Influx

The UK’s Easy Group is getting ready to launch a new wireless service and it’s not wireless as usual. EasyMobile will function as a virtual company that will only sell SIM cards and airtime that it buys in bulk. It won’t give away free phones, has no towers and can pass all the cost savings on to customers. Its core selling points will be customer service and transparent pricing.

EasyMobile is a partnership with Denmark’s CDC who together with Telmore transformed the Danish wireless marketplace. In just three years, Telmore achieved an 11% market share. Its success was due to low prices, simple tarrifs and a charismatic CEO. Easy has all three of these criteria and looks poised to create waves in the UK. It’s already gotten a reaction from Virgin’s Richard Branson, who predictably believes the venture will fail.

Easymobile.com

What about an EasyMobile type company in the USA? Not from the existing players, suggests Steve Yarrow in his Brand Cafe column. Yarrow believes it’s unlikely because of the organizational mentality of the wireless industry in the US which he says is unfeeling and set up to take advantage of customers who are forced to tolerate the treatment because of contracts.

Brand Cafe Article

However, Sprint, with its new transparent and ‘fair’ pricing plans and positioning, is starting to show signs that it is organizing its brand around valuing its customers. Perhaps there’s also a brand thinking about entering the category as an MVNO, interested in the opportunity of becoming the SouthWest or JetBlue of wireless.