Australian telecoms infrastructure provider Vocus has finally launched its own business-focused MVNO brand, Vocus Mobile.
Leveraging Optus’s 4G and 5G networks the company aims to position itself as a one-stop provider for enterprise communications, offering connectivity solutions across networking, collaboration and now mobility as it looks to stand out with a range of self-serve features to create a better user experience for its clients. Though will the entrance of another MVNO challenger selling basic mobile connectivity in an already crowded market make a difference?
The power of three
At launch, Vocus will offer three traditional types of mobile connectivity services, including Mobile Voice and Data for Smartphone use, 5G Data plan for Broadband and 4G Backup to support business continuity when primary networks are down.
Customers will be supported by its self-service mobile fleet management platform, Mobile Fleet 360, giving businesses the ability to manage their mobile fleets with near real-time dashboards, bulk activation of services and able to configure roaming settings, reducing the reliance on traditional support channels.
Vocus’s foray into the enterprise mobile services market is not surprising following on from its acquisition of TPG Telecom’s fibre network assets and its enterprise, government and wholesale (EGW) fixed infrastructure business.
Focus on Vocus
Brendan Swan, Senior Research Analyst at GlobalData said “The announcement of Vocus of entering the Australian enterprise mobile market comes as no surprise and has been anticipated for many years, with the company having a long-standing wholesale agreement with Optus through its consumer and SMB brands Dodo, iPrimus and Commander.
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By GlobalData“Back in 2019, the company announced that it had extended its agreement with Optus to include its various other brands to provide 5G access supporting its growth strategy to expand its presence and capture market share in large enterprise and SMB segments”. Said Swan.
The Australian mobile market has three mobile network operators, with Telstra maintaining its superior network leadership for many years, covering 95% of the country’s population with 5G connectivity and 99.7% of the population. 4G coverage, around 3 million km² land coverage almost three times the land coverage than its nearest rivals, Optus and TPG Telecom (owner of Vodafone in Australia) who formed a network sharing agreement earlier in the year to extending their reach to 98.4% of the Australian population (with more than 1 million km²) in efforts to compete against Telstra.
Telecommunications market remains in flux
While the Australian enterprise telecommunications market remains in flux, with many providers struggling to achieve growth and facing revenue declines across their connectivity portfolios.
“With Australia’s enterprise mobile market set for growth in the next four years, with GlobalData expecting the business mobile market to grow around 5%” Swan stated.
With service providers continuing to battle it out to grow their mobile market share, with the country now having three enterprise challenger brands including Aussie Broadband, Macquarie Telecom and now Vocus all leveraging Optus’s mobile network, all trying to break the incumbent’s stronghold of approx. 65% share of the business mobile market.
“All challengers are struggling to make a meaningful impact in the market. To date, all only offer basic mobile connectivity, instead of delivering outcome-driven solutions that enterprise customers increasingly expect, such as IoT, asset tracking, and other advanced 5G innovations like network slicing,” concluded Swan.
