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United Mobilelike +423
Just a quick one....
I have been told that United Mobile have put their entire +423 network up for sale with people being asked to bid by the end of today with the sale being required to be completed by the 16th February. The +44 just doesnt have the coverage of the competition now, seems like madness or are they in deep trouble What do you all make of this. |
Nice to hear that you have been told by .......
Could be true or could be not. As you state no source how should we know if it's true. That said we all now that the +423 platform has lots interest from the market as call rates to these numbers are very high or sometimes it's even impossible to call these numbers. |
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I saw no pertinent recent postings on teltarif, onlinekosten or telefon-treff.de. Does not necessarily mean the statements are false. Usually the Germans are on top of news like this, however.
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Seems like UM is in trouble. If they had only decided to concentrate business on the Jersey-platform they would not sell their customer base, but try to migrate people to UM+. The fear, the upcoming regulation of data roaming tariffs within the EU may render them uncompetitive since Liechtenstein is not a EU-member-state, was in my mind for months. However EU regulations do not apply to Jersey either. Will they sell their Jersey platform, too?
Is there any connection to rumors that Skype, a major shareholder of UM, is for sale, too? |
correction: Skype is not an investor in UM, but Morten Lund, a founder of Skype.
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more evidence
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Stan [edit by andy: link removed - see posts below by Effendi and me] |
Yes. It seems like they are having some financial difficulty. For them to make this kind of move. With the current state of things, it's no telling which of these international sim carriers will survive, if any. UM has been around for a while and have been mostly stable. However, the EU regulations that cap roaming charges, have certainly affected them, the possibility of capping data roaming charges may also affect them.
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I had to delete the post of dwsuttonuk where he copied/pasted the e-mail by Sven Donhuysen for privacy violation. E-mail are personal and should never be posted in a public forum. Thisnotwithstanding, it seems quite clear that UM have problems... :(
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I suspect there's a chance the telefon-treff post was copied from here, and I wouldn't be surprised if it too is soon removed for the same reasons as Effendi says.
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The eMail, which was sent to dozens of potential investors, contains a public offer and no confidential or personal content, so deleting it appears unnecessary to me.
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Andy -
You guys do a great job here. However, what is the harm in a post that gives a link to another site to help verify what has been a rumor for at least 2 weeks. (I didn't post anything because I had no source I could quote.) I had made a post a year ago or so about the "rumors" that at least a few of these companies would be shutting down in the near future. Some did, others like UM have hung on. I was heavily criticized for that post since I couldn't quote anything concrete. At that time, the rumors were just "chatter" in the industry. I don't know how long ago the UM situation became "public". I didn't hear about it until 2 weeks ago - but couldn't name a quotable source - so didn't post. The conventional news media prefaces stories by leading w. "unnamed sources" all the time, or prints stories like "rumors on Wall St. say company A is in merger talks w. company B. I see nothing wrong w. someone posting something that is clearly listed as a "rumor" or "unverified source". If someone here posts a "rumor" others who have been holding back could help verify (or deny) or add more info. FYI, when I head the rumor, I had assumed that the whole of UM was "shutting down". (My rumor sources were oral, never saw anything written.) Obviously my assumption was premature since it is now verified that only the +423 side is "up for sale" w. a 2/16 deadline. ...mike |
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A forum like this about prepaid and global roaming specifically is ideal to share this information. Sure you have to be carefull if the giving information is correct and not a hoax. That said if the information is correct even if it's commercial or privileged I see no problem sharing this as the information is surely interesting for current users and potential users. |
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Part of the criticism was that much of what you and your informant asserted was based on incorrect assumptions, the so-called free ride ending, wrong guesswork about the governance and taxation systems of certain territories, etc. Since then, the EU regulator has brought in cheaper roaming for main networks, which will have made things harder for global SIMs to compete. Pity your chatterers didn't predict that instead. |
Andy -
What you say is correct (re: EU). I am in the U.S. and those rules don't affect users from here. Part of the reason UM (and to some extent the Estonian based services) are troublesome for U.S. users is that some carriers block calls entirely to +423 mobiles and the rest charge a small fortune. I gather this is true for EU users (and others) as well. It would seem a UM, TravelSIM, MaxRoam et al service can compete for customers outside the EU and compete for everyone traveling outside the U.S. Is the major problem that most UM customers from the EU? ....mike |
Guys, it's of course fine for me if you talk about this subject, but posting a whole e-mail on a forum is not correct, since e-mails are private messages, not public. So you can say you received an e-mail saying this and that, but please don't copy/paste it in a public forum, at least here.
