I've just seen that FT/Orange France has announced a new brand/proposition called Sosh, aimed at "hyper-connected" youth segment, majoring heavily on data and bundled SMS.
I'm a bit confused by the press release though - it's not obvious that the 2-hour, 5-hour or 24/7 product names refer to telephony minutes, or data time allowed online. There is a reference to "All of the Sosh offers are commitment-free, and they give users access to all of their content and digital services, including social networks, videos, e-mail, internet and VoIP." ... but I'm not sure how that squares with 2/5 hours. It would be bizarre if you could use Facebook and Twitter for 2 hours a day, as it's not clear how long a "session" lasts, especially if you've got a background app open on a phone sending keep-alives.
On the other hand, €20 a month sounds quite a lot for a 500MB/120 mins plan that doesn't include a handset, even if it does allow you to use VoIP and Orange's WiFi hotspots. Same for the 1GB/300mins for €40 plan.
Interestingly, handsets *are* available, bought separately, and with 12/24 month payment plans. That's very interesting as it fits in with some earlier posts of mine about the accountancy grey-zone of handset subsidy/loan repayments being counted as part of ARPU.
The press release also has logos from Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, as well as Orange's 50%-owned Dailymotion videp service. It's not clear if these are official endorsements, if there are commercial agreements in place, special content/deals/pricing or anything else.
Overall, it's all a bit confusing - possibly because there's less English-language info published about what is initially a France-only service. Hopefully, we'll get some clarity on this soon.
Edit: mystery solved. Apparently French mobile operators often quote talk-time in hours and not minutes. Still seems weird that they're calling Sosh a proposition for hyper-connected, social-networked youth, and still using voice as the primary way of segmenting the pricing tiers.
I'm a bit confused by the press release though - it's not obvious that the 2-hour, 5-hour or 24/7 product names refer to telephony minutes, or data time allowed online. There is a reference to "All of the Sosh offers are commitment-free, and they give users access to all of their content and digital services, including social networks, videos, e-mail, internet and VoIP." ... but I'm not sure how that squares with 2/5 hours. It would be bizarre if you could use Facebook and Twitter for 2 hours a day, as it's not clear how long a "session" lasts, especially if you've got a background app open on a phone sending keep-alives.
On the other hand, €20 a month sounds quite a lot for a 500MB/120 mins plan that doesn't include a handset, even if it does allow you to use VoIP and Orange's WiFi hotspots. Same for the 1GB/300mins for €40 plan.
Interestingly, handsets *are* available, bought separately, and with 12/24 month payment plans. That's very interesting as it fits in with some earlier posts of mine about the accountancy grey-zone of handset subsidy/loan repayments being counted as part of ARPU.
The press release also has logos from Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, as well as Orange's 50%-owned Dailymotion videp service. It's not clear if these are official endorsements, if there are commercial agreements in place, special content/deals/pricing or anything else.
Overall, it's all a bit confusing - possibly because there's less English-language info published about what is initially a France-only service. Hopefully, we'll get some clarity on this soon.
Edit: mystery solved. Apparently French mobile operators often quote talk-time in hours and not minutes. Still seems weird that they're calling Sosh a proposition for hyper-connected, social-networked youth, and still using voice as the primary way of segmenting the pricing tiers.
Please bear in mind that mobile plans are quite expensive in France, compared to the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe Sosh (And B&You offering from Bouygues Telecom) are set to prevent customers to flee to the upcoming 'Free mobile' MNO (To be launched in Jan 2012: Free is a successulf ISP targeting digital natives)
Sosh and ByTel are targeting the very same segment, but have wrapped their offers as Youth-friendly.
The price points are lower than the ones offered by premium brand plans, Sosh plans are replicating traditional plans, but when simple tiers and buckets of data.
B&You is replicating ByTel Neo plans with so called 'unlimited' calls, but offering's price points are among the lowest in the french market