Mobile & Satellite
Sonera scraps fixed charge for GPRS service
By Anne Young, Total Telecom
31 January 2002
Finnish incumbent Sonera said Thursday it has scrapped the fixed monthly connection charge for its consumer GPRS offering in a bid to boost usage of the service.
From now on, all subscribers to Sonera IN's GSM service in Finland will be able to log onto the GPRS network if they have an appropriate handset, said product manager Heikki Martinoja.
When the GPRS service was originally launched in November 2000, users had to pay a fixed charge of 99 markkaa (US$14.34). Now users will be charged for usage only, with each kilobyte of data costing 0.01 euros.
Martinoja said Sonera currently has "a couple of thousand" GPRS users, both private and corporate. He did not wish to break down the figures any further, but said the current level was "as expected."
Sonera hopes the introduction of a low-entry product will boost usage. "This is very important for WAP services," added Martinoja.
Sonera said its service also enables the reception of phone calls during a GPRS connection. The operator also said users can check their data transmission costs by sending a text message.
Sonera added that the connection charges for its Open and Pro Data services for active users and its Company Data service for corporate customers will be waived until 28 February. The per-kilobyte charge will also apply to these services in future, however.
As a further incentive, users of the Open Data service will not be charged for using Sonera's WAP services throughout 2002, the operator said in a statement.
totaltele.com
GPRS Mobile Phones to be Shipped in First Quarter
Wireless 1/29/2002
GVC's shipments of GPRS mobiles phones, projected to be carried out in the fourth quarter of last year, to Ericsson are be delayed till the first quarter of this year
Industry insiders say the shipments most likely will begin in late February or March. Large-quantity shipments, however, are not expected until the second quarter. Moreover, according to sources, GVC is in discussions with Ericsson about production of other models and is expected to produce more than two models for Ericsson in 2002.
Aside from Ericsson, Alcatel, slated to decide its Taiwanese ODMs (original design manufacturers) soon, may be another GVC client. Unlike Siemens, Alcatel does not give priority to price only but also emphasizes time-to-market. Therefore, GVC, boasting design, development and production experience, has relatively high hopes.
At an institutional investors meeting at the end of the third quarter of 2001, GVC said that it would outsource production to CEMs (contract electronics manufacturers) if its own capacity were fully booked. According to sources, this is likely to happen in the second half of 2002, given the company!|s current monthly capacity of 500,000 units.
acesuppliers.com
But phone spam will be faster
Nokia: Mobile users OK with advertising on phone
From...
January 31, 2002 Posted: 8:49 a.m. EST (1349 GMT)
By Joris Evers
(IDG) -- Mobile phone users don't mind receiving commercial text messages on their handsets according to a study commissioned by Nokia Corp., the company said Wednesday. Meanwhile, analysts warn mobile marketing could be headed south, just like e-mail marketing.
Users are not only receptive to marketing via SMS (Short Message Service) text messages, but would actively welcome commercial messages if they get something in return, a discount coupon or cheaper service, for example, the Finnish handset maker said.
More than 3,300 mobile phone users aged 16 to 45 in 11 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, UK, Sweden, Germany, Japan and Korea were interviewed in mid-2001, Nokia said. The study was done by HPI Research Group.
Eighty-six percent of the respondents said they would accept "some advertising" if it helped keep the cost of mobile services down, while 88 percent said they would not mind coupons sent via SMS. Nearly a third (31 percent) said they would actually welcome coupons on their phone, Nokia said.
Acceptance is subject to conditions, the study found. Users want to be able to bypass and filter the messages and decide whether or not to receive messages, Nokia said.
Marketing via SMS is fairly new and early adopters are getting good results, according to analyst firm Forrester Research BV in a report issued late last week. The average response rate is 11 percent, much higher than, for example, online advertising with banners.
However, SMS marketing in the long run requires careful planning and marketers shouldn't be overly excited, Forrester cautioned. Marketers should be skeptical, as another marketing channel billed as revolutionary two years ago, e-mail marketing, has now lost its effectiveness.
cnn.com |
