Poland: myAvon - MVNO for women :)
 

Yesterday on 22nd May, the 2nd Polish MVNO started (roaming in Orange, prepaids).
It's operated by the Polish branch of Avon ("The company for women") and it works just as a reseller of Orange (SIMs can be used with Orange-locked phones). It's advertised as the product especially designed for women - even FAQ items are written in the feminine gender (Polish verbs have genders in the past tense) :-). The offer will be sold (both SIM and top-ups) on-line or via Avon consultants (saleswomen). It's the cheapest SIM on the market - 3 PLN and that's all good. National calls are 0.40 PLN on-net and 0.69 PLN off-net which are rather poor rates (especially to compare with Play). National SMS is 0.20 PLN (similar to other prepaids). National MMS 0.45 PLN, international SMS 0.69 PLN, international MMS 3.44 PLN, SMS in roaming 2.19 PLN - all those rates are the most expensive on the market! GPRS is 0.75 PLN/150 kB what is identical (5 PLN/MB) like in Orange prepaids but with 3 times worse debiting. International calls and roaming have the same zones as Orange prepaids but rates are higher than in Orange by 0.39 to 1.19 PLN.

All this expensive stuff doesn't remain unrewarded - large top-ups are rewarded with... what a surprise ;-)... cheaper/"free" Avon cosmetic products.

My general impression is that the target of myAvon are dumb blondes :-P. Poland is a test ground - if it succeeds, another Avon MVNO's may appear elsewhere...

PS. I live in a really strange country: the president and the prime minister are twin brothers and the first MVNO's by an internet bank and a cosmetic dirtect-sales company :-P

Hmmm, couldn't find any mention on the site at all about how long the topups are valid for. The FAQ describes what account validity is, but that' s all.... Dumb, indeed.

well in PL you are full of blonds... we'll see if they are dumb too! :p
Otherwise they can try with the dumb brunettes in Italy, I'm sure they'll have sucess! :D

Well, "dumb blonde" is in fact a state (or absence :-P) of mind, hair-colour independent, especially because there are so many colours of hair paints :-)

The latest news - the start of myAvon is postponed to 22rd June when the new Avon catalogue 8/2007 with SIMs offered among the cosmetic stuff will be released :-). Some people here say that Avon consultants will convince many of their customers to this hopeless offer. However, the members of the target group usually already have mobile phones and myAvon doesn't offer number portability yet :-)