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COMMENT
Cheap Mobile Calls Are Here

By David Kuo (TMFDragon)
November 24, 2004

EasyGroup's entry into the mobile phone arena has been in the planning stages for a long time. The Company's EasyMobile website has been up for months, but Stelios Haji-Ioannou has been unable to find a willing network partner - that is until now.

The company has reportedly been shunned by the likes of Orange (LSE: OGE) on concerns that a low-cost mobile phone service could prove damaging to existing operators. Of course companies such as Vodafone (LSE: VOD) and mmO2 (LSE: OOM) have real reason to worry too, given the harm that easyJet's (LSE: EZJ) cut-throat pricing has inflicted on the airline industry.

However, according to the Financial Times, EasyMobile will be partnering with T-Mobile to bring an established and successful model for mobile telephony to Britain. Details of the deal are sketchy a best, though the absence of a denial by Stelios Haji-Ioannou is seen as confirmation that a launch of EasyMobile is imminent.

EasyMobile is believed to be planning to implement a business model trialled in Denmark by Telmore. This model has proved so effective that average Danish call prices tumbled 50% to just €0.09, or 6p a minute. Additionally, Telmore success, which successfully captured over 10% of the market, prompted TDC, the former state-owned monopoly, to buy it out.

At the heart of the Telmore's model is an Internet-based package, which is capable of handling new customers, billing and customer service. There are no subscription charges, and call tariffs are kept attractively low.

EasyMobile is also expected to sell just SIM cards rather than entire phones, which will cut costs - subscribers will have to provide their own handsets. (SIM cards are smart cards that fit into the back of mobile phones.) Consequently, subscribers should add the price of a phone before judging the merits of its low-cost phone package.

In theory, EasyMobile will be targeting cost-conscious phone users, which could include students and cash-strapped consumers. There are probably enough subscribers that fit the bill for EasyMobile capture a good 10% of the market. This could therefore put severe pressure on rivals to lower charges, which are currently around 20p per minute.

It is unlikely that call charges will immediately fall to the levels seen in Denmark. However, EasyMobile will need to price its service at levels below that of, say, Tesco (LSE: TSCO) to attract users. Over time, though, there could be a gradual erosion of margins. This is obviously good news for consumers but perhaps less attractive for existing phone companies, who will be keen to quickly migrate users to more up-market services.

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David owns shares in Vodafone.