the UK mobile market is different in so many ways from the market in north america. notably, you very rarely see marketing for "5000 anytime minutes" or any marketing regarding minutes at all. residents seem to go with the voice service that that has the best coverage at home, office, and on the tube - and differentiation is offered via the data services available. voice is just a commodity, and the coverage map is what it is, improved as much as possible over time.
it doesn't really surprise me that vodafone and orange have chosen for now to get into the wi-fi game by partnering up with BT as a way to get their subs access to wi-fi. this means they see wi-fi as a commodity for their subs and not a differentiator - and allows voda and orange to concentrate more on differentiating their 2.75/3G data offerings they'll certainly be launching in the near future.
i think rob price of t-mobile has a point though - offering premium wi-fi access at carefully planned business meeting spots might be a better strategy than offering it places where lower bandwidth access on the mobile will suffice, especially in a geographically concentrated area like london.
at any rate, it's fun watching this market develop!
Posted by Steve at September 30, 2003 12:34 PM | TrackBack