Spanish Football Club Launches MVNO

Spanish football club Real Murcia has launched a new MVNO service called Movilgrana, running on the Yoigo and Orange networks, according to a report. The service offers mobile and fiber plans including “Hazlotoyo” with 9 GB of data and unlimited calls for €9.90 (US $11.04) a month, “Masvivo” with 15 GB and unlimited calls for €14.90 (US $16.61) and “Comounasolaalma” with 25 GB and unlimited calls for €19.90 (US $22.19) a month. 

As a promotion to celebrate the launch of the service, all customers who sign up by 15 January will get a bonus 3 GB of data a month for three months.

In order to be viable and, in the end, successful, a virtual network offering should have a strong identity and a focused subscriber base. This ensures a raison d’etre for the operator, a meaningful basis on which to compete in a crowded marketplace. Ideally, the brand identity and the identity of the subscriber base will be intertwined or closely related.

Many MVNOs have been launched by consumer businesses that sell the service to existing paying clients. In the case of a sports team, there is not exactly the same kind of paying customer base, but there is a strong base of loyalty that can be parlayed into brand loyalty. Football fandom in Spain may well be intense enough to motivate a significant number of people to subscribe to a new MVNO.

More significant is the fact that MVNOs have seen a great deal of success with a social-media model, in which users—especially young ones—use the service to foster a community of sorts. In this case, fans of Real Murcia would naturally want to communicate with each other about games and other matters related to the club. The MVNO could both facilitate and encourage that. 

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 

Ooredoo Qatar Demonstrates Khalifa Stadium Network

Ooredoo Qatar stated that at the final match of the Emir Cup football tournament on 19 May, it demonstrated its new mobile network at Khalifa Stadium to 45,000 spectators. The 4G/LTE advanced centralized RAN mobile technologies that were used in this match are up to 40 percent faster than the best current technologies, according to the operator. They are the basis of the technologies to be deployed by every arena during the FIFA World Cup 2022, which will be held in Qatar.

The specialized narrow-beam antennae delivered a higher capacity, enabling fans to stay connected and share their experiences. Ooredoo is actively working on its Smart Stadium offering, which controls security, connectivity, identity management, and access control, enabling teams to manage large-scale events with enhanced predictive models, business intelligence and live monitoring. With smart devices, spectators can order food for delivery, check the length of toilet queues at half-time breaks, access in-stadium broadcasts, and watch replays of game action.

We like not only the idea of a Smart Stadium system but also the fact that a mobile operator is creating and offering it. Sporting events are massive opportunities for revenue generation, given the large crowd sizes and the demand for data as fans share their experiences with friends directly and via social media. The sheer density of data demand within a limited space makes a sports stadium not only very attractive to an operator, but also very much in need of having a special, purpose-built connectivity solution.

For Ooredoo rather than a non-MNO technology developer to create such a solution is a good move and should be an inspiration to other operators. This way, not only does the operator stand to take a far higher proportion of data-traffic revenue than it would if users were on various networks, but the actual data volume will be higher due to more efficient network use. Of course, there also is the presumably sizable revenue to be earned from selling the Smart Stadium technology itself to venues.

Finally, we like this offering because it is so well-tailored to the particular needs of a sports stadium, including security, access control, and features that enhance customers’ experience in relevant ways while they are attending the game.  

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