40 Freeview channels through their TV aerial.
The set-top box is called a V-box, which contains a so-called personal video recorder that can store up to 80 hours of content and which can pause or rewind live TV and record programmes.
The service also features a ܘReplay TV ‘ service, allowing customers to catch up with some of the broadcast TV programmes they may have missed during the week.
BT claims it is giving away the V-box  worth £199  for free to existing and new customers who sign up to a new contract with BT Total Broadband, although customers have to pay £30 to connect to the service and £60 for an engineer ‘s visit. A self-install version of BT Vision will be launched this summer.
BT Mobile is expected to link its mobile service to the BT Vision package, with BT Mobile ‘s dealers allowed to sell BT Vision. This is not likely to happen, however, until the second half of 2007, when the self-install option is available for the V-Box.