Friendly run or fierce race?
It is going to be two new plus two old mobile service providers in the country very soon but will it add up perfectly for the calculative end user? We will find that out very soon, says Visvas Paul D Karra

It was only in June of last year that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman granted Class II licenses to five companies to operate as resellers of basic mobile services. Injaz International, Kalam Telecommunications, Majan Telecommunication (Renna), Mazoon Mobile and FRiENDi mobile were the five companies. Since then, it was only FRiENDi mobile and Renna who have showed signs of activity sending a signal to mobile users that more choices are in the offing.

On March 3, FRiENDi mobile invited people to pre-book their preferred mobile number free of charge. You could get the number of your choice be it your car number or your birthdate or even your name. And there was no limit on the numbers you could book. Both Renna and FRiENDi mobile are waiting for the nod from Oman Mobile, their host operator and the TRA to begin operations.

Positive signs
Since launching its free booking of preferred numbers, FRiENDi mobile was overwhelmed with responses both online and offline, insomuch that the servers of FRiENDi mobile slowed down extensively calling for internet capacity augmentation to cope up.

Antti Arponen, CEO of FRiENDi mobile disclosed that the slowing down of the FRiENDi mobile website is a positive thing because it shows how people are eager for a new mobile service. “I used to walk into my office at 6.30 am and find that around 3,500 people are trying to log in to the website to book a number. It was only a gut feeling before but now it is true. It was four years ago that Nawras had launched its services and people needed something new,” Arponen said.

“FRiENDi mobile has become the first ever mobile operator in Oman to allow customers to pre-book their numbers. The company could just have gone ahead and announced that their SIM cards are ready for sale at the customer outlets. But we did the extra thing and this is how we will differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” says Arponen.

As for Renna, it seems that it is not unduly worried over the developments in the market as they know their target group. Renna’s branding and advertising strategy is ready, the SIM cards and recharge cards have already been placed at over 250 exclusive outlets, the signboards are being put up at all the dealer shops and the distributor network is ready to go.

“Even our offer prices have been finalised and our SIM card prices have already been printed. We are just waiting for a go ahead from our host operator and TRA. We are actually in the middle of training our sales and customer-relations staff,” disclosed Niklas Nielsen, CEO of Renna when Oman Economic Review caught up with him.

“After several months of preparation, it is fascinating to see our own operator logo ‘Renna’ in the mobile phone display. Our Chairman Ahmed bin Saif Al Rawahi made the first call on Renna’s own systems which is a milestone and a truly memorable moment in the company’s history,” Nielsen said.

Competition
Out of the two incumbents, Oman Mobile and Nawras, the former is a host operator for both FRiENDi mobile and Renna. This leaves Nawras as the only significant challenge for the new players. Says Arponen: “FRiENDi mobile has no hidden agenda of stealing anyone’s customers. All those who have booked their numbers with us are new customers to us, regardless of their past history. At some stage people will say they have enough mobile providers to select from, but nothing at the moment provides any notice to say that consumers think they have enough already.”

Nielsen says that it is more a matter of choice and a time will come when people will talk in terms of how many SIM cards a person owns rather than which SIM cards. “Hopefully, consumers will have more choices. But with our value added services and our slogan of being easy, economical and efficient, we hope to be seen light on the wallet and draw our target audience to us,” says Nielsen.

Price or service war?
The general market opinion is that it will ultimately boil down to a price war between FRiENDi mobile, Renna and Nawras with the new operators expectedly announcing lower call rates than the existing prices.

“We are not here to start a price war but price ofcourse is an element but not the only element in our strategy. We do expect the per minute rates to go down. International call charges will also drop. We see more bundle offers and in the future you may even have VoIP. But at the moment, we will try to target customers who are not the core segment of our host operator. Along with attractive prices, we will draw customers with our value added services,” Nielsen says.

Arponen calls it a pricing structure rather than a price war while saying that it will not do Nawras or somebody else for that matter any good to re-position their whole business just to match FRiENDi mobile’s call rates and services. “Not everyone wants to be a FRiENDi mobile customer because only certain segments will see FRiENDi mobile as a better fit. We are not for the corporate customers, for example,” declares Arponen.

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