Tele2 Russia Offers Free Apps for Customers Stuck Abroad

Mobile operator Tele2 Russia said that customers who are not able to return to Russia due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic will get free access to messaging services while abroad, through 30 April. The option will also be available for those prepaid customers with a zero balance for their devices.

The option will be available in Europe, Asia, Australia and the U.S. The messaging apps included in the deal will be WhatsApp, Viber and TamTam.

We have recently reviewed a number of initiatives that MNOs have taken to provide support to their subscribers during the coronavirus pandemic. This one from Tele2 Russia is noteworthy in that it not provides some relief for those affected by the situation but also involves a very valid self-preservation strategy for the operator.

As mobile customers find themselves in new and disadvantageous circumstances due to the disease itself and also to the economic impact of the restrictions on travel and movement, operators can be in danger of losing some of those customers, or at least losing some of the revenue from them, if those customers are no longer able to pay as much as before.

In this case, Tele2 Russia is addressing the issue of subscribers who are trapped outside their home country. Ordinarily, they would need to continue to pay international roaming charges or purchase special roaming packages for the duration. However, the operator, by zero-rating some popular messaging apps, is making it possible for these clients to stay in touch with family and associates in Russia while they must remain abroad for longer than anticipated.

Absent such a measure, Tele2 might find itself in the position of losing subscribers. Faced with long-term, higher-than-expected charges, they could possibly have no choice but to terminate service. And if contracts lapse, even if during a time of extraordinary pressures, they may not be renewed again when the crisis is over. So by throwing what is in essence a mobile lifeline to subscribers, the operator is making it possible for them to remain in its ecosystem, albeit through the medium of third-party OTT messaging apps. Then, when they can return home, they will be able to remain there, and happy to do so.

 Tarifica is a global SaaS company that is the market leader in the real-time collection, analysis and delivery of telecom plan and pricing data worldwide. Through a mix of AI, modeling and market expertise, Tarifica tracks hundreds of thousands of plan and pricing data points daily. No other company tracks more. Tarifica's mission is to continuously convert data into the dynamic intelligence that fuels opportunities for its clients, the world's leading operators, regulators and consultants. Learn more about Tarifica at www.tarifica.com.

Tele2 Sweden Inks Smart-Buildings Deal with Stena Fastigheter

Tele2 Sweden said it has signed an agreement with Stena Fastigheter to supply the Swedish real estate company with comprehensive smart-building services. The deal runs for five years and is the first business-services agreement since Tele2 merged with cable operator Com Hem in November 2018. Stena Fastigheter is already a client of both Tele2 and Com Hem.

The agreement involves an entirely new fiber-based management network for each individual building, in which connection to the access network takes place via Com Hem’s communications operator, iTUX. This management network will support remote control for heating, water, cooling, ventilation, and new-tenant services. This is part of Tele2’s Network as a Service (NaaS) offering.

Tele2 added that it is holding a smart-building seminar at the Almedalen Week political forum on 2 July with the participation of Stefan Trampus, head of its property services division, and Cecilia Fasth, CEO of Stena Fastigheter.

We find this example of a telecom operator stepping outside the traditional parameters to be particularly compelling. Tele2 is providing an end-to-end solution for a major real estate firm in its home market of Sweden, ensuring, in one stroke, that its Network as a Service program will be operational in a vast number of locations and thereby generate significant revenue long-term.

The system is appropriately tailored to the demands of building management, featuring automated control of heating, water, cooling, ventilation, and new-tenant services. This control takes place via a technology that benefits from Tele2’s recent merger with Com Hem, leveraging the cable provider’s long experience with fiber networks. The resulting local-access networks provide a way for systems to be remotely operated within structures in a way that is different from IoT while addressing some of the same needs. To that extent, it represents an innovative and creative way for a telecom operator to go outside its traditional areas of service and achieve a meaningful presence in the smart-buildings sector.

It should also be noted that the present deal is in line with Tele2’s recent withdrawal from most of its European markets and renewed focus on its home market of Sweden. Building diversified business in that country by offering comprehensive and targeted network services for enterprises is a good move in the wake of this change in orientation.

Tarifica’s products and services are powered by large-scale data from the global telecom industry and a deep level of expertise gained from our singular focus. We leverage these core attributes to help our clients understand their markets and answer their most challenging questions. Our team of analysts, software engineers and data scientists deliver real-time dynamic solutions for the telecom industry. Our software and state of the art data extraction techniques enable our clients to make smart decisions in real-time based on insightful, actionable data. We are the telecom plan & pricing experts.

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Tele2 Lithuania Acquires 3,000 Users for Mobile PBX

Mobile operator Tele2 Lithuania said that almost 3,000 corporate subscribers have already connected to its new Mobile Station PBX service, launched in March 2017. According to the operator, the offer allows businesses to replace their fixed IP telephony infrastructure. The solution can be downloaded onto a smartphone as a mobile app, or it can be managed via a self-service portal. Feature phones can also be attached to the service.
 
Mobile Station integrates standard IP telephony functions such as call routing, recording, audio-conferencing, voicemail, missed-call information and other features. The basic cost is €7.50 (US $8.21) per device per month, while the premium Mobile Station Pro tariff is €8.90 (US $9.75) per device per month. Tele2 Lithuania’s business subscriber base totaled 169,500 at the end of the first quarter, which represents an increase of 9.4 percent over last year.
 
