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

[Motel75]

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/

[ms93]

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/

[Motel75]

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.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Motel75

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.

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.

[fedeprovenza]

now, how many mvno there are in Poland?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by fedeprovenza

now, how many mvno there are in Poland?

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

[fedeprovenza]

More than Italy i'll wait for your report

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by fedeprovenza

More than Italy 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

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 , 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 .

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.

[fedeprovenza]

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

[Motel75]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Telepin's 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.

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?

Originally Posted by Przemolog

However, there many numbers "recycled".

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...