LONDON-In the second such European alliance aiming to gain power in numbers, nine second- and third-tier mobile operators joined forces in a new mobile alliance to provide seamless, enhanced voice and data solutions for businesses and consumers across the Continent.
MmO2, which operates in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany; Spain’s Amena; One of Austria; Hungary’s Pannon GSM; Sunrise of Switzerland; Norway’s Telenor Mobile; and Wind of Italy signed the agreement in Munich, Germany, on Tuesday.
The alliance aims to offer cross-border products and services, initially within the territories of its members, and cooperate on initiatives including technology, sourcing and sales. The group said customers will benefit from seamless GPRS and multimedia messaging services connectivity across the member networks, along with roaming and value-added services. As a next step, the operators plan to offer flat-rate price plans for voice and data services across the networks.
“With the exception of O2 and Telenor, the new alliance contains some of Europe’s smaller operators, while all of them have mature domestic markets,” said Eden Zoller, Ovum research director. “For operators like these that are outside of the biggest groups, there is a risk of being left behind-on roaming, on international services, and on device specification and purchasing power.”
Earlier this year, Telefonica Moviles of Spain, Telecom Italia Mobile, T-Mobile and Orange formed a similar alliance aimed at matching the scale of Vodafone Group plc, which has the largest mobile footprint across Europe and throughout the globe and has strong buying power for handsets and infrastructure.
