Category Archives: Consulting

Tele2: From industry’s black sheep to customer’s best friend?

Frank undercover2Late November last year, Tele2 launched a major transformation campaign in Sweden under the Tele2.0 banner.

The message? Tele2 had questioned all industry practices and concluded that many of them were outright stupid. And consequently stopped or changed them. Continue reading Tele2: From industry’s black sheep to customer’s best friend?

Contributing to Comptel’s book “Operation Nexterday”

Analysis & Go-to-market 2015

comptel_logo_bwIn cooperation with key Comptel experts, writing and editing key parts of Comptel’s book “Operation Nexterday” which was launched at Mobile World Congress 2015.

Comptel MWC15

Four years (and a net neutrality law) later, Dutch operators foul again

Dutch operators KPN and Vodafone were both fined for violations of net neutrality today.

KPN got a fine of 250000 EUR for having blocked access to voice over IP services on public Wi-Fi hotspots. Vodafone was fined 200000 EUR for having zero-rated content from HBO. Continue reading Four years (and a net neutrality law) later, Dutch operators foul again

Rollover: The next big thing for customer retention

RolloverBucket plans – with volume caps on the number of minutes, messages and Mbytes – have been offered by mobile operators for years. Even though the composition has varied over time (e.g. through elements made unlimited), the concept is well known to customers.

Monthly caps have become the standard of our industry. Another standard is to reset those caps at the start of a new month. This means that any balance left – minutes, messages, Mbytes – is voided. Or confiscated – to use the word of John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile USA. Continue reading Rollover: The next big thing for customer retention

Quad and convergent play: tefficient provides fact-based recommendations

quad signAnalysis & Go-to-market, 2014

How have operators introduced mobile-fixed convergent quad-play in Europe’s most advanced markets France, Spain, Portugal – and in emerging quad markets like Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Germany? How has competition reacted?

Using facts: How have these quad introductions affected market share, churn, acquisition & retention cost, demand for mobile, fibre-speed broadband and TV – and revenue and margin? Which defensive actions can non-convergent operators take?

Which factors can be attributed to effective take-up of quad play? Market share, fibre deployment and homepass, TV offers, exclusive content – or is it just about bundling discounts? What discount levels are we talking about?

Based on international facts and best practice, what would tefficient recommend? Taking local conditions, operator strategy and market position into account.

Commissioned by two operators.

Why “grandfathering” is a four letter word inside Verizon and AT&T

Verizon It’s been more than two years since the June 2012 launch of Verizon’s shared data plan which took out all other Verizon postpaid plans at one go. From this point on, new Verizon customers (or prolonging customers) had to take the Share Everything plan (later renamed More Everything). The initiative was Verizon’s final attempt to get rid of unlimited data and make usage-based data monetisation a reality.

Since the standard US postpaid contract is running for 24 months, we should after two years consequently see a 100% adoption of Share/More Everything within Verizon’s postpaid accounts? No, it is 55%.

at&t logoVerizon’s primary competitor, AT&T, launched their shared data plan, Mobile Share, in August 2012. Unlike Verizon, they kept other postpaid plans available to begin with. More than one year later, in October 2013, Mobile Share was eventually made the only plan. AT&T reports that 56% of their postpaid SIMs are on Mobile Share. Still not 100%.

In its Q2 reporting of yesterday, AT&T says that 80% of postpaid smartphone subscribers are on usage-based data plans. Leaving 20% of smartphone subscribers (plus a bunch of data-only subscribers – no reporting for that segment) that still are unlimited.

Verizon and AT&T’s principal method to convince customers to let go of their unlimited plans has been equipment subsidy: You wouldn’t get any unless you go for the new plans.

But T-Mobile’s disruption of the subsidy model – later embraced by AT&T and (somewhat reluctantly) implemented by Verizon – has led to US customers shifting away from subsidy, instead going for installment plans or BYOD. And with these models, customers can easier hold onto their grandfathered unlimited data plans.

Is quad-play just a response to weakened customer loyalty in triple-play? With mobile as giveaway?

quad signPress release

The reporting of Telefónica, PT and Orange show that quad-play is a hit in Spain, Portugal and France. Vodafone used 14,9 billion EUR to acquire cablecos in Germany and Spain – to enable quad.

Operators need to be realistic about the positives quad-play can bring and use facts to spot best practice. tefficient’s framework provides a great start if entering quad – or facing competition that do.