Bouygues Telecom Expands Service for Voice and SMS Over Wi-Fi

French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom said that its voice and SMS over Wi-Fi services are now available more widely, at no extra charge, as the list of compatible smartphones has expanded to include more models. The operator began offering voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) to its enterprise customers in September 2017 and first introduced SMS over Wi-Fi on selected handsets last year. The two services are now available to all the operator’s mobile customers and on more phone brands, including Apple, Samsung, Huawei/Honor, Sony and OnePlus.

Once customers have activated voice/SMS over Wi-Fi, they can call or send/receive text messages (but not MMS) over any Wi-Fi network. This happens automatically when mobile coverage is not available or too weak. Any calls and texts are treated according to the allowance included in the customer’s mobile plan. 

Wi-Fi’s utility in terms of filling in when cellular signals are weak or unavailable is well known, of course, but that applies to data use in most cases. Voice and SMS over Wi-Fi is far less prevalent and requires special device compatibility to work. Bouygues has apparently determined that its initial offering of the service was a success and sees a greater market for it.

The rollout of the service was to enterprise clients only, which makes sense as a first foray because enterprises are likely to have large numbers of employees working in complex structures where cellular signal may be blocked. Alternately, employees in the field may encounter challenging conditions that impede cellular service in other ways. In either case, these employees would still need to continue communicating with each other and with outside clients; therefore voice and text over Wi-Fi is an excellent backstop.

Having seen that it worked well, presumably, and found favor with business customers, Bouygues now is ready to offer it to consumers, as well. The increase in the number of compatible devices is a key factor in this expansion, because while a large company may be willing to invest in devices to issue to its employees, consumers inevitably will be making diverse choices in this regard. Not until a critical mass of different devices are compatible will it make sense to offer voice and SMS over Wi-Fi. This, apparently, has finally occurred, so the time is ripe for a consumer-targeted expansion.

As far as pricing is concerned, voice and SMS over Wi-Fi is not analogous to Wi-Fi data. Consumers may be disappointed if they imagine that voice over Wi-Fi is free (if one has unlimited data) or only counts against their data allowance. Bouygues intends to charge for calls and texts sent over the Wi-Fi service—or count them against voice and text allowances—as if they were made over cellular. As long as the operator describes and markets the service appropriately so that customers are aware that the purpose of the service is to ensure connectivity rather than to save money, this should not be a problem. 

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.  

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Numericable Switches MVNO to BASE

Belgian cable operator Numericable is switching its MVNO from the Mobistar network to BASE. Numericable is active in parts of Brussels, Wallonia and Luxembourg. It started the MVNO in August 2012, and its parent company, Luxembourg-based Altice, reported 4,000 mobile customers for the activities at the end of June 2014. According to BASE, Numericable made the switch in order to gain access to 4G services. The higher speeds will be available immediately for customers on Numericable’s Mobile Start, Extra and Max plans, and all Numericable customers will switch to the BASE network before the end of the year.

In today’s market climate, where high data speed is in ever-greater demand, even MVNOs—generally associated with budget pricing and lower-end or younger users—are finding it important to provide their customers with 4G service. For Numericable’s MVNO to switch to BASE from Mobistar—which does not offer 4G access—makes perfect sense in light of this trend. In February of this year, Numericable offered 4G services to customers of its French MVNO via the network of French mobile operator SFR. Two months later, Numericable bought SFR from Vivendi, beating out French MNO Bouygues, in a deal that affirmed fixed-mobile convergence over mobile consolidation.

Clearly, if fixed-mobile convergence is to maximize its success, it will need to offer the most advanced kind of mobile service. To that end, in a scenario that may echo the French one, Numericable is said to be looking at the possibility of acquiring a Belgian MNO, either BASE (wholly owned by Netherlands-based KPN) or Mobistar (majority-owned by French group Orange). Such a deal would be a natural progression from the present decision regarding running services on BASE’s network.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about The Story of The Week :  Story Of The Week

Bouygues Telecom’s Second-Line Offer Addresses BYOD Concerns

French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom has introduced B.duo, a service that allows the operator’s personal and business subscribers—as well as customers of its budget arm, B & You—to add a second line to their smartphones at a monthly cost of €2.00 (US $2.64). The service does not require a second phone or a dual SIM card. Instead it works with a single SIM, and specific prefixes are used to determine which line a call or SMS should be routed to or from where it has originated.

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) adoption by large numbers of businesses is a movement that has experienced considerable growth worldwide. It appears that this trend will continue, with forecasts estimating the BYOD and enterprise mobility market to be worth US $284.7 billion in 2019, which is a substantial increase from 2013’s value of US $72.34 billion. Although North America is expected to have the largest market for BYOD, significant increases are also expected in Europe and Asia. While operators are experiencing the same privacy and security concerns all over the world, they are wise to offer services that their particular markets will find appealing when devising solutions for BYOD use.

In France, Bouygues Telecom’s B.duo offers a good solution for the concerns that have been triggered by BYOD use. Having two numbers on one SIM card will allow professionals to have a dedicated line for business use and one for personal calls and SMS, on the same mobile phone. Additionally, there are several other instances in which two lines are valuable in a BYOD environment; for example, users may choose to associate one of the lines with a specific need, which will enable them to direct all calls and SMS pertaining to that issue to the line in question. As an added bonus, B.duo is convenient to activate and is being offered by the MNO at relatively low cost. We expect that these are factors that will encourage use of the service as an alternative to OTT options.

Another approach to distinguishing personal from business use in the BYOD phenomenon is being provided by South Korea’s SK Telecom in partnership with Red Bend Software, a global software and solutions provider. SK Telecom, which is South Korea’s top mobile operator, is launching its T Persona Premium service on LG Electronic’s LG-F350ST smartphone, which will provide customers with two mobile numbers and allow them to separate personal from business use. The LG device is only available from SK Telecom and uses two different operating systems that have been embedded into it to separate the business and personal data.

 The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx