Telenor Location Data Tracks Norwegians

Norwegian operator Telenor said that Norwegians complied with the government directive to stay away from their holiday cabins to curb the spread of coronavirus but were quick to return once the prohibition ended. Telenor’s Big Data show that mobility dropped to around 44 percent of normal levels when the authorities imposed restrictions in mid-March. There were particularly sharp drops in winter sports resorts such as Trysil (74 percent), Vinje (73 percent), Hol (72 percent) and Voss (73 percent).

Over the weekend of 25-26 April, once cabin visits were permitted again, there was a 1,371 percent surge in mobile traffic in Sirdal. There were rises of 343 percent in Oppdal, 301 percent in Hol, 436 percent in Vinje and 358 percent in Trysil, compared with pre-restriction levels.

A survey by Telenor Research in April 2020 found that just over 60 percent of 1,200 Norwegian respondents supported the authorities’ use of anonymized location data during outbreaks of seriously contagious disease.

Due to the ubiquitous nature of the technology, mobile devices are an excellent way to track, document and assess the behavior of citizens during a medical emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic. The “big data” about customers available to mobile operators can be used to determine large-scale travel and movement patterns, as well as to perform contact tracing. In the former instance, anonymized data is sufficient, while in the latter, it is necessary for the operator, at least, to know the identity of infected people and those with whom they have come in contact.

In this case in Norway, Telenor has used aggregated anonymized customer geolocation data to assess the extent to which the country’s population (or at least that segment of it which subscribes to Telenor’s service) complied with government directives to stay home and not travel to vacation residences, as they customarily do. The data showed a major drop in mobility within the country during the period of restriction, followed by a significant uptick as soon as the restriction was lifted. This information is of course useful to authorities as they assess the degree of success of such directives. This information came from location data; another kind of information, of more direct use to the operator itself, came from data traffic levels. When the restriction was lifted, network usage dramatically increased in the areas to which Norwegians typically travel on holidays—ranging from tripling to more than a tenfold increase.

Contact tracing through mobile devices, while it has been discussed widely and even in some cases implemented, is controversial because of the privacy issues involved—even though it could save lives. So, it is interesting to note that even in this much milder version, with all data anonymized, around 40 percent of Norwegians surveyed were not comfortable with the use of their data. That goes to show that mobile operators, working in tandem with governments, face a difficult path forward in terms of customer trust when it comes to using personal data in any way, even during a major public-health crisis such as the present one.

Tarifica is a global SaaS company and a 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.

T-Mobile Netherlands Offers One Day of Unlimited Data to All Customers

Operator T-Mobile Netherlands is offering all its consumer subscribers, both prepaid and postpaid, one day of unlimited mobile data. The offer is designed to underline the operator’s top ranking in the Ookla Speedtest.

Postpaid customers may sign up online for the special offer, while prepaid customers need to send an SMS to a short code. For customers who are currently on an unlimited data plan, T-Mobile is holding a prize giveaway, in which customers can win concert tickets, gift vouchers and portable phone chargers.

We find this data giveaway interesting because of the reason for it. Rather than simply trying to promote a new plan or service, T-Mobile Netherlands is granting all subscribers free unlimited data as a way of advertising the superlative speed of its network. And rather than just telling users about it by touting the numbers returned from the Ookla Speedtest, T-Mobile is using an innovative experiential approach, encouraging users to really put the network through it paces, no holds barred, for one day.

As for the facts themselves, T-Mobile Netherlands was ranked as the fastest mobile network in the country in the latest results from a test conducted by U.S.-based web service Ookla. T-Mobile registered the highest download and upload speeds in the study, which was based on over 454,000 tests conducted in the Netherlands in Q2 and Q3 this year (The tests rely on consumers measuring their network speeds from an app on their phones.) T-Mobile’s total speed score was 63.77, with an average download speed of 69.96 Mbps and an average upload speed of 17.08 Mbps. KPN ranked second with a speed score of 4.55, Tele2 was at third 42.68 and Vodafone came last with a score of 33.67. Not only was T-Mobile well ahead of its rivals in the Dutch market, but results published in August by Ookla show that its network is the second-fastest in the entire world, after Norway’s Telenor.

Now, this is all quite impressive, and T-Mobile has every right to be proud of its network. We think that offering all users to experience the way that network performs when asked to handle very large amounts of data is an excellent way of demonstrating its capabilities. One desired result of the unlimited-data day would be for those users who are on lower-allowance plans to upgrade to higher-data plans. Related to that, prepaid users could decide to go postpaid. And, of course, aside from the idea of switching plans, all users could potentially be impressed by the data speeds they experience, and that would tend to boost up customer loyalty and satisfaction.

