Poland: More new MVNO's: Telepin Mobi & 36.6
 

36.6 is a new offer from Plus that offers "free" minutes in exchange for listening to commercials for a few minutes. As it has the same stingy account validity per topup, this can only be regarded as another gimmick, just like the "free minutes" you get from Carrefour Mova, which are limited to 30 a month and don't extend account validity. Starter costs PLN 9. http://www.36-6.pl

Telepin Mobi is on the Orange network and has Orange's even worse validity policy: Topups are not cumulative, and validity is extended by max. 90 days, and if you forget to top up within 5 days of that, all your credit is stolen. Starter costs 10 PLN; it might be better to buy these and then throw them away when done. Telepin also has some other annoyances, such as the fact that voicemail messages are deleted after only 2 days. However, the main attraction of Telepin is the "low" international rates -- to most of the EU, USA, etc, it costs 50 grosz, or 39 grosz if you use the dialthrough number *169 4444. Not great, but better than what others are offering. Perhaps one of the others, or another MVNO, will try to compete with this but have a better deal? http://telepin.pl/mobi/

36,6 is not a MVNO - it's Plus' brand. Like their Sami Swoi or Era's Heyah.

2 days ago started another MVNO - Cyfrowy Polsat (former Halo Polsat). It was preparing for long time, but now started. Info: http://www.cyfrowypolsat.pl/komorki/telefony-na-karte/

Yes, it's true. The term "MVNO" is bandied about a little casually in regard to Poland, as the operators all had "fake" MVNOs before there were any real ones, to head off any competition.

It looks like Polsat has the same stingy expiration policies as all the others, and similar prices. I don't know why most of these bother.

now, how many mvno there are in Poland?

As of today, theoretically 11 :-). I'll post more details in the night, I hope.

More than Italy:p i'll wait for your report:)

1. mBank mobile (mBank - an Internet bank, Plus, www.mobile.pl, prepaid)
On-line offer only, some bonuses for the mBank internet bank customers, good national rates

2. myAvon (Avon - a direct sales cosmetic company, Orange, www.myavon.pl, prepaid)
A pretty hopeless offer available from Avon salespersons only, probably the first MVNO to die here :-P

3. WPmobi (Wirtualna Polska wp.pl -an Internet portal owned by TP - Polish Telecom, Orange, www.wpmobi.pl, prepaid)
On-line offer only, 3 tariff plans oriented to voice, messaging or data, 100 MB free for wp.pl browsing/e-mail, bad rates to Play, reported problems with SIM delivery and on-line activation.

4. SIMfonia (MNI Telecom, Orange/MNI, www.simfonia.pl, postpaid)
A complementary offer for MNI landline subscribers in central and north-eastern Poland

5. EZO mobile (Telestar - a website creator/content provider owned by MNI, Orange/MNI, www.ezomobile.pl, prepaid)
It's a really virtual MVNO ;-). Its website has been running since Dec 2007 but still there's no price list nor the webshop where SIM can be bought. Its target group are believers of esotheric stuff: horoscopes, tarot, numerology etc. :-)

6. Snickers Mobile (Mars Poland - a FMCG company, Orange/MNI, www.snickersmobile.pl, prepaid)
Another strange MVNO project - SIMs are sent in return for 5 codes hidden inside promotional Sickers candy bars. Those codes may also be used for toppping up existing SIMs. This is a "limited edition MVNO" - only 100000 SIMs are available. However, it seems that many of them have still left :-D, since the deadline of applyig for SIMs was changed from 13th June to 31st August.

7. Mobilking (Mobile Entertainment Company A.S., owned by Penta Holding - a Czech company which runs in Poland chains of bookmakers and Żabka convenience stores, Era, www.mobilking.pl, prepaid)
A brand for "real guys" with the image full of sexism, what may be discouraging for many potential customers. However, it has rather good national rate (0.50 PLN/min) and the lower cost of keeping the SIM active with outgoing calls available - it's only 3.33 PLN/month (10 PLN top-up for 3 months).

8. Carrefour Mova (Carrefour Poland, Plus, www.carrefourmova.pl, prepaid)
Good national rates, some free minute rewrds for Carrefour purchases, top-ups available also from non-Carrefour retailers. The downside is there's no data transmission - GPRS/MMS or not even CSD! BTW, they offer the cheapest satphone rates, quite useful for the target group :-P.

