Poland: MOBILKING - a MNVO for tough guys
 

The 4th Polish MVNO (prepaid only) named MobilKing started on 22nd Feb.

It's the first MVNO running in the Era network and the first one whose SIMs and top-ups are available
in the "normal" way i.e. in Żabka convenience stores (countrywide network, all open daily 6-23), some newsagents and electronic shops.


MOBILKING is run by Mobile Entertainment Company A.S., a part of a Czech Penta Holding. This copany already has a network of sport bookmakers in Poland.

The motto is "Some things are for real guys only" because the target group is "real men" :-).

http://www.mobilking.pl/o-nas.html
[Translation]

MOBILKING is a new mobile operator. In MOBILKING we create our offer and services especially for men. We offer low rates and simple and clear terms and conditions. For our customers we provide special male gadgets and male entertaiment: sport news, advices, games, photosa, films with sexy women, also „adults only” ones.

The MOBILKING starter (http://www.mobilking.pl/zestaw-startowy.html) costs 20 PLN and contains (except from a SIM with 20 PLN credit) also:

a metal cigarette box;
a "leash" for the phone and keys;
a poster with a naked girl (whose photo may also be downloaded as a phone display wallpaper);
a water-prood sticker with the MOBILKING logo "thanks to it everyone will see who rules here";
40 free SMSes to notify about the new number;
a key pendant with the MOBILKING logo

Rates are:
0.50 PLN - national calls (also voice mail and CSD), 1/1 debiting (CSD 60/60)
0.15 PLN - national SMS
0.50 PLN - national MMS
0.70 PLN - international SMS
2.50 PLN - international MMS
0.50 PLN - 100 kB GPRS
International calls (60/60)
2 PLN - Europe and some non-Europe countries (seems to be the same as Heyah zones 1 + 2)
5 PLN - rest of the world
10 PLN - satellite networks


The intial credit is valid for 1 month outgoing + 3 months incoming.
Top-ups
10 PLN, 20 PLN, 50 PLN - all increase the validity by 3 months for outgoing and incoming from the top-up date.
This means that the number can be kept for 3,33 PLN/month only (which is much better than the best so far Sami Swoi - 80 PLN/7 months)

Wow, Poland is the first country with MVNOs for women and men only, after MyAvon, now Mobilking! :D
I updated the website yesterday, before reading your post here:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/polonia/mobilking.html
if there are mistakes let me know.

BTW, next time I go to Poland I won't miss this operator and, most of all, the naked girl poster! :D :D

It's mistake - voicemail isn't free, it costs 0,50 PLN/minute.

Thanks, I just corrected the page.

SIMs for women and men - now we have SIMs for everyone :-D

To compare rates with the rest of the world, the exchange rate of today is:
1 PLN = 0,2833 EUR = 0,4219 USD.

Check also TV ads :-D

http://www.mobilking.pl/reklamy-telewizyjne.html

Czy ona potrafi cokolwiek naprawić tak, jak mężczyzna?
Can she repair anything like a man?

Czy ona zagra jak mężczyzna?
Can she play like a man?

Those titles are also all the "spoken soundtracks".

IMHO the 3rd one is the best :thumbup:

Sprawdź jaki jest MOBILKING
Check what MOBILKING is

[Quick and dirty translation]
More and more often women want to match us, the men.
[car mechanic]
They want to repair products of our hands.
[soldier]
They defend possessions of our ancestors.
[firefighter]
They extinguish our fires.
[lumberer]
But let's face the truth:
some things have always been and will always be for us, the men.
Such is MOBILKING, a new mobile operator
which gives you low rates and zero hidden costs,
so that you could control your money.
A new mobile operator. Check MOBILKING.
Some things are for real guys only.

Mobilking - The network for sexist Polish chain-smoking male sports fans who don't use data, like to recharge often, have no foreign friends, and are likely to buy things that have pictures of naked girls on them.

