O2

O2 launches personalised mobile ad service

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:04:03 -0500

Having failed to gain the interest of consumers of major brands, O2 claims its latest mobile advertising initiative will revitalise the concept by allowing O2 subscribers to personalise what adverts they receive according to their particular interests.

The company claims that its O2 More service, launched today with around 50 brands, is the first of its kind to allow customers to opt-in to receive relevant marketing campaigns sent to their mobile in the form of a text message. Those opting in will not receive more than one advertising message per day which will offer discounts from high street retailers and restaurants, holiday offers and trials of new services and information.

Shaun Gregory, the MD of O2 Media--which devised the More service--said: "Mobile advertising has been slow to deliver on its promise. Much of that has been down to a lack of understanding, limited opportunities and no real accountability or measurement. O2 More is about to change all that and will spearhead the UK's first truly personalised media business."

The company claims that market research found that two-thirds of its customers would subscribe to such a service. "We have designed a permission-based marketing opportunity that delivers true engagement and relevance. Because customers opt in we can deliver truly relevant content that provides an experience and a richer opportunity for marketers. With 50 brands on board already, it's clear that the advertising market is as excited about O2 More as we are," said Gregory.

O2 said that More would support additional marketing services next year, including advertising messages based upon customers' phone usage and location data.

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Mobile News

O2's network in meltdown from smartphone usage

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:06:01 -0500

Never seen as having the best UK network, O2 has admitted its data network is in need of serious investment. The company claims the pressure on the network is being felt in certain hotspot locations where there is a high concentration of smartphones.

The company has given the go ahead for an extra £100 million in additional network spend next year, while spending another £30 million prior to Christmas in London where users are currently experiencing calls going straight to voicemail, dropped calls or difficulty in establishing a data connection.

O2's CTO, Derek McManus, said: "The introduction of world-class smartphones, in combination with a wide variety of data applications, has brought about a dramatic change in customer behaviour and created an exponential demand on mobile data networks. Data on our network has increased 20-fold in the last year alone, and to put this in context, watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously."

As an indication of the level of network congestion, the company has established a team of O2 technology senior managers and a board level steering committee to drive the upgrade plans. Apparently, the operator has already chosen vendors and suppliers.

Perhaps to help with this seemingly unplanned Capex, O2 has announced that it has placed its entire 220-strong marketing department into ‘consultation' in a process that aims to reduce the headcount by 10 per cent. The CEO, Ronan Dunne, denied that the redundancy programme was about cutting costs, but rather about "investing in areas of the business that the customers most value".

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Mobile Today

Smartphones causing network data overload, claims O2

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:50:37 -0400

With smartphones generating around 8x the network signalling load of a dongle-equipped laptop, the CEO of O2 Europe, Matthew Key, has admitted that these high-function handsets are causing significant ‘growing pains' for the company's networks. While he maintained that these network issues were today confined to high-density population areas, the situation could become more widespread with data traffic doubling every three months.

According to research from infrastructure equipment provider Airvana, while smartphones only represent a small percentage of the overall base of mobile devices, the signalling traffic from these handsets is already responsible for the majority (two to three times as much as laptops) of the total signalling activity.

Airvana's research indicates that, while a smartphone user downloads a fraction (typically 1/25th) of the data consumed by a laptop user, the signalling load produced by the these users is significantly higher - approaching a third of the average laptop user. Thus, while it takes 25 smartphones to equal the data throughput from one laptop, it only takes three smartphones to equal the signalling network impact of one laptop.

"The industry is just now beginning to understand the real impact of smartphones on network performance and we are finding that their effect is distinctly out of proportion to the amount of data they transmit and receive," said David Nowicki, Airvana's VP of marketing and product management. "It's now estimated that nearly 60 per cent of all mobile data traffic originates indoors, which is one of the key reasons that operators are increasingly introducing femtocell strategies to offload traffic."