9. Aster (Aster - a cable TV company, Orange, www.aster.pl, postpaid)
A complementary offer for Aster "triple-play" services (TV,Internet,landline) subscribers in Warszawa, Krakow and Zielona Gora

10.Cyfrowy Polsat (Cyfrowy Polsat SA - a digital TV platform operator, Era, www.cyfrowypolsat.pl, prepaid/postpaid planned)
It's a full NVNO, even with its own network code 260-12.
The first Polish mobile tariff with unconditional per-second international billing. However, international zones are pretty strange. Most destinations are priced at 1 or 2 PLN/min but zone C (4 PLN) and zone D (7 PLN) are a bit shocking. Zone C: Antarctic, Diego Garcia, Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati, Cuba, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Gwinea,
Somalia, Norfolk Island, East Timor, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Sao Tome and Principe, St. Helena, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Ascension and .... Switzerland and Iceland. Zone D: Netherlands Antilles, Demokratic Republic of Kongo, Madagascar, Niger as well as .....Australia, Netherlands and Russia. Satphone calls are priced at 20 PLN/min(!). Cyfrowy Polsat has no roaming yet, it is annouced to be available via the dual IMSI feature in autumn (roaming provider is to be Telefonica Spain(.

11.Telepin mobi (Mediatel - a telecom company, Orange/MNI, www.telepin.mobi, prepaid)
This MVNO uses the brand of a popular (however not very good) calling card Telepin. The product is addressed to foreigners who want to call cheaply to their home countries. However, cheap calling is performed via an access number and it's restricted to landlines (and of course mobile phones in RPP countries) in some countries only. The "direct-dial" international rates are horrible (Orange zones, but each at least 0.50 PLN/min more that very high Orange rates). The access number rate 0.49/0.39 in promotion is not so good also because moreless the same destination may be reached from Orange SIMs via 7081 dialthrough numbers at 0.35 PLN/min. It's intended to be a kind of an "etnic" operator. Its website and customer support is available also in Vietnamese, Ukrainian, English, Russian and Chinese. There are plans to distribute the SIM also abroad (in China, Vietnam, Russia and Ukraine).

MVNOs denoted by "Orange/MNI" signed their agreements not directly with Orange
but with a MNVE (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler) MNI Mobile, a part of MNI Telecom. The brand used for top-ups is you&MNI (www.youandmni.pl)

1 PLN = 0.30 EUR

Anyway, I think that all that stuff is no more that 200 000 active SIMs now which is nothing to compare with about 40 milion +48 SIMs altogether. In fact, I think that mBank mobile, WPmobi, Mobilking and Carrefour Mova are the only ones that really mean on this tiny virtual market.

Very interesting Przemolog!:) Do you know mvno's codes?:whistling:

What codes? 260-xx network codes?

Orange/Idea has never had "MVNO-like" brands. All the brands share the same numbering, top-ups and one can change one to another. In fact, they are just different tariffs.
As to Era and Plus brands, I think that a ranking of "MVNO fakeness" can be made :-)
1) Heyah - top-ups and numbering separate from Tak Tak, no possibility to change to Tak Tak or vice versa, SIMs & top-ups never sold at Era dealers
2) Sami Swoi - top-ups and numbering separate from Simplus, no possibility to change to Simplus or vice versa, SIMs & top-ups sold at Plus dealers.
3) 36.6 - top-ups shared with Simplus, numbering separate from Simplus, no possibility to change to Simplus or vice versa, SIMs & top-ups sold at Plus dealers.
4) iPlus simdata - top-ups and numbering shared with Simplus, no possibility to change to Simplus or vice versa, SIMs & top-ups sold at Plus dealers.

Well now, POP is a sort-of fake MVNO, inasmuch as Orange kept the name going after introducing Orange Go, and didn't refer to Orange at all in advertising for it (at least at first).

I was a little bit annoyed after I bought Telepin Mobi -- there was lots of advertising for it at Inmedio newsagencies, but absolutely no price information made available (not even on the paper insert included with the SIM), just "cheap international calls" according to the poorly informed staff. I took a chance on 10 PLN, but having the only way to get the lower rate be via a dialthrough number is just cheating. I'll use it up, but next time I'll just buy a POP/Zetafon card for 5 PLN with 13 PLN credit instead and use the Orange dialthrough. Orange cards all have rubbish lose-all-your-credit non-cumulative expiration, so I will never top up, just buy a new SIM each time, and add the old one to my album...

the first numbers after +48, which has every mvno or mno:)

From this point of view, you're right. There were even many rumours that POP would be abandoned after Idea/Orange rebranding. But things went in a different way - now it's Orange POP and it even lost its old logo :-).

MVNOs from MNI (simfonia, ezomobile, snickers, telepin) - 786 xxx xxx (Orange prefix)
WPmobi - 799 xxx xxx (Orange prefix)
myAvon - 789 xxx xxx (Orange prefix)
mBank - 783 3xx xxx (Plus prefix)
Mobilking - 882 xxx xxx (Era prefix)
Mova - 722 xxx xxx (Plus prefix)
Polsat - 69913, 69914, 69915, 69916, 69917, 69918, 69919, 69910, 69961, 69962, 69963, 69902, 69903, 69904, 69905, 69906, 69907, 69908, 69909, 69900 (own MVNO prefixes)

And do the major operators make the prefixes for regular prepaid services (Tak Tak, Go, Simplus, as well as Heyah, Pop, Sami Swoi, iPlus SIMdata, and 36.6) different from those from postpaid contracts? Heyah, for example, seems to be 884, 886, 888, and 889; are these exclusive to Heyah?

