“Scorched Earth” Telco strategy: the offers

Quick redux on the telco "Scorched Earth" strategy: in recognizing that voice minutes are a commodity with declining prices and margins, they are themselves proactively deflating the entire voice market to zero.

The technique that make this possible is bundling.

Telcos are combining in one price broadband internet with unlimited local + national voice (and in some cases, loads of digital radio and TV channels). The single price point is often around what consumers have been used to paying for broadband alone, so effectively it's like voice is being given away for free.

My previous post on telco Scorched Earthism was in context to the deadly danger it poses to Skype's business model.

In this post, I'd like to highlight some of the actual offers that are out there:

  • Free.fr (France) - 29,99 Euros/month for 20 meg ADSL, 100 TV channels, 24/7 free local + national voice calls.
  • Neuf.fr (France) - Same offer as Free, but without the TV
  • Jazztel.es (Spain) - 32.95 + VAT Euros/month for 6 meg ADSL (20 starting in October), 24/7 free local + national voice calls.
  • Ya.com (Spain) - 26.95 + VAT Euros/month for 2 meg ADSL, 24/7 free local + national voice calls

There are many others; I'll add to the list as I run into them again.

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