One caveat, though, is that the unlimited-data giveaway would be even more effective if it could be experienced by all Dutch smartphone users, not just T-Mobile’s customers. If the operator is trumpeting the results of this test, which names it as having a network significantly faster than those of its rivals, a chance to sample it could cause many people to switch over to T-Mobile. If it were possible for an operator that can boast better speeds than its competitors to do this, it could be a “killer app” in terms of customer acquisition.

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 

Norwegian MVNO Happybytes Launches With Pay-as-You-Go Services

Thomas Sandaker, the former head of the Norwegian MVNO Hello, has set up a new virtual operator in that country called Happybytes, running on the network of Telenor Norway. Customers can choose to pay NOK 50.00 (US $6.07) for up to 10,000 SMS, MMS and voice minutes, or NOK 20.00 (US $2.43) for a bundle of 100 texts/MMS/minutes and then an out-of-bundle rate of NOK 0.30 (US $0.04) per unit, or else a pay-as-you-go rate of NOK 0.30 per unit with no other charge.
 
Mobile data is charged on a sliding scale that indicates price depending on the amount of data consumed per month. Low data usage is relatively expensive, and the price per megabyte falls as the amount consumed increases. The Happybytes depicts this relationship using an interactive slider. Setting the slider to 1 GB shows a price of NOK 149.00 (US $18.08), while 20 GB will cost NOK 435.00 (US $52.80) or NOK 21.75 per gigabyte, and the slider moves all the way up to 100 GB at NOK 995 (US $120.75), or NOK 9.95 per gigabyte. Fractions of gigabytes can be selected on the slider.
 
There is no monthly subscription and no commitment period. Happybytes charges the same prices in Europe as it does for its services within Norway but charges different prices for mobile data outside it, as well as on ships, planes and via satellite.
 
Happybytes debuts by offering a suite of services with a large dollop of flexibility added to the mix, which we feel will be appealing to Norwegian mobile users. On the voice and text side, the MVNO uses the time-tested strategy of interchangeable units, by which subscribers can mix and match within a bundle, paying the same whether they choose to use more voice minutes or more SMS or MMS. Or, if they prefer not to buy a bundle at all, they can simply pay as they go, by the unit, paying the same amount per unit as the out-of-bundle rate. Of course, the ultimate flexibility here comes at a price, considering that with the 10,000-unit bundle, the cost per unit is 60 times cheaper than the pay-as-you-go rate.
 
As for the data, we think Happybytes is doing the right thing by showing its potential and actual customers graphically, in an easy-to-use format, how the data pricing works. The flexibility of choosing your own data consumption and per-month pricing should appeal to users in a way analogous to the flexibility afforded by the bundle pricing. Again, there is a significant price disparity, with data costing 15 times more at the low-usage end than at the high-usage end. Showing clearly how much a customer stands to save by consuming more services is an excellent way to encourage the customer to do so. If Happybytes delivers high-grade signal quality over Telenor’s network, it should be able to attract and keep a solid customer base of budget-minded users.

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 

Telenor to Introduce More Big Data Services

Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor has announced that it is upgrading its capacity for data capture and Big Data analysis, a year after it started its major drive into the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. The new services are expected to become available starting from 15 December. The operator is investing in organizing its anonymized customer data and making it available for analysis.
 
Speaking at a public forum during Arendal Week—a huge annual political event in Norway attended by government organizations and media—group CEO Sigve Brekke said that Telenor said it will develop this expertise in its home market and the rest of Scandinavia first, before turning to its additional markets in Europe and Asia. Telenor demonstrated that it was able to use information from its mobile network to calculate a 20 percent rise in the population of the town of Arendal in the first few hours of Arendal Week.
 
Brekke said Telenor was already working on a range of “exciting” applications for mobile data with its research partners, public authorities and commercial firms, adding that the information can be used for planning transportation, providing better medical treatment and social services, and for setting up tailored travel facilities.
 
Big Data is indeed one of the most “exciting” frontiers in the mobile sphere today. As data-mining techniques become more powerful and sophisticated, operators have a golden opportunity to enhance their role and to avoid the dreaded commodity status for their services.
 
Telenor and its partners are evidently creating a product that will go well beyond the simple aggregation of customers’ mobile data, into a realm where the information is customized and tailored to a variety of advanced purposes. As an example, the operator demonstrated the ability to predict temporary population changes based on prior user behavior. This application could be of use to public-sector and private-sector entities alike. While the other uses mentioned by Telenor group CEO Brekke would also be useful in both sectors, they could generally be characterized as being of a public-service nature, or at least beneficial to the public at large.
 
However, as is well known, Big Data has many uses in the business community that are primarily or entirely profit-oriented. These involve various methods of supplying anonymized aggregate user data to commercial entities to be used for targeted advertising campaigns and for marketing purposes. These types of applications promise the most revenue to the operators that can collect the data, and even more to those that, like Telenor, will be able to sift and package the data in the most effective ways.
 
