Succeeding plans for a two-year network expansion project, Mercury One 2 One intends to launch a multimillion dollar marketing and advertising campaign today aimed at new customers, with three flagship calling packages the company said deliver “the lowest running costs of any mobile phone service available.”
An equally owned Cable & Wireless plc and U S West Inc. joint venture, London-based Mercury One 2 One also plans to introduce a “service only” approach to sales, said Richard Goswell, One 2 One managing director, whereby handsets and calling plans are sold separately.
“Today we move further ahead of the industry by offering `phones for people,’*” noted Goswell, “rather than pigeon-holing customers as either `business’ or `consumer’ users.”
“When One 2 One launched two years ago, a mass market for mobile didn’t exist,” said Alan Thompson, director of communications for U S West International in London. “One 2 One created that market,” he continued. “Now the market is open, there is huge demand and instead of looking at the price of phones, people are now looking at running costs.”
Running costs include airtime and monthly fees. Thompson said One 2 One’s new calling plans feature lower running costs than its existing plans and the comparable plans of cellular competitors Vodafone plc and CellNet.
The Bronze, Silver and Gold packages replace PersonalCall, StandardCall and BusinessCall. Sales of the previous calling plans were scheduled to end Sept. 17, but current customers can continue with those tariffs, noted Thompson.
Each new plan features free local calls on weekends, per-second billing, off-peak national and local call charges at 5 pence, or about 8 cents per minute, peak-rate charges starting at about 23 cents per minute, off-peak hours beginning at 6 p.m. and voice messaging. Silver and Gold subscribers can make calls to other One 2 One customers for 8 cents per minute anytime and receive built-in voice messaging including free message retrieval with their monthly fee.
An upgrade of PersonalCall, the Bronze service is an occasional use plan including the basic package services and aimed at first-time buyers. It costs about $23.50 per month. In a Mercury One 2 One study of 1,000 people planning to purchase a mobile phone, the Bronze package was found to be twice as attractive as any other package on the market, said Thompson.
For about $39 per month, the Silver plan offers all of the previously mentioned features plus built-in voice messaging, a feature currently available and successful with BusinessCall, he added.
Gold service, which runs $55 per month is an entirely new idea that offers the greatest amount of features, including voice messaging, and allows customers to use their handset as a fixed line phone as well. Gold customers save over British Telecom prices, between 10 and 15 percent on local fixed line calls and about 10 percent on fixed line or mobile international calls, declared Thompson.
To note, the prices quoted exclude value-added tax, which is about 17.5 percent and reflect the current exchange rate in which one British pound equals about $1.55.
It’s no surprise One 2 One is tailoring service to meet growing and differing consumer demands, but the company has implemented a new way of selling to capture first-time mobile customers. Mobile service will be sold separately from handsets.
“As new phones come out customers will want to upgrade with minimum fuss, or get into the market for the first time by buying a lower priced second-hand phone,” commented Goswell. Users will purchase their desired calling plans using SmartCards.
One 2 One began service on its personal communications network in September 1993, and claimed 300,000 customers and 7 percent of the national phone market in the United Kingdom earlier this month. One 2 One offers both voice and data service and is responsible for 27 percent of new mobile phone sales in the South East/West Midlands area, said the company.