Quite a demographic, eh?

A perfect marketing opportunity for someone else to launch yet another mvno, with "For our customers we provide special female gadgets and female entertainment" for neglected women ;)

I think it could have a HUGE success also in Italy! :D And there's nothing to be proud of...

They don't necessarily like recharge often - simply they have to choose between recharging and buying cigarettes/beer/non-grape local "wine" :-P. They may also have foreign friends - I mean their pals who emmigrated to "17th voivedoship" and now have +44 or +353 instead of +48 numbers :-D

What do you mean - that there are many of potential MOBILKING users here? Sure, there are many :-)

Hmm, Harlequin stories and soap operas in MMSes :-)?

But seriously - it may not be that easy. The 3 Polish MVNOs (the first one started in Dec 06) had "huge" number of 53 600 customers at the end of 07 (official data of the Main Statistical Office) at 38 million population :-P. To compare, the 4th "real" operator Play(sart in March 07), gained first million in 10 months.

So far, MVNO SIMs have been hard to buy and top-up and practically not advertised. Moreover, calls between them and SIMs from their "host" networks are all off-net (in fact, the same situation is with "fake" MVNOs Heyah and Sami Swoi, but at least they can be bought and recharged "normally").

Another interesting MVNO is "pending" here - of course I'll let you know when it goes "on-line" :whistling:

You said that after watching the ads? I suppose that there are many more countries where it may be a success ;-).

Such sexist ads for the same target group aren't any new here, but so far they have usually been beer ads (not Żywiec - it's rather an "upper-shelf" product for middle class :-)).

Heh-heh. Naah, I just meant the international calls aren't all that cheap. (Now there's a market opportunity in Poland, what with a TPSA landline call to the USA or Europe costing 1.49 PLN. TELE2 charges 66 Gr -- still 25 US cents a minute.) And three-month non-extendable recharges aren't exactly competitive...

Yes, but international calls from mobile phones are generally crazy expensive here (especially to landlines or all phones in RPP countries). The weiderst thing is that international rates in Tak-Tak, mBank mobile, iPlus simdata (and until last summer also in Simplus) are still based on pre-2004 monopolist tariffs of Telecom Pologne :-P. The only workaround is in Orange - availability of 708 callthrough numbers (of course, with all the disadvantages: paying for dialling and, what follows, for unaswered/busy calls.

Wow, luckily I always drink Żywiec when I'm in Poland! :D
BTW I'm sure it would have success in many countries...

That's why I mentioned it so that you could be sure you didn't drink "sexist" beer :-D.

What about Tyskie and Lech? Sometimes I drank them too, but not so often! :p

OK, they have the same target group as Żywiec :-).

:They're very good too. In fact, pretty much all the main Polish beers are very good to excellent. However, I'd suspect the typical MOBILKING user drinks piwo mocne, preferably the store brand from Leader Price or Biedronka.

There are many of cheap beer brands for the MOBILKING target, the cheapest ones sold in plastic PET bottles, like mineral water or cola ;-).
OTOH, Żabka (what stands for "Little Frog", BTW http://www.zabka.pl/n:-)) convenience stores where MOBILKING SIMs are sold, aren't cheap at all, nevertheless long opening hours are very attractive to all who are thirsty :-)

Funny how that is, I saw on television that the first South Korean brewer to use plastic bottles spent a huge amount of money to fly the bottle-making machinery from Germany in order to have the prestige of being the first company to have beer in plastic bottles, a day or two before the competition. Whereas in Poland, beer in plastic bottles is a sure sign that you're doing it strictly to get drunk.

Having said all the above, I may get myself a starter kit (if it's at Żabka, it's gotta be good), if only for the naked girl on the keychain and the metal cigarette box. However, since I hate smoking (and don't play cards, and don't have one of the larger iPods, and don't have any books in that size, and cassettes are obsolete) I'm trying to think what else I could use it for.