Small and medium-sized businesses are more likely than larger enterprises to have a heavy reliance on BYOD for employees’ communications needs, and SMBs are also more likely to have gone all-mobile. For these reasons, mobile-based, app-driven solutions that provide all or most of the functionalities of fixed line PBX systems are a good way to increase an operator’s revenue from SMB clients.
 
According to its statements, Tele2 Lithuania has had success with this offering in the first three months or so of its availability. The prices are reasonable, and the features are evidently what clients desire. While the number of new clients may not be very large, it has been only a short time since the product launch, and we cannot assess what percentage of the operator’s business customers are SMBs.
 
In any case, we believe that a fairly traditionally-oriented product such as mobile PBX substitutes can still be a winner in today’s mobile marketplace, and that in operators’ pursuit of targeted, value-added offerings that place them beyond the category of mere commodity-providers, this type of product should not be overlooked.  

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.

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Tele2 Netherlands Starts Business Plans With Up to 4 TB of Data

Starting on 2 November, Tele2 Netherlands is introducing new business subscriptions and Company Bundles for employees to share. The plans are offered as SIM-only or with handsets. All subscriptions come with unlimited calls, while the data bundles vary from 1 to 24 GB per employee. Subscriptions of 100 minutes/100 SMS and a data-only plans are also available. The Company Bundles offer shared data allowances of 20, 50, 100 or 500 GB, or 1, 2 or 4 TB.  

 

We have written previously in these pages about the trend toward increased flexibility in mobile plan offerings, driven mainly by consumer demand. Consumers, motivated by budgets and by diversity and changeability of usage habits, have been demanding more options from their mobile operators. However, this growing need for flexibility is apparently affecting the business sector, as well, as exemplified by this slate of offerings from Tele2 Netherlands. Appreciating the fact that businesses’ plans for employees need to cater to a diversity of needs in terms of data and voice use, the Dutch MNO is allowing companies to purchase subscriptions so that employees need not all have the same allowances. Handset and SIM-only options address the fact that some employees are on a BYOD basis while others are not. Finally, the huge bundles of data at the top of the slate reflect the fast-growing hunger for data even among business clients, who may not be streaming massive amounts of entertainment content but may be performing job functions that consume a great deal of data. In short, offering flexibility in its plans for business customers as well as for consumers is a smart move for MNOs today.

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.

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Notable Regional Developments

Asia/Pacific

South Korean operator SK Telecom will launch an ultra-mini wireless pico projector as a follow-up product to its Smart Beam “appcessory,” which it launched in 2012. These products enable smartphone users to project images from mobile devices onto a wall, with the difference being that the original Smart Beam needs a wire, whereas the ultra-mini does not. Appcessories, app-enabled peripheral devices that function in a complementary relation to mobile devices, are starting to be seen by telecom providers as revenue opportunities.

Europe

Mobile operator Tele2 Netherlands is partnering with e-office, a digital work-space provider, to expand mobile device management (MDM) service for its business customers. The operator has sought the partnership to ensure that employees of its business customers are able to securely access their organizations’ networks remotely.

Latin America

The Chilean government has announced that the country’s ChileGob Wi-Fi Zones program began the implementation of its first phase in July. With this first step, the program deployed 196 free access points in over 150 locations in the country. The second phase of this project, which will begin in September, will include an additional 416 Wi-Fi access points. Users, who access the internet through these free hotspots, will be able to remain online for up to 30 minutes per session.

Middle East/Africa

MTN Swaziland has launched MTNEducare, a website that contains past examination papers that high school students can download to prepare for their own final exams. The site also provides other school information and forums and discussion boards that students can use. This initiative is part of the operator’s corporate responsibility program.

North America

U.S. operator AT&T will be the exclusive provider of the Samsung Rugby 4 mobile phone. This device will extend the operator’s push-to-talk options to over 20 handsets. The phone, which features a larger and louder speaker than previous models, has Wi-Fi connectivity and a navigation system for customers who subscribe to AT&T Navigator. The device also comes with military-grade protection against temperature, dust and sand, shock and water.

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 :  http://www.tarifica.com/storyoftheweek.aspx

 

Swedes Complaining of 4G Interference With TV

A report from the Swedish postal and telecom regulator PTS has stated that TV viewers have complained about interference from the country’s mobile networks running on the 800 MHz band, though it says that installing filters should resolve most such problems. In 2012 there were 150 complaints of interference from residents in areas of 4G network expansion; in 2013 there were 400. On average, mobile operators provided 60 filters per month during the second half of 2013. PTS said that in cases where it carried out measurements, no incidence constituted interference under the terms set out in operators’ permit conditions. While we cannot comment on the terms of the permit conditions of various Swedish MNOs, we do believe that customer complaints of interference of digital terrestrial television (DTT) by 4G signals, and it makes perfect sense that such complaints would increase significantly as 4G service expands. While the filters, which fit onto the aerial antennas of the TVs in question, may well solve the problem, and the mobile operators may be very able and willing to bear the cost of such gadgets if required by law to do so, the interesting point here is that in a world with a limited number of usable electromagnetic frequencies, 4G technology is likely to come into conflict with older technologies. To give another example, in Peru, 4G on the 900 MHz band was interfering with cordless phones to the extent that the country’s Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications was planning to replace the phones to clear that band.  In an increasingly 4G-connected world, with ever-increasing demand for the frequencies that best deliver the high-speed mobile connectivity, functionalities that used to be provided by such technologies as DTT and cordless phones will be provided by 4G via various mobile devices, ultimately obviating these clashes of frequency.  The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes two noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about The Story of The Week :  http://www.tarifica.com/storyoftheweek.aspx