Constanza launches ten, a new French MVNO
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He was kind enough to invite about 20 of us, bloggers, to lunch today at 'Mood', a fancy restaurant off the Champs Elysées.
In this clip, you can listen to his pitch. I won't go into the details of the offering, you can read it elsewhere or watch the clip.
But my take on this venture might be of interest:
* back in 2004, I was working at Time Warner, as head of mobile strategy for AOL Europe, looking very closely at the opportunity of launching an MVNO.
* I believe Jean-Louis has a winner in terms of market positionning: almost 2 years ago I wrote that my 2 favourite mobile applications were mobile IM, and mobile email. I still haven't seen them launch massively in the marketplace because of old school walled garden strategies, and TEN is doing it now.
* TEN is focusing on simplifying the market offering with simple products: that was the strategy adopted by Virgin Mobile in the US, with fantastic success.
* JL COnstanza has a great track record at building cost-effective businesses with a huge track record in direct sales, while he was at Tele2. No doubt on his execution skills.
My only doubts are :
* he is betting on 3 market phones, targeting 3 market segments. I would either go very mainstream and support whatever is out there with an entra layer (bluestreak, streamezzo, surfkitchen... can help here), or design his own ad hoc phone with the likes of ModeLabs. Virgin Mobile UK decided to go to makret without any phone. That might be a good strategy, as the phone subsidy is a huge cost. Nevertheless as there aren't that many good devices for mobile texting / emailing / chatting (just as the hiptop), I would maybe focus on those phones only for subsidy, and let users come in with their own phones if they want.
* he is still not offering a flat rate data plan, as he doesn't yet have the right agreements it seems with host carrier, ORange. I would urge TEN to go full speed on becoming the market leader in mobile Internet, offering flat rate web surfing, and even flat rate internet everything. TEN already has its own APN, and that is an achievement.
All in all, this is a very ambitious play with 15m users as the initial goal in France, and for me - a geek - he is 100% in the bull's eye.
