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27-05-2009, 16:54
The demise of UM certainly came like a bolt out of the blue, but clearly the signs were there i.e. the 0,19€ set up fee for receiving free calls but when all is said and done, unless I really miss my guess, there were 2 factors that really led to their death....
1. The worldwide economic crisis (which obviously also led to the demise of O9) dried up lines of credit and also cut down on discretionary spending for things such as travel throughout the world (perhaps the last thing not so muchy) and...
2. I truly believe another large, very large factor, was the success of the eu in capping roaming rates within the eu. While certainly the international cards were meant to appeal to an internatinal clientele, the fact that as long as roaming rates within Europe were very high, it made sense for Europeans who are constantly crossing national frontiers to see the need for an international card. Now that it is obvious that roaming rates within Europe will be all but disappearing in the near future, why would a European particularly need an international card. For travel to North America? They, until the advent of the dual cards, never were able to successfully do business with the US telcoms and bring US roaming rates down...you paid the same to roam in the USA with the international cards as you did with your home carrier so why do you need it. Also, many North Americans simply do not see th eneed for having mobile phones when travelling throughout the world. They are happy to deal with the asininely high roaming rates of the North American carriers as they were able to use cheap calling cards and also began to understand the use of VOPI methods of communicating internationally. Frankly if AT&T and T Mobile USA had half a brain and brought down their international roaming rates to say a reasonable 30 to 35 cents a minute, that would probably be the end of any need for international cards.
And just thinking back on UM....they were actively testing their dual sim card so one would have to suppose that either events overwhelmed them more quickly than they assumed or they just didn't see that the dual sim card could save their bacon.
RIP UM
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