Friendi’s friendly services
Antti Arponen, CEO, Friendi Mobile, who has nearly 12 years of international experience in the telecommunications field, speaks to Visvas Paul D Karra of OER about global trends which are contributing to an exciting mobile telephony market

Towards the end of June, the Telecom Regulatory Authority granted Class II licences to five companies as resellers of basic mobile services in the Sultanate. Of these five, Friendi Mobile has been the first to announce its services. The opening up of the mobile telephony market means it is boom time for customers as they will have numerous choices and many alternatives, says Antti Arponen, CEO, Friendi Mobile.

“The Sultanate has an excellent telecom infrastructure. Now you just need to provide enough alternatives for the consumer. In Oman there are now only two providers, I think the correct number should be many more. I am not saying this from a competitive perspective but I am just thinking that a customer needs to have more options,” says Arponen.

Expectations are always high from a new mobile service provider but Arponen has hinted that Friendi Mobile has a few aces in its SIM card. Price is the uppermost thing on most people’s mind but Arponen thinks otherwise. “People say prices will be lowered but we say that it needs to be more relevant. You don’t pay for things you don’t need. Pricing is important and, yes, it should be lower for the elements you need but it does not mean that a new mobile provider will slash all the prices because that is not even beneficial for the consumers.”

Friendi Mobile is also planning to reach out to customers who actually don’t have a mobile subscription. “These people expect certain things. We have interviewed a lot of them and know their needs. We definitely have an attractive package for them. And also, we need to be where the consumer is,” informs Arponen.

Industry veteran
With a mobile technology and a business management degree in hand, Arponen has helped mobile telephone companies in establishing operations in North America, Asia and Europe. Peronsally, he has been in 12 different countries. Presently, Friendi Mobile is in the process of setting up operations in 16 Middle East and North Africa countries and Oman is the first of the lot. On the technical quality of Friendi’s coverage in Oman, he discloses that Friendi Mobile has been busy since the past two years, setting up a technology that is being currently used by 130 million customers worldwide, so it’s “battle-proven” high quality.

“We will introduce many things in Oman. For me personally it will be interesting and good fun to see how this market develops in the next two years,” says Arponen, who prefers to call himself as a person who introduces something that consumers appreciate everyday, of course in a financial okay manner. According to him, usability and simplicity are two ways in which a mobile company can make itself attractive. It is more about usability and less about technology which is constantly changing.

A product also has to be easily available to a customer. The other element is the pricing which has to be simple enough to let the customer know what he is going to get. And moreover, a mobile service provider needs to have customer service that can solve problems without a customer having to go to a physical outlet.

Friendi is following a successful business model known as Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) in all the countries except Oman. The MVNO model is quite clearly an international trend. First there is a monopoly when they build the first network. Then in the next phase, they build another or even a third network and that has happened in Oman as well. This is capacity building. Then the third phase is where companies like Friendi enter bringing more options and more choices for the consumer. The technology is working; there is enough capacity and now what one needs are the options.

Arponen further explains: “In countries like Netherlands, the banks are MVNOs themselves. Obviously there are the big operators who own the network infrastructure in Netherlands, Germany and in most countries in Europe. These biggies realise that they don’t have the resources to create a small theme for every small segment. So they open the network to other providers so you can go and serve your football club or anyone else. It is extremely exciting for the consumers and it is extremely exciting for the network operators.. They have the major customer base and for the smaller parts they use somebody else.”

The lanky Arponen, a national of Finland, has lived and worked in London, Finland and just before coming to Oman, in Amsterdam over a period of 12 years during which time he was involved in establishing and managing mobile services for consumers in highly competitive markets.

The Netherlands, says Arponen, is an advanced market because although The Netherlands is a fairly small European country it has an estimated 60 mobile service providers. In that country, the banks are mobile service providers themselves; the football clubs have something for them; then there are certain services for the kids. There is yet another mobile service provider, whose profits go to a charity in Africa. Phew!

Constant change
Speaking about other innovative changes in the telecom industry, Arponen says: “I think most people would say that the changes have come in the features, technology, services and so on, but for me the biggest change is when people understand that even though a mobile phone or prepaid card is a high tech product, it needs to be simple and it needs to work. Nobody considers an aspirin as a high tech product but actually it is. In the past 10 years the mobile industry has changed from engineering to consumer understanding.” Arponen also feels that simplicity can take many different forms and usability.

“In some markets you can just go and buy a SIM card from a vending machine. In Oman, mobile telephony is still in the phase where you need to think about whether to make a call in the morning, evening or in the weekends. On the other extreme in some countries, and I am not saying it will necessary happen in Oman, there is a facility where you pay a certain amount and eat all you can and not worry about anything. It is as simple as that and I think that is the major development,” Arponen points out.

In Arponen’s personal opinion, the innovations come in usability. Earlier, if you wanted to acquire a mobile phone service, you had to apply for a subscription, then wait for it. Usability is not about how to use a SIM card. It starts from an advertisement which clearly. The next stage is where you are going to buy it from. It must be from a place near you, not 200 kms away.

Meanwhile, the Middle East, particularly the Gulf region, is a high growth region for the mobile telephony and Friendi has walked in with the promise of a new experience.
 

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