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Seems like you cant win here on this forum. I post a comment that UM is for sale, no one believes me. I post the proof, everyone says you shouldnt post that. For goodness sake make up you minds what you what.... Do you want validated information which you all seem to insist on validating yourselves otherwise the person sending it is lying or making it up or else you think its all rubbish or what..... |
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I talked with Sven Donhuysen, CEO of United Mobile, and he confirmed me that UM won't focus on the +423 MVNO anymore in the near future and they will launch a new product in the next weeks.
Nothing will change for +423 customers but we'll know something more at the end of February. That's all for now. |
Here's what I'll never understand regarding this...
UM+423 was a very stable, very good, very reliable product. And then suddenly termination fees to Liechtenstein increased almost 5 fold making it uneconomical for people to call Liechtenstein mobile number. The question is what was the force behind these increases in termination fees (that have also affected Estonian and Icelandic numbers but those were a bit high to begin with but also jumped through the roof).....were it the regular telcoms who saw their good lives of overcharging for roaming being shoved down their throats? Does the same fate await IOM and Jersey numbers? Actually I note termination fees, at least from the USA, are a bit higher to most +44 numbers than they are to many other European destinations. To me, a great believer in conspiracy theories something really smells fishy. Thank goodness for the eu administrators for the eu roaming rates. May this Ms. Redding be blessed and may she suceed in her endeavors to make receiving of calls 0 throughout the eu ASAP..... |
Top up special offer?!
Did any of you receive an email from UM today with a special offer to top up and they will throw in 5 euros more?
Looks pretty desperate to me? I can't see throwing good money after bad at this point? |
I doenst matter is the +423 platform is for sale or not. By adding 19 cent incoming call setup they have priced themselves out of the market.
I also seems very strnage that the figures given in the deleted mail in this thread gave a nice profit. So one wonders why they would add 19 cents. also it said that they had 60.000 customers. That might sound much but when there potential customer base is very wide, it's realy nothing. |
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I would assume that UM competitors are already making a sales pitch to UM customers (those that may be profitable). As someone else alluded to above, many of their 60,000 users might actually not generate enough revenue to even bring in enough money to cover maintenance costs. I can understand that you don't want "private" emails posted. Your calling to verify the info was a good move. I would assume something like the following would be ok: "There have been unconfirmed postings on at least one internet site that UM, or part there of is for sale. UM is looking for a Feb 16 closing date and claims to have 60,000 customers" IOW posting the existence of such a document but not posting the actual document might be ok? I wonder how many of us are still counted as customers who either haven't used it in months or generate only $50 or less in yearly income? ...mike |
I wrote just what he wrote me, I don't want to say things he didn't say. Obviously that mail is true, but since it's private I don't want it to be published here. If other forums don't care about privacy it's not my problem. ;)
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I'm making a trip to Switzerland soon and staying with an Air-hostess friend in Kloten, Zurich and I believe the United Mobile offices are in Kloten!
Shall I pop in and see if there is anyone left there? My friend is into cloak and dagger stuff, always used to play Cludo. (Mrs purple, in the library with the candlestick) She would love to infiltrate the United Mobile stronghold and come back with some sensitve info, with a bit of luck some pictures of this Sven fella in Lederhosen and Sim cards stuck to his nipples! |
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