The whole telecom industry is brewing some changes

Sina Technology Wang Ruohan

The entire telecom industry is brewing some changes: 4G commercial in-depth, tariff marketization, the tower company or will be established, the telecom business to increase, portability to expand the scope of the network, as well as the virtual operator number.

Long-term telecom market monopolized by the three major telecom operators, now ushered in dozens of private enterprises.

Through the limelight of World Telecommunication Day, Jingdong (Rolling Info), Gome, Suning and Di Xin Tong formally started the resale business of mobile communications and released the 170th segment exclusively for the virtual operators, marking the official scale of private capital entering the telecom market. The May, June is also the focus of these private enterprises to release the window number.

Into the virtual operator, for a time stirring a pool of spring water. What is the virtual operator? For consumers, good geometry? With these questions, sina science and technology this issue "big event" on the virtual operator business progress and problems for a brief review.

Virtual carrier

The virtual operator refers to the mobile communication service provider that leases the network, purchases the service, packs into the own brand, sells to the user from the telecom operator that has the mobile communication network, this business is also called the mobile communication resale business.

The concept of virtual operators has long existed. In 1999, Virgin Mobile's success in the United Kingdom started the banner of virtual operators. Then in the United States, Virgin Mobile copied the business again. In late 2003, Virgin Mobile had considered resale of mobile communications in the Chinese market, but eventually gave up due to concerns about policy risks.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China issued virtual operator licenses to 19 private-owned enterprises and provided 170 exclusive mobile phone numbers. These companies can rent the network to the three major carriers and sell to consumers business such as SMS, MMS, call and mobile data.

Currently 19 licensed private-owned enterprises are: Jingdong, Gome, Suning, Di ICT, Ai Sid, Tianyin, Music Language, Snail, Phone World, Bus Online, Sharing, Lianliankang Technology, Huaxiang Lianxin, Latitude Communication, Blog into, three five interconnection, far special, the Yangtze River era and the medium-term group.

Among them, the phone world, Jingdong, Suning and other sections 170 has been pre-opened and announced the tariff plan, Ali communications, Gome, music language, sharing, etc. released for the user base or segment introduced the brand concept.

According to media reports, China Mobile recently signed a mobile resale business agreement with 17 other companies, including Gome and Dr. Peng. The licenses are expected to be released this month.

The state passed the regulation of approving private capital to enter the telecom industry and tariff marketization, expecting to adjust the telecommunications market with the help of the "invisible hand" of the market. The virtual operators are stirring the telecommunications market, the industry placed "monopoly" expectations, activate the market competition, and forcing the three major carriers further restructuring.

As the state-owned three major telecom operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom take on the responsibility of building network infrastructures and provide users with mobile communications and broadband life services. However, they are still criticized by consumers on many issues such as hard-meal options, high tariffs, unclear flow of data and no data overruns.

Virtual operators can get rid of the monopoly of the three operators, out of their own way?

Business differentiation

The entry of virtual operators is expected to activate the telecommunications market in a "catfish effect." They can be active by customizing low fees, flexible package options and a variety of promotions.

From the current program announced, virtual operators do not intend to snatch users through the "price war", but have launched a combination of business strategy differentiated services to attract new users to access the network. Fu Liang, an independent telecom analyst, said the round of "grab user" wars or until the end of this year.

In this regard, Sina science and technology inventory of the public service section 170 virtual operators:

[Shopping Discount System]

Jingdong: It is now open 170 pre-sale, launched the e-commerce shopping offers. 1. Tariff: Voice 0.15 yuan / minute, traffic 0.15 yuan / megabyte, SMS 0.1 yuan / piece, service charge 10 yuan / month, long distance, local calls, roaming charges one, the call was called free. 2. Services: E-commerce with the Jingdong linked to push shopping concessions programs, including consumer shopping in Jingdong 2 yuan, giving 1 minute talk time.

