Three-year deal with Homeserve will see 4,000 connections ported to O2 from Vodafone and Orange

O2 has won a massive corporate account off network rivals Orange and Vodafone.

Emergency insurance and home repairs company Homeserve will port 4,000 connections to O2 from Orange and Vodafone. It is a three year deal for voice and mobile data service, and will include BlackBerry and PDA devices.

O2 said it will provide Homeserve with various mobile solutions, including routing calls via a VPN to help reduce the overall cost to the business and enable employees to communicate economically and efficiently with customers.O2 UK business sales director Ben Dowd said: “Mobile technology can be used for so much more than simple communication. As a business, customer service is at our core and we are delighted to be working with Homeserve to help them provide the very best service to their customers”

Homeserve chief information officer Trevor Didcock said: “Homeserve is committed to providing unsurpassed customer service. We have thousands of tradesmen on the road and they all need to be in touch with our customers and offices 24/7. From real time updates on PDAs to communicating with customers via SMS, this new partnership with O2 will support our future ambition to stay ahead of the pack and ensure we are delivering a first rate service for our customers.”

SOURCE: Mobile News International

RELATED SITES: O2 Offers

Vodafone leads the charge for new service revenues from wholesale, as O2, Orange, T-Mobile and 3 respond to its aggressive strategy in the space

All UK network operators are aggressively pursuing new MVNO business in order to grow their service revenues.

Vodafone wholesale boss Tim Stone (pictured) said: “We are seeking to grow aggressively. We are talking to a lot of people – there are four or five big brands we’re talking to at this time.”

O2 head of wholesale Phil Crookes said O2 had revised its wholesale strategy, considered conservative, in recent months to keep pace with Vodafone.

He said: “We recognise now our competitors have become much more aggressive, that the market has moved on. So, we are taking a more open approach.”

Orange refused to comment, but a source claimed: “Orange is very interested in wholesale. It is striving to secure the right deals and to grow share quickly, in the way Vodafone has done.”

Orange is expected to confirm an MVNO deal with ethnic market MVNO Lycamobile shortly.

Meanwhile, head of wholesale for T-Mobile International Ralf Weber said: “We realise our partners have opened up, but we are the market leader and we are very much in hunting mode.”

T-Mobile’s new MVNO partnership with Swedish flat-pack furniture chain Ikea goes live today.

3, meanwhile, is expected to announce a business MVNO with distributor EBS shortly.

A 3 spokesman said: “We are open for business. We have capacity for a lot of voice traffic on our network, so the MVNO model appeals to us.”

The UK wholesale market is estimated to be worth £1 billion at present, and to grow to twice that by 2012. T-Mobile takes around 60 per cent of the market, principally via its MVNO deal with Virgin Mobile. Vodafone and O2 take around 17 per cent each. Orange and 3 share the remainder.

SOURCE: Mobile News International

Most of the bigger broadband providers are gaining customers, but Orange broadband has been having a sticky period for a while now, with customer numbers down from 1.142 million customers in September 2007, to 1.063 million at the end of June 2008. In the last quarter the total number of subscribers was 2.5% down, what is more worrying for the company is that this means more than 2.5% decided to leave, as one would expect to see some new sign-ups in the quarter too.

The full quarters results are available on www.francetelecom.com. Revenue was down some 7.7%, but the number of unbundled lines within the UK for Orange rose from 23% in 2007 to 40% currently. In theory putting customers onto a LLU network should provide cost savings, but the costs of rolling out a LLU network are high, and as fibre based networks edge ever closer companies will need to be careful to ensure they do not over invest in LLU without considering the future path to a more fibre lead future.

The other large provider to have shown a decline in customer numbers has been AOL Broadband, but most other large providers are still showing a growth in numbers, with new entrant O2 managing to add a healthy number of customers each quarter. So one can be sure that there will be boardrooms around the UK now looking at why some providers are still able to attract new sign-ups to broadband, and as the market increasingly becomes a switchers market, why are existing broadband users not switching to them.

SOURCE: ThinkBroadband.com

“Best trading weekend of the year so far,” thanks to the Apple iPhone on O2, reckons Orange chief Tom Alexander

Orange UK chief exceutive Tom Alexander (pictured) last week thanked O2’s 3G iPhone for improved sales in Orange stores.

He said: “The launch of the iPhone was Orange’s most successful trading weekend of the year so far.

“People were excited by the product, came out to shop and found other great deals on the high street. Everyone has benefited from the iPhone.”

SOURCE: Mobile News International

RELATED SITES: O2 Offers

‘The Music Show’, available to Orange punters, offers daily six-minute news bulletins, including interviews and album reviews

Orange has launched a weekly downloadable video news service called ‘The Music Show’.

The service, which can be downloaded on both mobile and PC, has become permanent following successful trials at this year’s Galstonbury festival, where it pulled together daily news and interviews.