One thing that operators should bear in mind as they explore and develop Big Data is that they risk losing public confidence and even customer loyalty and customer numbers if they are perceived to be playing fast and loose with privacy concerns and profiting from an indifference to such concerns. The deployment of public-spirited or public-oriented Big Data applications such as those discussed at Arendal Week will go a long way toward improving customer relations on the subject. But, in addition, operators will have to be sure to provide their subscribers with maximum transparency about data sharing and also to educate them about the nature of the endeavor in general, if they want to truly profit from this emerging field.
 
Of course it should be noted that Telenor stands to profit from its Big Data initiative beyond deriving revenue from direct sale of the data, because it appears that it intends to eventually sell its data gathering and processing services in markets where it does not itself operate mobile networks.

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 

Fjordkraft Launches MVNO Via Telenor With Discounts for Power Clients

Norwegian electricity provider Fjordkraft has begun offering mobile communication services on Telenor’s network. Fjordkraft, which is owned by network companies BKK and Skagerak as well as by the power producer Statkraft, has approximately 1 million residential electricity customers. They will be able to get mobile services at discounted rates.

Each Fjordkraft Mobil subscription includes unlimited voice calls, SMS and MMS. The data allotments can also be used when roaming in the EU and EAA. The pricing is as follows: A subscription with 1 GB of mobile internet costs NOK 199.00 (US $23.28) per month, or NOK 119.00 (US $13.92) to power customers. The 3 GB subscription costs NOK 279.00 (US $32.63) per month, or NOK 199.00 to power customers. The 5 GB service costs NOK 339.00 (US $39.65), or NOK 279.00 to power customers. The 10 GB is priced at NOK 439.00 (US $51.35), or NOK 339.00 for power customers. The 20 GB service costs NOK 539.00 (US $63.04), or NOK 439.00 to power customers. Unused mobile internet allowances can be rolled over, and there is no contractual commitment.

For companies whose core business is outside the mobile telecom sphere to offer mobile services can be a very sound strategy to bring in revenue. In addition to free-standing MVNOs and MVNOs offered by MNOs, we have seen numerous examples of virtual operators started by retail and other entities. In such cases, it is important to have a pre-existing client base that would be receptive to an offering of mobile services (at the right price, of course), in this case from Norway we see a synergy that makes sense.

Fjordkraft has a large number of customers for home electricity, and considering that—for better or worse—many customers conceive of mobile services as an essential utility akin to electricity, we can certainly envision many of Fjordkraft’s customers being amenable to signing up for mobile packages from a company that they already depend on daily and trust.

The offerings are well-designed, in our view, in that they include unlimited voice and texts as well as a tiered slate of data offerings to cater to the varying needs of Norwegian consumers. We have written recently about the increasing demand for flexibility with regard to plan features among consumers across a wide variety of markets. The pricing of the packages is relatively low to begin with, and the significant discounts across the board makes them even more appealing to Fjordkraft’s electricity clients. From the company’s standpoint, it also holds out the possibility of attracting new electricity clients who are eager to avail themselves of discounted MVNO connectivity.

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 

Telenor Norway to End 3G Service Ahead of 2G Service

In a recent statement, Bjørn Amundsen, Telenor Norway’s director of coverage, said that within five years the operator’s 4G/LTE network will match its 2G network in terms of coverage. Telenor Norway has already deployed 4G/LTE service in 42 of 87 municipalities in the country’s key northern territories and is on target to cover all municipalities in northern Norway by the end of 2016. Currently, subscribers can only access data on Telenor’s 4G/LTE network, but the operator plans to launch VoLTE before the end of the year. Amundsen also said that the MNO will phase out its 2G network within a decade and will end 3G service sooner than that. It will maintain its 2G network longer than its 3G network due to device compatibility issues and the growing number of M2M services.

Telenor Norway’s prediction that it will end 3G service ahead of 2G service comes as no surprise, as we have seen other operators, such as those in the U.K., state the same thing. In New York, U.S. mobile operator Verizon Wireless has shut off 20 MHz of spectrum that was once allocated for 3G service and is running 4G in its place. The operator is doing the same on its network in Cleveland, OH. Lastly, as we have previously reported, in India, where adoption of 3G networks has been slow, some operators may go directly to 4G from 2G networks, bypassing 3G service altogether. Requiring operators to maintain three networks is very expensive, so it is critical that they choose how to repurpose spectrum based on return of their investment. For most operators, 2G networks are still an important source of revenue, particularly in rural areas, where the return on investment for 4G infrastructure upgrades will not be enough to make it very profitable. In addition, 2G service uses a low frequency, which results in reduced operating costs for MNOs. On the other hand, 3G competes more closely with 4G in that it is data-focused, and with 4G service, operators may be able to upsell users to larger data packages due to the faster speeds it offers. As Telenor Norway begins to refarm its spectrum, 3G service may well be the first to go, mainly to ensure that there will not be any loss of coverage in hard-to-serve areas and to ensure that users with older handsets still receive service. Once its 4G/LTE network can support VoLTE across the country and more users have 4G-enabled smartphones, we may still not see the total elimination of 2G service, because 2G is particularly useful for M2M connectivity, which is in growing demand.

