United Mobilelike +423

[cloud9]

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.

[bbob]

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.

[snaimon]

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.

[inquisitor]

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?

[inquisitor]

correction: Skype is not an investor in UM, but Morten Lund, a founder of Skype.

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by dwsuttonuk

Believe it now:

Email seen as sent from Sven Donhuysen CEO and President of United Mobile

Article posted on telefon-treff.de confirms email.


Stan


[edit by andy: link removed - see posts below by Effendi and me]

[Bossman]

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.

[Effendi]

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...

[andy]

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.

[inquisitor]

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.