Each news round up lasts up to six minutes and will include exclusive music news, interviews with bands, track-by-track album reviews by artists themselves and monthly live sessions.

Orange customers will also be given the opportunity to attend and meet musicians at live gigs, through competitions.

Orange head of music partnership Richard Wheeler said: “The launch of ‘The Music Show’ further proves that Orange is committed to music in all its forms.

“It will showcase top quality exclusive content with the very best bands and artists every week.

“The Music Show will also highlight other music content and offerings on the portals that users will be interested in via various dynamic links.”

Upcoming interviews and live sessions include The Futureheads and Dizzee Rascal.

SOURCE: Mobile News International

The end of month bargains have started. I thought I’d mention a couple of spectacular free laptop offers, launched today on Orange. These deals will end on 31st July.

The LG Secret, one of the coolest top-spec designer phones, is free on Orange Dolphin 35 with a free Acer Windows Vista laptop. Line rental is £35 per month and gives you 600 xnet minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited web browsing on your mobile phone.

If you prefer a Nokia, you can have the above deal with the new Nokia 6220 classic. It has a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, HSPDA and much more. It’s a brilliant phone, one of my favourites.

Delivery of your phone and laptop are free. Order before 3pm to receive your phone next day. Your free laptop will be sent a few days later when you return your claim voucher (which you’ll receive with your phone) along with a proof of address and a proof of signature.

Compare the latest free laptop deals

O2’s “multi-year exclusive” with Apple precludes rival networks ranging iPhone, despite web rumours to the contrary Orange and O2 have rubbished web rumours the Apple iPhone will appear on the Orange network in the UK in the near future.

O2 restated the fact its contract with Apple is “a multi-year exclusive”, and noted the original iPhone was launched less than a year ago.

Orange also said there is no truth in the rumours linking it with a UK iPhone launch.

Web blogs and tech sites claimed today the 3G version of the iPhone would debut on Orange in the UK in October, following recent multi-carrier deals in other markets andthe sales rate of the device in the UK.

Apple and O2 have both maintained good early sales of the 3G iPhone earlier this month.

SOURCE: Mobile News International

RELATED SITES: O2 Offers

Asus and HP laptops to be sold in consumer and business data bundles via Orange’s direct channels Orange has announced plans to bundle laptops with its data packages for both business and consumer customers in August.

Orange agreed deals with computer companies Asus and Hewlett-Packard, to add laptops to its ‘connected line, when subscribing to a 24 month mobile broadband contract via Orange stores or through its direct telesales channels.

Consumers paying £25 per month will receive a Asus Eee PC 900 16G laptop with USB modem on the ‘Internet Everywhere’ tariff which includes a 3GB data allowance and 100 texts which can be sent from the laptop.

Business customers will have a choice of three Hewlett-Packard laptops, with the monthly cost of the tariff changing due to the product value.

Each price plan has the same offer of unlimited data, and 500 Wi-Fi minutes which can be used in any of Oranges 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots.

Customers opting for £35 per month tariffs will receive an HP 6730s Intel Celeron laptop, and £40 per month customers receive an HP 6730s Intel Core 2 Duo. Both laptops come with Orange USB dongles.

Customers on the £45 per month tariff will receive an HP 6730b Intel Core 2 Duo with an embedded SIM card.

SOURCE: Mobile News International

4 months FREE on a 12 month contract!

The HTC Touch Diamond is now widely available at all online retailers. The best deal is on Orange Dolphin 40 (12m) with a free Touch Diamond, 600 xnet minutes and 500 texts per month for £40 line rental.

The deal also comes with £160 cash back, which is equal to 4 months free line rental and needs to be claimed in four stages by sending off your bills. Or, instead of cash back you can choose a free gift such as an iPod nano, Nintendo DS Lite (£9.99 charge) or a set of GHD Hair Straighteners.

This offer is so good that I’m going to order one for myself, I just need to decide on a free gift.

The HTC Diamond brings Windows Mobile to the mainstream. It features HTC’s clever TouchFLO 3D interface. If you haven’t seen the Touch Diamond click on the phone image for more information and compare HTC Touch Diamond deals from all leading UK retailers.

Compare all Touch Diamond deals

Orange have an exclusive online offer this weekend with their Dolphin 35 plan. Customers who buy online will receive £5 line rental discount along with 600 minutes per month, unlimited texts and unlimited web browsing on their phone.

Better still, look at the choice of free phones available…

Samsung Tocco, Sony Ericsson C902, LG Secret, Nokia N82 Black, Samsung Soul Black and many more. Or, for just £39.99 choose the brilliant HTC Touch Diamond.

This is a simple deal with no catches. Buy direct from Orange and receive an automatic £5 line rental discount for the life of your contract. Highly recommended.

Compare all Orange Direct Dolphin deals