Virtual operators untimely: voice call market has become a chicken

Since the recent introduction of the Ministry of Innovation, known as "virtual operators" of the reform program, up to now, a number of companies have said they will strive for "virtual operator" license, which includes three types of enterprises, retail chain enterprises, value-added services, E-commerce Enterprises, however, based on the understanding of some participating enterprises, the general enthusiasm is not high, The reason is that voice call has become "cabbage price", mobile communications resale business market prospects are not optimistic.

The choice of "chicken ribs"

According to the Ministry of Industry interpretation, mobile communications resale business is from the basic telecommunications operators with mobile networks to buy mobile communications services, repackaged into their own brands and sold to the end users of mobile communications services, and the circle is called the business license of the virtual operator, In fact, is to sell their own brand of mobile phone cards or SMS packets.

"At present some enterprises are preparing to participate, but the result of mutual inquiries is that the investment will not be too big, because the mobile phone card This retail market size is not large, not big enough to rob the three major operators of the rice bowl, it will eventually be pinched," a home appliance chain giant 3C director so revealed the current participation in the enterprise mentality. "

This mentality mainly stems from the market is not optimistic. According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Industry, the first quarter of this year, the National Mobile text message business volume 232.14 billion, the total number of SMS growth insignificant 0.5%; more let operators sad is, remove mass text messages, point to Point message volume down 10.9%, monthly point to Point message volume reached 52.6, year-on-year decline of 11.2 %。

The problem is also in the voice call market. According to China's first-quarter performance report in the first quarter of 2013, China Mobile's total call minutes were 1.0375 trillion minutes, up 3.9% from a year earlier, but the average number of minutes per subscriber calls was only 488 minutes, down 2.98%, in other words, Voice call income, which accounts for China Mobile's important revenue, is having a major problem, with per capita calls falling.

This is not the first time China Mobile has seen such a problem. The total number of subscribers to mobile phones in China reached 4.1923 trillion minutes in 2012, up 7.8% from the previous year. However, the Voice business 2012-year revenue of 368.025 billion yuan, a growth of only 1% last year.

In this case, if only by selling mobile phone cards and SMS packets, the future of virtual operators is certainly bad.

Untimely

It is reported that some of the companies to participate in the virtual operators to reform the mood negative, as some people say: "Do, may be laborious and no gain, do not, a rare opportunity to enter another field is a pity".

Others believe that the main virtual operator reform is untimely, if the change is 10 years ago, the virtual operators will earn a pot full.

September 2, 2005, a name "on the adjustment of some of the telecommunications business fee management mode of the notice issued, the pricing power of telecommunications charges entirely to the operator, marking the trend of telecommunications tariffs to market, and international practice, and then opened up the mobile phone charges comprehensive, fierce price war."

Since then, in the National ministry-led, mobile phone calls generally implemented one-way charges, such as long-distance telephone bill simplification, so that the tariff further down.

To 2011 years, when the chairman of China Mobile, Mr Wang admitted that the past operators have price elasticity, but now there is no price elasticity, the basic call fee to reduce the scope of less and less, that is, and then lower prices, also on this level of tariffs.

Yimin, general manager of China Unicom, has said that the past development of the telecommunications market can reflect the power of market economy in reform and opening-up. Prices have soared over the past decade, with most costs rising, while telecoms tariffs are falling at a rate of 10% per cent a year.

Coupled with micro-letter and other OTT business will be part of the voice communications market to the free market, the entire voice communication market is gradually squeezed dry, and then the virtual operators of the reform, even if issued a licence, also has little significance. If this reform was started 10 years ago, it is not impossible to produce a virtual operator today.

Lack of innovation

Globally, most of the virtual operators are unsuccessful, the main reason is the lack of innovation, mainly addicted to the price war, with lower tariffs to attract users, but a long time, it is difficult to support.

At present, there are more than 1100 mobile virtual operators worldwide, most of them are located in Europe, North America and other developed regions. Informa Telecoms & Media research shows that in 2011, the global total mobile virtual operators 105 million users, accounting for 1.8% of global mobile phone users, the company expects by 2015, The number of mobile subscribers to global virtual operators will reach 186 million, accounting for 2.6% of global mobile subscribers.

Mobile virtual operators in the United States officially launched in 1999, after three years of development of the user penetration rate reached 0.8%.

At the beginning of 2008, the number of virtual operators shrank sharply, and after the global enthusiasm for mobile virtual operations was released, some enterprises began to retire into a time when the remainder was king.

Hong Kong began 12 years ago, the introduction of virtual operators, the market price stirred up upside down to "cabbage prices," now all in a defunct.

Global virtual operators have been around for more than 10 years, with the result that only so little market share is chilling. Because in the mobile internet age, voice call market innovation also has little significance, because after all, the innovative mobile phone card is to charge, and micro-letter, such as OTT business directly is free, do not solve the OTT and other free internet call mode caused by such contradictions and conflicts, the virtual operator's reform prospects are unpredictable.

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)