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

[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?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by fedeprovenza

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

What codes? 260-xx network codes?

[fedeprovenza]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

What codes? 260-xx network codes?

the first numbers after +48, which has every mvno or mno

[ms93]

Originally Posted by fedeprovenza

the first numbers after +48, which has every mvno or mno

MVNOs from MNI (simfonia, ezomobile, snickers, telepin) - 786 xxx xxx (Orange prefix)
WPmobi - 799 xxx xxx (Orange prefix)
myAvon - 789 xxx xxx (Orange prefix)
mBank - 783 3xx xxx (Plus prefix)
Mobilking - 882 xxx xxx (Era prefix)
Mova - 722 xxx xxx (Plus prefix)
Polsat - 69913, 69914, 69915, 69916, 69917, 69918, 69919, 69910, 69961, 69962, 69963, 69902, 69903, 69904, 69905, 69906, 69907, 69908, 69909, 69900 (own MVNO prefixes)

[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...

[ms93]

Originally Posted by Motel75

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?

708 numbers don't work in other networks. Only fixed lines and Orange.
There's many 7081 services, for example two:
http://www.0708188377.pl/zasieg.htm (telefonia stacjonarna - fixed line, tak - yes)
http://telefon.onet.pl/onettelefon.html (Obsługiwane kraje - operated countries, także telefony komórkowe - also mobiles)

You just call 708188377, 708177800 or something like that, enter number starting with 00 + country code + number (eg. 0048221234567) and call. It's 0,35zl per minute.

[Motel75]

Originally Posted by ms93

708 numbers don't work in other networks. Only fixed lines and Orange.
There's many 7081 services, for example two:
http://www.0708188377.pl/zasieg.htm (telefonia stacjonarna - fixed line, tak - yes)
http://telefon.onet.pl/onettelefon.html (Obsługiwane kraje - operated countries, także telefony komórkowe - also mobiles)

You just call 708188377, 708177800 or something like that, enter number starting with 00 + country code + number (eg. 0048221234567) and call. It's 0,35zl per minute.

Hmmm, I got an Orange Pop card to try this out, and neither of the above worked. Are you sure that some of these services work over Orange?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Motel75

Hmmm, I got an Orange Pop card to try this out, and neither of the above worked. Are you sure that some of these services work over Orange?

I think you tried it in the Orange coverage, not in roaming?
Anyway, here is the price list and T&C for special numbers availability from Orange:

http://www.orange.pl/binaries/PL/Bin...94/2759348.pdf

Basically it's a "neverending promotion" in which the following connections are enabled

300,700,701,708 - premium rate (shared revenue) - charging per minute
4009,3009,7009,7019,7080 - premium rate (shared revenue) - charging per call
801, 804 - shared cost infolines - charging per minute (the same rate as landlines)
00800/+800 - international toll free - charging per minute (the same rate as landlines)
800 - national freephone - free

All the "per minute" special numbers are charged 60/60 not 1/1 as regular numbers and barred in roaming.

The key issue is "§ 3 item 3."

PTK Centertel sp. z o.o. nie ponosi odpowiedzialnosci za brak mozliwosci połaczenia z numerami usług audiotekstowych oraz numerami
infolinii miedzynarodowych, jezeli brak takiej mozliwosci wynika z zasad okreslonych przez dostawce usług (Service Providera), bedacego
podmiotem niezaleznym od PTK Centertel sp. z o.o.

Translation

PTK Centertel sp. z o.o. is not responsible for lack of possibility of connection to "audiotext services" and international infolines, if that lack of possibility results from the rules defing by the Service Provider, being a company independent from PTK Centertel sp. z o.o.

It seems that the numbers I knew that they had worked, are not available anymore from Orange

The only one still working is 708 208 108 http://www.alenumer.pl/index.php?id=wykaz_komorki
but it costs 1.28 PLN/min and connects also to mobile phones is CPP countries.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Motel75

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...

Yes, mobile portability is also available, also for prepaids. It costs about 50-60 PLN. Prepaids have to be registered, however (via a paper or www form, depeding on the operator).

And this is the only point when you can really see that Heyah, Sami Swoi and 36.6 are not real MVNO's - it's impossible to port a number from them to Era/Plus or vice versa. Of course, it's because the law doesn't force to make it possible, not for technical reasons. Heyah to Era portability was announced a few weeks ago, but it was cancelled. The only workaround to port numbers between fake MVNOs and their "host" operators is to use an "intermediate" operator, but it doubles th costs, of course.