Ali: Launched the "heart" brand and start the appointment number, the first family card only supports 2G, 3G networks, mainly in the flow of business as the core, open up Taobao, Alipay, cloud OS and other Ali business, the specific tariff and get through the form Still exploring.

Suning: Open the 170 pre-sale, take the subdivision area, the introduction of shopping and sports benefits. Internet card, including deposit and change PayPal to send mobile phones, video and other services without a cinema; members in stores and e-commerce shopping for a certain amount that is giving traffic; with the cooperation of enterprises and Barcelona, ​​the first batch of network users to draw tickets, traffic and other concessions.

[Own brand system]

States States: China Unicom and Telecom opened trial commercial network, launched a very letter brand. Targeted at families, young people and businesses were launched targeted "very home", "pole Shang Shang", "pole together" products. Among them, "pole home" to support multi-person sharing package, "pole · Shang" support free custom packages,

"Pole together" to support enterprises unified dominance business.

Le language: Launched virtual operator "second more" brand, focus on moving healthy population - in the sale of paragraph 170 tying health equipment, such as smart watches, blood glucose meters and blood pressure meters. Users can monitor and manage their health through smart hardware, which is available as a stand-alone purchase, call pickup, or deposit delivery.

Share: Announced the four major brands: "green", "set", "enjoy", "still", respectively, for education, business users, public users and fashion crowd. Among them, "enjoy" under the brand sub-brand "囍", for couples users. 2. Tariff: "188 unlimited unlimited" including unlimited talk time, 180 SMS and 3GB Internet traffic.

Chance and weakness

From the above inventory point of view, the fare price of the virtual operator does not have a great competitive advantage, but its cross-business and promotion activities to a certain extent, make up for the lack of price. Whether these differentiated services can eliminate user pain points to meet the needs remains to be tested.

So, whether the user still need to add a new number, how many new users to be networked?

According to research firm IDC survey data show that in 2013 smart phone sales up to 1 billion, while China is the world's largest smartphone market. Although growth is slowing, IDC predicts that China will also sell 420 million handsets in 2014.

From the data point of view, the smartphone market is not saturated, there will still be hundreds of millions of people need to add a new number or new network. Virtual operators will join the mobile communications market in a flexible and diversified business.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Industry announced the liberalization of all telecommunications tariffs, the implementation of market-oriented pricing. The policy stipulates that telecom companies can set their own tariff structure and billing methods, without going through strict administrative examination and approval, which aims to promote tariff reduction to a certain extent, which is good for the virtual operators.

Why virtual operators do not fight "price war", but the introduction of diversified and differentiated business?

However, the virtual carrier business is essentially buying services from the basic telecom operators through a certain discount. The virtual operator from the hands of the three major operators to buy services at a discount, a substantial price cuts also can not be said, personalized and differentiated services is the way to go.

Although virtual operators have their own brands, some enterprises can build their own billing system. However, at present, only China Unicom allows enterprises to set up self-built billing system, while China Telecom has not yet reached an agreement because China Telecom can not only rent an IT system interface.

If the virtual operators can build their own billing system, they can unpack the tariff packages, launch their own brands and packages, or they can only rent, package tariff design flexibility will be reduced.

At the same time, some virtual operators are currently facing the problem of open checks. According to reports, the "zero monthly rent, no package, the flow of two years not clear zero" as a selling point of the snail free to move, some users found in the booking business is not clear, and promised payment within three days of delivery , Renamed the delivery in early June.

Restricted by the rental network and billing systems and flexible pricing and provide services, which is the virtual weakness of virtual operators. When they promote their business, they often catch the user's "traffic is not clear," the pain point, but when subject to the billing system, but failed to fulfill its original promise.

Although the virtual operators have weaknesses, price action is not large, but to some extent activate the market competition, forcing the three major carriers further restructuring.

The three major carriers are currently facing the pressure of OTT business impact, number portability, camp change and virtual operator spoiler, but with the migration of communication technology to 4G, tariff rationalization is the crux of the problem. China Mobile recently announced that it will cut its 4G tariff substantially on June 1, with the data unit price drop of 50%.