Only Heyah (787, 788, 880, 886, 888, 889) and Sami Swoi (885, 887) have exclusive prefixes. Rest of prepaids and postpaids in one network have same prefixes (eg. Plus and Simplus have same prefixes).

EDIT:
Here you have all polish prefixes: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefiksy_GSM
As I see there 36,6 also have own prefix (725, here marked as 36i6)

Doh, I should have thought about looking in pl.wikipedia! Thanks!

While I'm on the subject, is there a most "prestigious" prefix, such as one of the original Plus or Era ones from 1996, such as 601 or 603? (I mean something like the German prefix 0172, the only one issued by Mannesmann/Vodafone in the early years and is now only rarely issued; SIMs with this prefix are traded at a significant premium on eBay.)

Yes, that's right. But in the past there were some (temporary) numbering differences between postpaids and prepaids. AFAIR POP used to be 5018, 5019, 5028, 5029. Simplus in the beginning was 603 only whereas postpaid was 601 only.

Some more remarks about MVNO prefixes. As of today, the general rule is that most MVNOs use the numbers "passed" to them by their hosting operators. These "number transfers" are not shown in the numbering allocation established by UKE (the regulator). The MNI prefix is a special case, however. 786(0-4) is shown in the MNO table, not MVNO one, with remark "MVNO".

Details of the official allocation are shown here:
http://www.bip.uke.gov.pl/bipurtip/i...t=11&page=text
(Tables T2 for MNOs and T9 for MVNOs, under links there are Excel files)

Hmm, in a way, yes :-). Someone who has 601/603 in Plus, 602/604 in Era or 501/502 in Orange may claim that he/she could afford a mobile phone when it was much expnsive than now :-D. However, there many numbers "recycled". I have a 501 postpaid Orange SIM and I bought only in March 2003.

I'm afraid that Orange just didn't allow Telepin to implement direct dialling with lower rates.
But I don't understand why they offer only the cheapest calls. I think that in case it's impossible to charge various destination-dependent rates via a single accesss number, they should create at least another access number for European mobile phones.

Moreover, I was surprised the calling-card-brand MVNO is Telepin - there were annoucements it was going to be Telebonus...

Can any Orange user just call 7081 and then place a call at the prompt, or is there more to it than that? Are there similar dialthrough numbers for other networks?

How does number portability affect prepaid? I read that TPSA had implemented portability in 2006, but it doesn't seem to be offered by any mobile provider...

708 numbers don't work in other networks. Only fixed lines and Orange.
There's many 7081 services, for example two:
http://www.0708188377.pl/zasieg.htm (telefonia stacjonarna - fixed line, tak - yes)
http://telefon.onet.pl/onettelefon.html (Obsługiwane kraje - operated countries, także telefony komórkowe - also mobiles)

You just call 708188377, 708177800 or something like that, enter number starting with 00 + country code + number (eg. 0048221234567) and call. It's 0,35zl per minute.

Hmmm, I got an Orange Pop card to try this out, and neither of the above worked. Are you sure that some of these services work over Orange?

Do you mean that one?
http://www.orange.pl/portal/map/map/...ID_POP_STARTER

"13 for 5" is marketing bullshit.
For 5 PLN you get 3 PLN credit, and after 2 first top-ups >- 25 PLN you'll get 2*5 PLN for calls/SMS to Orange only :-P

Yes, mobile portability is also available, also for prepaids. It costs about 50-60 PLN. Prepaids have to be registered, however (via a paper or www form, depeding on the operator).

And this is the only point when you can really see that Heyah, Sami Swoi and 36.6 are not real MVNO's - it's impossible to port a number from them to Era/Plus or vice versa. Of course, it's because the law doesn't force to make it possible, not for technical reasons. Heyah to Era portability was announced a few weeks ago, but it was cancelled. The only workaround to port numbers between fake MVNOs and their "host" operators is to use an "intermediate" operator, but it doubles th costs, of course.

I think you tried it in the Orange coverage, not in roaming?
Anyway, here is the price list and T&C for special numbers availability from Orange:

http://www.orange.pl/binaries/PL/Bin...94/2759348.pdf

Basically it's a "neverending promotion" in which the following connections are enabled

300,700,701,708 - premium rate (shared revenue) - charging per minute
4009,3009,7009,7019,7080 - premium rate (shared revenue) - charging per call
801, 804 - shared cost infolines - charging per minute (the same rate as landlines)
00800/+800 - international toll free - charging per minute (the same rate as landlines)
800 - national freephone - free

All the "per minute" special numbers are charged 60/60 not 1/1 as regular numbers and barred in roaming.

