A1c
19-03-2005, 12:32 PM
From The Telegraph (19/03/2005):
The mobile price battle between Charles Dunstone's Carphone Warehouse and Stelios Haji-Ioannou's Easy Mobile has escalated, sending the share price of rival pre-pay provider Virgin Mobile tumbling.
In a bid to undercut the prices on Carphone's Fresh network, Easy Mobile - which launched only last week - has cut the price of calls on its SIM card-only service from 9p a minute to 6p, and texts from 3p to 2p. Mr Dunstone has hit straight back, cutting Fresh's call prices from 7.5p a minute to 5p and texts from 2.5p to 1.7p. Both companies' offers last for about three months.
Virgin Mobile, which analysts see as particularly vulnerable to the price spat, slid 8 to 224½p. The company charges 15p a minute for the first five minutes of calls each day and 5p a minute after that. Text charges vary from 3p to 10p.
Virgin, which has won legions of fans with its simple-to-use service, has made strenuous efforts to highlight catches in Mr Haji-Ioannou's no-frills offer. For instance, users are charged 75p a month unless they spend a minimum of £5 every three months, and leavers are charged a £5 ''handling fee''. However, Easy Mobile claimed Virgin was in a state of ''panic'', adding: ''We have fought these battles before, and we have won every time.''
Virgin Mobile's larger rivals 02 and Vodafone slipped ¼ to 123¼p and ¼ to 138¼p respectively as telecoms analysts sounded bearish tones. ''Easy Mobile only launched a week ago, yet it has already caned pricing,'' wrote Mark James of Nomura in a note to clients. ''This indicates the increasing competitiveness of the UK market.''
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Virgin Mobile is considering delaying its third-generation mobile phone launch amid rumours that its rivals, such as Vodafone, are struggling to get customers to use 3G services. Virgin Mobile has several 3G handsets ready to launch and has ironed out technical issues with its network provider T-Mobile, but it is concerned that too few customers are using services such as video-phoning and video downloads. A source close to the company said: ''The consumer recognises there is value in voice and text. But the evidence so far suggests that those who have 3G phones are not using the new services in sufficient numbers.''
The company introduced its first 3G phone, the Nokia 6630, earlier this week but users cannot yet access 3G services with it.
http://******.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/19/cnmobi19.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/03/19/ixfrontcity.html
The mobile price battle between Charles Dunstone's Carphone Warehouse and Stelios Haji-Ioannou's Easy Mobile has escalated, sending the share price of rival pre-pay provider Virgin Mobile tumbling.
In a bid to undercut the prices on Carphone's Fresh network, Easy Mobile - which launched only last week - has cut the price of calls on its SIM card-only service from 9p a minute to 6p, and texts from 3p to 2p. Mr Dunstone has hit straight back, cutting Fresh's call prices from 7.5p a minute to 5p and texts from 2.5p to 1.7p. Both companies' offers last for about three months.
Virgin Mobile, which analysts see as particularly vulnerable to the price spat, slid 8 to 224½p. The company charges 15p a minute for the first five minutes of calls each day and 5p a minute after that. Text charges vary from 3p to 10p.
Virgin, which has won legions of fans with its simple-to-use service, has made strenuous efforts to highlight catches in Mr Haji-Ioannou's no-frills offer. For instance, users are charged 75p a month unless they spend a minimum of £5 every three months, and leavers are charged a £5 ''handling fee''. However, Easy Mobile claimed Virgin was in a state of ''panic'', adding: ''We have fought these battles before, and we have won every time.''
Virgin Mobile's larger rivals 02 and Vodafone slipped ¼ to 123¼p and ¼ to 138¼p respectively as telecoms analysts sounded bearish tones. ''Easy Mobile only launched a week ago, yet it has already caned pricing,'' wrote Mark James of Nomura in a note to clients. ''This indicates the increasing competitiveness of the UK market.''
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Virgin Mobile is considering delaying its third-generation mobile phone launch amid rumours that its rivals, such as Vodafone, are struggling to get customers to use 3G services. Virgin Mobile has several 3G handsets ready to launch and has ironed out technical issues with its network provider T-Mobile, but it is concerned that too few customers are using services such as video-phoning and video downloads. A source close to the company said: ''The consumer recognises there is value in voice and text. But the evidence so far suggests that those who have 3G phones are not using the new services in sufficient numbers.''
The company introduced its first 3G phone, the Nokia 6630, earlier this week but users cannot yet access 3G services with it.
http://******.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/19/cnmobi19.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/03/19/ixfrontcity.html