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EE Times

Innovative pricing can boost Euro operators' profits, claims new research

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:55:25 -0400

Operators not wanting to compete on price should look for more original tariffing structures to help boost their financial performance. This viewpoint, which might appear as stating the obvious, comes from a mobile pricing specialist research firm, Pure Pricing, that has identified 10 tariff structures from European operators that it claims could be used by others to improve their revenues.

The company claims that, having examined 500 pricing structures and offers from mobile operators across 15 European countries and the US, only a small number were judged as ‘exhibiting particularly strong pricing characteristics with regard to driving revenue per user, customer tenure or profitable acquisition'.

According to Jo Lynch of Pure Pricing, the key challenge facing many operators was to resist ‘value drift', where operators respond to price pressure by bundling additional value and services into plans for no incremental revenue.

"Instead, operators should look beyond their own markets for proposition ideas which will drive ARPU, tenure and therefore revenues. The propositions we have identified will be of interest to all operators seeking to develop new propositions within increasingly competitive markets."

The research suggests that Germany, Italy and the UK were amongst the most innovative markets and, in terms of operators, both TIM and O2 featured twice in the Top 10.

For more on this article:
Pure Pricing

Mobile ad network to relaunch with pan-European inventory

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:39:41 -0400

The mobile content firm, Buongiorno, has revamped its marketing strategy to enable advertisers to reach into multiple markets. The Italian-based firm, which reported revenues of €132.2m for the first half of 2009 via partnerships with more than 100 mobile operators worldwide, said it would build on its relationship with advertisers, including Adidas, Nokia and O2, by now selling inventory from publishers including Dennis Publishing, SFR and Vodafone.

"We're bringing together all the publishers, inventory and clients we have. When we talk to media agencies, the only option they have to buy in multiple markets from one place is via AdMob. We feel this gives an alternative," said Adhish Kulkarni, MD of marketing services for Buongiorno.

Campaigns will be managed via a central ad server with local ad teams in each market selling and managing clients, while the centralised buying point will be in London.

Meanwhile, the rival mobile ad firm, Admob, has released data that illustrates how iPhone and iPod Touch users discovered the 1.5 billion apps they downloaded before July 14.

The company claims that, according to a survey of nearly 200 users, browsing and searching were the key sources of information, but the surprise was that 20 per cent of respondents said they learned about new apps from ads in other apps.

For more on this story:
NMA and Business Insider

VIDEO: Apple iPhone 3G S guided tour

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:35:10 -0400

The iPhone 3G appears up for grabs in Europe. It's newer cousin, the 3G S may be what reallyis driving the huinger. See what makes it so hot.

Source: Apple via YouTube

iPhone: O2 exclusivity ends in October, as T-Mobile UK uses iPhone as retention tool

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:39:08 -0400

Having been rumoured for some months, O2 UK looks set to lose iPhone exclusivity despite statements that it has a multi-year agreement with Apple. According to those close to the situation, documents have been leaked which state explicitly that the arrangement will end on October 9^th, with Orange and T-Mobile the apparent favourites to start marketing the 3G version of the iPhone. O2 will retain exclusive rights to sell the new 3G S for an undisclosed period.

Seemingly, Vodafone remains off the iPhone list, although only a few months ago the company worked hard on reshaping its portal to be iPhone compatible--but at the time refused to acknowledge that there was any subterfuge behind this move.

To complicate the matter, T-Mobile UK has been importing as many iPhones as it can purchase in Europe and offering them to discontented subscribers on the verge of churning. However, the company has made a muddle of its iPhone tariffs with the result that its offer compares poorly with O2's--and T-Mobile's package doesn't include the latest 3G S iPhone. Orange is also said to be offering high-spending subscribers the iPhone as part of its customer retention programme.

What is apparent from this iPhone distribution model is the growing likelihood of consumer confusion and disillusionment.

For more on this story:
T3, Mobile News and ITProPortal

O2: Is interest in T-Mobile UK designed to trigger bids?