The key issue is "§ 3 item 3."

PTK Centertel sp. z o.o. nie ponosi odpowiedzialnosci za brak mozliwosci połaczenia z numerami usług audiotekstowych oraz numerami
infolinii miedzynarodowych, jezeli brak takiej mozliwosci wynika z zasad okreslonych przez dostawce usług (Service Providera), bedacego
podmiotem niezaleznym od PTK Centertel sp. z o.o.

Translation

PTK Centertel sp. z o.o. is not responsible for lack of possibility of connection to "audiotext services" and international infolines, if that lack of possibility results from the rules defing by the Service Provider, being a company independent from PTK Centertel sp. z o.o.

It seems that the numbers I knew that they had worked, are not available anymore from Orange :-(

The only one still working is 708 208 108 http://www.alenumer.pl/index.php?id=wykaz_komorki
but it costs 1.28 PLN/min and connects also to mobile phones is CPP countries.

Yes, silly me, I had a closer took at the terms and conditions, and of course Orange are a bunch of liars. Nothing new there. However, this was the card I was forced to buy, because the local store didn't have any Orange Go starter kits. And, it seems, Orange charged me for the calls that they blocked.

(An aside here: With things like this, I see Vodafone's wisdom in selling Orange to France Telecom -- prior to 2000, Orange UK was known for great deals, no hidden charges, customer-friendliness (first one-second billing in the world, they only charged roamers their standard rate plus 15 percent, etc.), and were a fearsome competitor. Since FT took over, it seems the practices of Orange France are the rule -- credit cancellation, short expiration, and now blocking calls to competitors but still charging for them.)

Yes, here in Otwock. The 3 PLN would be gone in an instant in roaming.

But really, in (Germany, the UK, the USA, Australia, etc.) you can place international calls for a couple of cents a minute using cards, call-by-call, etc. Why it has to cost, at a minimum, 10 times as much in Poland is something that is a bit hard to explain without assuming collusion with (or intimidation of) competitors on the part of TPSA. Sigh.

Do you have a link for this? My wife has an Era contract (601, since the early days!) but would probably be better off with Heyah (like me). That's pretty annoying, but no surprise (see above).

Disregarding the fact the bonus is for on-net connections only, the starter should be named "63 for 55" or so ;-). BTW, I suppose that the name of the "13 for 5" starter may violate the lastest version of the fair competition law (effective Dec 07) which e.g. forbids advertising "unlimited calls" with 2000 minutes month limit. However, I have no time to ivestigate that issue :-(.

In fact, there used to be some "get more than you paid" starters in Idea/Orange. There were "12 for 10" POP starters and, really good ones, a great sale of "Jedna Idea na Kartę" starters in summer 2005 (before rebranding to Orange): "25 for 12.50".


If you needed just Orange Go, you could "change the brand" from POP. In Orange, you can fchange from one prepaid brand to another (POP, Go, Music, Free na kartę) at the cost of on-net SMS, no matter what SIM you have.


Did you hear a message about non-existing number and you were charged anyway???

Well, let's make things clear.

By "cards" you probably mean calling cards which in Poland are usually named "Tele-something" :-)? What is the problem about them? Eg. I've just checked Telepin (the calling card, not the SIM, http://www.telepin.pl/Cennik.pdf) and, as you can see, international calls via 0800 number cost from 0.26 PLN (about 0.07 EUR, perhaps not very cheap but not that horrible either). Calls to mobile phones in CPP countries are more expensive but obviously they have to.

"Call-by-call" is AFAIK a German ;-) name for we call in Poland "prefiks" (officially "NDS") and it's a 10xx number added behind the leading 0 in national numbers or 010xx preceding the 00 in international numbers. Yes, that's worse because 10xx access number work on TP lines only and, what is the most importtant, using them requires signing an additional contract :-(. The rates also higher (the best ones I found are 0.35 PLN/min - 0.12 EUR) but it isn't quite bad anyway....

Perhaps, if you need a coverage in Otwock and the Warsaw area, you should try Sferia - a "landline" CDMA 800 operator and its prepaid Nomadic na kartę.
International rates start from 0.22 PLN/min with 1/1 debiting.

http://www.sferia.pl/index.php?action=page&cid=760
http://www.sferia.pl/files/12148980916584933264.pdf
http://www.fkn.pl/2,0,1456064,1,1,artykul.html



601 is the earliest Plus prefix. Do you mean 602?

The links are:
http://www.telepolis.pl/news.php?id=11660 and
http://www.telepolis.pl/news.php?id=11745.

However, it was to be Heyah to Era, not vice versa what you need.

Yes, I meant 602. I mistyped, funnily enough, since I know the number ;).