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. Contact Tarifica for a subscription to the Tarifica Alert. 
Tarifica is the 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. Click here to contact a Tarifica Analyst.

Facebook Helping to Grow Mobile Data Market, Zuckerberg Says

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the role of his company in increasing access to the internet, in a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The launch of the Internet.org app, which is backed by Facebook, in emerging and developing markets has resulted in nearly 7 million people using mobile data for the first time, he said. Zuckerberg was joined on stage by representatives of some of the operators that have launched the app, which provides free data for connecting to popular internet sites. These included Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Airtel Africa CEO Christian De Faria and Mario Zanotti, SVP of Operations at Tigo parent company Millicom.

According to the Facebook CEO, operators’ rate of acquisition of new data customers increased by at least 40 percent in those countries where the Internet.org app has launched. In Colombia, the number of people using data on Tigo’s network increased by 50 percent, and Tigo’s monthly smartphone sales grew tenfold in Tanzania since the launch of Internet.org. In Zambia, Kenya and Ghana, Airtel saw increases in the number of people using data and data usage itself, and both voice and SMS activity grew across Africa. As Facebook is one of the most popular online services, the company can play a key role in helping mobile operators grow their data businesses, Zuckerberg said. “The overwhelming feedback we’re hearing from our partners is that it works. It grows the internet and grows their business," he said.

With its Internet.org initiative, deep-pocketed Facebook has purchased and bundled access to low-bandwidth sites such as Wikipedia, health-related services, and Facebook itself and provided it free of charge to users in developing countries. The purpose is partly philanthropic, but also promotional. As Zuckerberg observed at MWC, Internet.org has resulted in large upticks in the number of people using data in developing markets, as well as in the actual amounts of data consumed. The idea is that when those first-time data users begin to want internet-based services that are not covered by Internet.org, they will pay for more data, as well as for higher-end devices. The extent to which that will happen depends on how much disposable income those users have, so the long-term influence of Internet.org on operators’ revenues, beyond the subsidies Facebook pays them, remains to be seen.

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 Tarifica or The Story of The Week: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx     and   Follow Tarifica on LinkedIn.

Telenor India Looks to Skip Directly from 2G to 4G

Norwegian-based Telenor announced recently that its Indian operations are working on technology to offer 4G mobile service on a much more limited amount of spectrum than usual—a change that would allow the company to jump from offering 2G services directly to offering 4G, without ever having invested in 3G. “We are not there yet, but in the future we believe that this might be possible,” stated Telenor executive vice president Hilde Tonne. Besides developing the technology needed to launch 4G on a narrow band of spectrum, to put this plan into action Telenor will also need to convert its current spectrum license to a unified license that would allow it to carry any type of traffic over the frequency, as opposed to only 2G. This approval is far from certain, given the Indian regulatory climate. As an inspiration for the move Tonne cited Telenor’s experience in neighboring Bangladesh, where it “had started investing in 3G, but after three quarters of the year, saw it coming much faster; so we decided to stop 3G and phase in 4G.”

In addition to its experiences in Bangladesh, Telenor’s strategy was likely also encouraged by a recent J.P. Morgan report that stated that after a slow and incomplete adoption of 3G, many Indian consumers might be in a position to jump directly from 2G to 4G. While it is too soon to tell if Telenor will be able to launch a 4G network without ever having offering 3G services, what is clear is that this will be the path for many Indians. They have largely avoided 3G plans because of the increased device costs and the unreliability of service. These factors appear poised for change. India is now the world’s fastest growing smartphone market, with most of these phones being 4G-enabled, and, as the percentage of its 1.2 billion people who have smartphone increases, so too do the rewards for connecting them with mobile broadband.

Given that only 9 percent of India’s population is currently connected to the internet, MNOs will likely serve as the nexus of the browsing experience with the potential to take a share of all e-commerce—as they have done in many African markets. With stakes this high, it is not surprising to see a relatively small operator like Telenor pushing an aggressive strategy that would put it ahead of the curve. Telenor’s larger competitors have already begun working on their 4G networks and are likely now evaluating their own strategies to speed up wide-scale deployment. All the market players appear well aware that early leaders will have substantial advantages as the rate of adoption accelerates. 

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/contactus.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