You may have heard that the merger between Vodafone and 3 Mobile finally got the go ahead from the ACCC. What does it mean to the prepaid mobile market and generally to telecommunications?
I suppose the positives for the market is that with the two entities now combined they are a much bigger player when compared to both Optus and Telstra. This will give them more depth financially to be able to compete with them. It should also place greater pressure on both Optus and Tesltra and be more competitive with their pricing and prepaid mobile offers.
It should, it should. I said that a few times. The reality is that we shall have to wait and see in terms of greater competition. The reality is that there will also be some consolidation from a product perspective. Fewer products might make it easier for the consumer to chose between, it also can lead to lesser competition if all they do is remove products from the market because they clash. This inevitably will lead to a few product category gaps for other to exploit.
The hope is that as a combined entity with combined talents they can develop new and better products that are better priced and provide a real alternative to the prepaid mobile market. This goes for prepaid mobile plans, as well as the mobile broadband markets.
Since Optus took over Virgin Mobile, they have continued to use it as a vehicle for marketing to the very price sensitive market. Hopefully this will also occur with the Vodafone/3 Mobile merger.
Having one less player in the market will reduce competition to a degree as there will be less people involved and some less ideas being put into the market. Prepaid Plans, Prepaid iPhone and Gone Wireless all provide a very thorough review of both Vodafone’s and 3 Mobiles prepaid mobile and wireless Internet plans.
