The Mercury One-2-One Ltd digital cellular joint venture between Cable & Wireless Plc and US West Inc has been talking to Reuters, and says it is not seeking to trigger a price war with Cellnet Mobile Communications Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc. We think the market’s pretty big, maybe 6m to 8m subscribers to cellular […]
The Mercury One-2-One Ltd digital cellular joint venture between Cable & Wireless Plc and US West Inc has been talking to Reuters, and says it is not seeking to trigger a price war with Cellnet Mobile Communications Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc. We think the market’s pretty big, maybe 6m to 8m subscribers to cellular and personal communications network services by the end of the decade, the company said. To start with, Mercury One-2-One, which launches in the summer with a big pitch to the mass market planned to start in the autumn, will be limited to the south east, but someone who is regularly out of London will have to use the existing cellular network, so cellular will always be able to charge a premium for that. Starting in Greater London, it aims to move into main south east population concentrations by early 1994 and its licence requires close to national coverage by 2000. The company believes there’s enough market for four operators, certainly enough for three and that two is not enough. One-2-One is also aiming at people who have never thought about owning a mobile phone because of the cost. Volume users should pay 30% to 40% less than on analogue cellular, lower-volume users will get three times as many minutes for the same price as cellular. Handsets will be have to offered at about UKP300 – way below the cost of making them to start with, until volumes bring the cost down – in order to make the service competitive with the cellular duopoly.The company insists that analysts’ worries that there will be a shortage of handsets is unfounded.
