{"id":47509,"date":"2013-10-13T22:57:07","date_gmt":"2013-10-13T20:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=47509"},"modified":"2013-10-14T11:24:28","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T09:24:28","slug":"orange-a-fifth-mobile-operator-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/47509\/orange-a-fifth-mobile-operator-in-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange a fifth mobile operator in SA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orange Horizons, a unit of French-based mobile operator Orange<\/a>, says that if it had access to spectrum, it would become mobile network operator (MNO) “tomorrow”.<\/p>\n

In an interview with BusinessTech, Orange Horizons CEO, S\u00e9bastien Crozier<\/a> said that given the frequency, \u201cwe could enter the market as a real player,\u201d possibly through an agreement with an existing player to be on its network.<\/p>\n

Previously Orange has spoken about its intention to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator\u00a0<\/em>(MVNO), but has been critical of a lack of legislation covering that sector of the industry.<\/p>\n

In January, Orange\u00a0launched Orange Horizons as a subsidiary dedicated to seeking out new business opportunities in countries where the group is not already present as a mass-market telecommunications provider.<\/p>\n

The group already sells products in SA through its website, and has a business unit\u00a0serving high\u00a0profile\u00a0companies\u00a0in the mining, and\u00a0petroleum\u00a0industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have frequency, you are an MNO,\u201d Crozier said.<\/p>\n

He said that the company would launch “tomorrow” as an operator if it was awarded frequency. \u201cIf there is available frequency, then why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Frequency is the equivalent of a licence, Crozier said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always interested in becoming an MNO in a country where there is opportunity. We think that South Africa is a very interesting market.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that if the regulations were ready, and the prospect of becoming an MVNO was attractive, \u201cwe will be\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that Orange has asked to regulators to draw up new regulations for MVNOs. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy for South Africa to write up new regulations for MVNOs.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the failures and success of Virgin Mobile<\/a> as the country\u2019s only MVNO, Crozier said: \u201cVirgin is not a full MVNO. It\u2019s a kind of brand licence; maybe it\u2019s a bit more complex than that. It means, though, that they do not own the heart of their network.”<\/p>\n

Price<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOrange is not a low-cost brand, so we are not going to fight a war on price. We think that it\u2019s very important to bring to the consumer, more for the same price,\u201d Crozier said.<\/p>\n

He suggested that the company would offer innovative pricing models, rather than bringing down prices.<\/p>\n

He said that there were niche segments where the price was too high, the company would look at that, including SMS and roaming.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlobally, we don\u2019t think that there is a need for a price war to serve the needs of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Orange Horizons<\/h3>\n

Neotel spectrum belongs to the state<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Orange extends Nashua Mobile partnership<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nashua Mobile CEO on Orange potential<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We want to be a virtual operator in SA: Orange<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Orange teams up with Nashua: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orange Horizons, a unit of french based mobile operator Orange says that if it had access to spectrum, it would become mobile network operator (MNO) tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,5358,5007,5014],"class_list":["post-47509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mvno","tag-orange-horizons","tag-sebastien-crozier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47509"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47576,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47509\/revisions\/47576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}