Germany's Mvno List Grows

[Triband81]

Originally Posted by snaimon

Thanks for the info.

On teltarif there is some dissatisfaction about poor E+ rural coverage. Only experience with SIMYO was in Duesseldorf and coverage was ok there.

Don't know much about 02 -- isn't Tschibo using the O2 network?

I guess I have some gereral questions that you may be able to answer or clarify.

ELSEWHERE?

I guess ELSEWHERE means BY CHARGING HIGHER OUTGOING RATES. Or are there other options for paying the [high?] termination fees? Are German [or is it European] termination fees high? I heard the German rate is 15 cents per call to mobile lines, but what do I know. And if it IS indeed 15 cents, how can AldiTalk make any money? Now granted not all calls will be to mobile lines and network internal calls may have lower or zero termination fees. But Aldi's margins must be very low. And who sets the termination rates anyway? Do the carriers have anything to say about it? And I have read these rates have been falling. Is that true?

And you may have seen Andy's messages on Orange FR's responses and the recent fines levied in the French mobile industry, but rates there are also very high -- 55 cents. He believes that market is also overdue for some true competition. Do you know anything about the French market?

Not that I understand these things, but let's take T-MO USA prepaid. The lowest voice rates they offer are 10 US cents and of course if a T-MO prepaid customer calls another T-MO prepaid customer, the total revenue is 20 cents as the caller also is charged for the inbound call. I think we can assume that T-MO is making money at these rates. Of course if the call is to a land line or mobile carrier other than T-MO the revenue is only 10 cents and they are still or must be making money.

My brother has me on his family plan 1000 anytime (weekday) minutes for $70. That is 7 cents per minute. There are unlimited nights and weekend minutes. Now granted there is a $35 one time charge to activiate post paid service on each T-MO line (I had a coupon and my charge was waived!). There are 2 additional MONTHLY $10 lines charges added into the basic rate of $70 making his basic bill BEFORE TAXES be $90 -- still 9 cents per minute without looking at the FREE unlimited time which will lower the overall rate.

The bottom line is that T-MO is making money in the US charging 10 cents per minute OR LESS. Factoring in the Euro-Dollar exchange rate we are probably talking 8 euro cents per minute. WHY ARE GERMAN [EUROPEAN?] RATES [STILL] SO HIGH?

Stan

I'll do my best to answer your questions, Stan even though I don't have an answer for each one.

1) Isn't Tschibo using the O2 network?

Yes, they sure are and so far I don't that changing since O2 hasn't made any moves to allow new MVNOs onto their network. The fact that E-Plus and O2 are very close together in subscriber numbers (E-Plus: 10.1 Million vs O2: 9 million) indicates that O2 would be the next logical network to offer more MVNOs since they have the network capacity.

O2 Germany has been around since 1995 when it started out as Viag Interkom. It was bought by mmo2 in 2000. Earlier in the fall, O2 was bought by Telefonica of Spain which also owns all former Bell South properties in Latin America and has also established a number of its own networks through that portion of the continent.

2) Or are there other options for paying the [high?] termination fees? Are German [or is it European] termination fees high?

I'm not familiar with how exactly these rates are set or how they compare with the rest of Europe. What exactly do you mean by termination fees?

The termination rates are either set directly by the carriers themselves or even by the German FCC, the RegTP (Regulierungsbeh?rde f?r Telekommunikation und Post - Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications and Postal Services). I imagine that the carriers definitely have some if not complete say.

3) Do you know anything about the French market?

Other than the facts about who operates what network in France, I'm not familiar with how their rate structures are set.

4) WHY ARE GERMAN [EUROPEAN?] RATES [STILL] SO HIGH?

The best guess I can come up with in this case in that it probably is tied (also for question 2) to the high German/European sales tax rate. German and European sales tax rates tend to be 8-15% higher than the highest sales tax you know in the US (CA with 8-8.25% if I recall correctly). Germany's national sales tax rate is 16%, Italy has 19%, Sweden has the highest rate at 25% and the UK is at 17.5%. All German prices already have the sales tax factored into them.

That's all I know, it is not the most solid info but would also partially answer your questions.