Sunday 8 February 2009

What Free (France) could do with a mobile licence

Chances are increasing that Free (the maverick DSL/Fibre Telco in France) could lay its hands on 5mhz of mobile spectrum (and maybe some more). Free's CEO Xavier Niel has promissed that he will drastically change the game for mobile calls and save the french consumer €1000 a year.

The French mobile incumbents must be worried as Free has changed the game in the French DSL market with its 30 euro pays all offer (and all literally means anything you can think of). Here are some ideas of what Free could/should offer that we are currently not seeing. (And yes you could also see this as my wishlist for mobile telco's)
  1. No data charges (30 euro pays for all data and calls to fixed and to international numbers)
  2. No SMS charges (He isn't charging for e-mails now is he?)
  3. Integration of fixed and mobile calling. Who sais you can't call a fixed number to reach a mobile number. 
  4. Integration of mobiles with online chat systems (MSN, Google chat, AIM etc)
  5. Integration of mobiles with Free's harddisk recorders for television. Hook your mobile up with the HDD-recorder.USB, Wifi, 3G don't care :-)
  6. Full integration of fixed and mobile networks: Piconets, DSL backhaul, FON-like Wifi access (hey Xavier, why don't you have FON-like wifi-access yet). If you're a customer, you can connect to my network
  7. Cheap pre pay SIMs for foreign roamers. Niel started with providing cheap calls :-) Cheap roaming is dependent upon the operator of the foreigner roaming in France and requires the EU to get a clue.
Something that won't change is mobile termination fees. Unless the regulator fixes it. High costs for calling to mobile will remain in France. It's such a nice free money earner :-)

Anything I've forgotten that Free, given its position on the Telecom Cool Wall, would need to implement?

2 comments:

  1. 6. FON-like Wifi access (hey Xavier, why don't you have FON-like wifi-access yet). If you're a customer, you can connect to my network => already done !
    There is a dedicated open SSID on Freeboxes to allow calls from Free customers through their SIP accounts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Isn't SIP only Voice? Or can I roam with my laptop?

    ReplyDelete

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