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:06:26 -0400

Coming somewhat late to the party, O2 Telefonica's European chief, Matthew Key, has now admitted he would be interested in bidding for T-Mobile UK. While O2 is the first to publicly confirm its ambition, Vodafone and Orange have both been strongly linked in the recent past with acquiring Deutsche Telekom's (DT) troubled UK subsidiary.

However, by hinting at a possible bid--which would likely require the go-ahead from the UK competition authority, the European CEO could be doing little more than provoking others to officially register their interest and open discussions with DT, or remove themselves from the fray.

One possible attraction for O2 UK is T-Mobile's experience with Android and the G1 and G2 Touch handsets - O2 has yet to enter the Android market, while T-Mobile UK would hugely benefit from O2's access to the latest iPhone 3G S device. T-Mobile has been reported as buying up iPhones around Europe with the idea of offering them in the UK.

However, DT's CEO, René Obermann, has two reasons for not selling T-Mobile UK--he believes that the new UK chief executive, Richard Moat, should be given the time to resuscitate it so as to avoid a fire sale, and a sale of the UK division could throw doubt on the company's ability to remain a global player--leading to an eventual break up of the company.

For more on this story:
Cellular News and Tech Radar

O2 partners with bank to launch mobile money service

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:21:46 -0400

While numerous mobile money services have fallen at the first hurdle, O2 has decided to try again with the launch next month of its O2 Money service. Partnering with the UK bank NatWest, O2 is offering two prepaid debit cards that will be aimed at the student and under 16s youth markets.

The partnership between O2 and NatWest, and it's this partnering of the mobile and banking communities where the majority of other attempts have stumbled, will provide a Cash Manager for those wanting to better control their spending, while the Load & Go service aimed at a younger audience will be marketed as ‘the replacement for pocket money'. An interesting aspect to this latter service is that, while parents can load money onto the card online, it cannot be used on over 18s products. Both cards provide real time text updates every time they are used.

O2 UK's CEO, Ronan Dunne, hinted that the service would be the forerunner of a number of financial products that would see the convergence of phone and wallet. O2 has recently undertaken NFC trials that could see mobiles used as Oyster or credit cards (however, no date has been set for the use of NFC-enabled handsets). "We believe that we are at the start of a journey towards the coming together of the phone and the wallet and we intend, through O2 money, to be at the forefront of this trend", added Dunne.

Commenting on the launch, Helen Page, NatWest's head of marketing and innovation, said: "Giving customers tools to manage their finances is crucial. It's critical to our commercial success that customers stay with us."

Separately, Dunne said O2 Telefonica was watching developments at T-Mobile UK with interest. "We haven't explicitly said whether we're participating in anything. To my knowledge, there isn't a formal process going on."

For more on this story:
Mobile Today and Reuters

O2: the UK's largest operator, with the poorest 3G coverage

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:44:44 -0400

While it has secured exclusive distribution rights to the iPhone, Palm Pre and other 3G smartphones, O2 has been slated by the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, as being one of the poorest providers of 3G coverage.

The information that O2 and Vodafone scored lowest on 3G coverage has only been revealed since Ofcom published 3G coverage maps for the first time. The maps dismiss the 90 per cent and higher 3G coverage claims made by most of the major networks. In fact even those operators that do come out well still show numerous flat spots which must test the confidence and belief of consumers that they can enjoy a seamless high speed mobile broadband experience.

However, given that Ofcom has produced the maps based upon theoretical calculations rather than involving extensive footwork in real world scenarios, the door is open for these results to be rubbished by the operators.

While Ofcom would give the impression that this information has been open to public inspection, the maps were only published after a business journalist forced the government agency to reveal the data under the Freedom of Information Act. Only last year, Ofcom went to the UK High Court to prevent the publication of the information, which must raise the question of what was being hidden?

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Trusted Reviews and The Register