Free WiFi battle of the three hottest operators

Free WiFi battle of the three major operators

after the Asian Games in 2010, the three major telecom operators showed their skills again in the WiFi market in Guangdong

on April 13, Guangdong Telecom announced that during the Shenzhen Universiade from May 1 to September 30, 2011, Guangdong Telecom Tianyi and broadband users can use WiFi for free, while its fixed line, PHS, non Guangdong Tianyi users, and other operators can also use WiFi for 10 hours a month

before that, Guangdong Mobile and Guangdong Unicom also launched free WiFi services respectively. Among them, Guangdong Unicom extended the WiFi friendly experience activity started at the beginning of the year from March 31 to August 31 this year; Guangdong Mobile also announced that it will implement a year-round WiFi free policy for its eight global connect package customers

free WiFi in Guangdong

in early April, the three major operators launched a free WiFi war in Guangdong, which was quite competitive

unlike the other two major operators, Guangdong Telecom has begun to expand the target of potential WiFi users to the users of China Mobile and China Unicom. According to Chen Zhu, head of WiFi business in the marketing department of Guangdong Telecom, "this is not a response to the promotion of competitors, nor is it a corner digging. Guangdong Telecom is just to enable potential users of WiFi business to be activated for free."

however, the free WiFi strategies of the three major operators have their own starting points. From the perspective of the mobile communication market in Guangdong Province, the preferential object of Guangdong Mobile is its high-end GSM users. Like the previously launched call delivery fee, mobile is to stabilize the high-end GSM users so as not to be dragged away by the 3G package model of Unicom "wo3g" and Telecom "Tianyi"

at the end of last year, Guangdong Unicom launched postpaid users here to tell you where their main differences are to carry out WLAN friendly experience activities. The original plan was to extend this free WiFi experience to August 31, 2011 as of March 31, 2011

however, among the three major operators, only Telecom WiFi is targeted at the widest range of users, but the most preferential users are Tianyi 3G and broadband users, so the main purpose of promoting free WiFi is still to attract more people to use Tianyi 3G and wireless broadband

"what we make internally is the Bundling Strategy of c+w (cdma2000+wifi)." Chen Zhu told this newspaper, "in fact, before, Guangdong Telecom gave 30 hours of free WiFi per month to Tianyi users, and the time limit was cancelled during the Universiade promotion from May to September this year. The core of the activity is still to drive the rapid growth of 3G users."

it is worth noting that this time, Guangdong Telecom targeted free WiFi coverage at non Guangdong Tianyi users and other operators for the first time, and the free time given during the Universiade promotion was extended to 10 hours from the previous 2 hours. In this regard, Chen Zhu explained, "this is mainly to revitalize the WiFi network resources of telecommunications."

up to now, Guangdong Telecom has invested more than 100 million yuan to build more than 10000 WiFi hotspots, while the number of APS has reached more than 30000. At present, it is still in a relatively leading position in Guangdong Province, but the number of active users before is too small, which leads to a large number of WiFi network resources idle. At the same time, 3G broadband resources are relatively crowded, and free WiFi can divert the pressure of some 3G networks

in fact, during the Asian Games last year, Guangdong Telecom once opened the WiFi network of the whole city to Guangzhou citizens for free. According to Chen Zhu, at that time, the number of active WiFi users of Telecom (used more than once a month) increased rapidly from more than 20000 to 150000. After the Asian Games, with the cessation of free WiFi business, its active users fell to about 60000. Guangdong Telecom hopes to increase the number of active users to more than 200000 through this promotion to the end of the year

exploration of joint construction and sharing

"Guangdong Telecom plans to invest nearly 100 million yuan in 2011 to add 10000 APS." Chen Zhu said

in addition to the completely self built model, radio, television and telecommunications have begun to explore WiFi socialized sharing and co construction. On the one hand, with the help of the wireless city plan proposed by local and municipal governments, they use government resources to reduce the pressure of their own investment; On the other hand, we will explore the way of cooperation and joint venture with some commercial real estate developers and owners to build WiFi hotspots

"for example, the cost of building a WiFi access point in McDonald's may be only 10000 yuan, but relying on this value-added service, many McDonald's restaurant customers have increased significantly." Chen Zhu said that in the future, Telecom will also consider the way to cooperate with these places and commercial building developers when deploying WiFi. Telecom is responsible for providing high bandwidth access to optical fiber, while buildings can provide companies and customers who settle in for free

he also said, "we can talk about whether these commercial buildings can share the benefits brought by free WiFi, but for Telecom, it is necessary to layout WiFi in commercial buildings in advance, because who has more hotspots and APS will occupy a favorable position in the commercial operation of WiFi in the future."

Guangdong Mobile, which has more abundant financial resources, has greater WiFi investment. "On the one hand, mobile has no broadband users, and its TD network is slow. We hope to build a WiFi network to make up for the shortcomings of TD network." A person in the telecommunications industry told, "in fact, since 2010, the speed of mobile wifi construction has been faster than that of telecommunications. It is expected that by the end of 2011, the number of mobile wifi hotspots in Guangdong will exceed that of telecommunications."

during the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Guangdong Mobile invested more than 40million yuan to open more than 10000 WLAN hotspots in the host city of the Asian Games in the province and the Greenway in the Pearl River Delta region. In 2011, Guangdong Mobile will add 20000 WLAN wireless access points in 21 cities across the province

free next step

from the current promotional content of the three major operators and the comparison of active users before and after the Asian Games, free is still the fastest way to grow WiFi users

in fact, the problem of profit model has always been the key to the skepticism of the outside world about WiFi operation. The WiFi business of telecom operators was previously more a follow-up role of the "wireless city" plan of local governments. In addition, there are also concerns that the investment and free promotion of WiFi networks by operators may have an impact on wired broadband ADSL, 3G and other wireless broadband services

"in fact, the layout of our WiFi hotspots is very exquisite. We will consider airports, hotels and commercial buildings where immigrants and business people are concentrated. These experiments can no longer be completed by ordinary rubber tensile testing machines, and there are no plans for the layout of small residential areas dominated by local people for the time being." Chen Zhu said that in this way, WiFi has no impact on wired broadband. At present, WiFi mainly provides high-speed wireless services in local areas, while 3G broadband can provide the needs of anytime and anywhere, so the two are complementary

he also said, "in fact, telecom WiFi targets mainly two types of customers, one is the people who use intelligent communication terminals, and the other is the people who use Shangben, iPad and other frequent business trips, so it will not form a crowd conflict with the 1000 high-end talents cultivated and introduced by wired and wireless 3G broadband services."

of course, for Telecom, due to its large number of wired broadband and 3G wireless broadband users, the speed of its investment in WiFi business has been relatively slow in recent years, a person from Guangzhou mobile general department pointed out, "For Telecom, the enthusiasm of building WiFi is far less than that of Developing 3G. On the one hand, WiFi is difficult to form its own profit model in the short term, on the other hand, its internal friction with the original broadband business is inevitable."

can WiFi business bring more data services and achieve independent profits in the future? In this regard, Chen Zhu said, "at present, Telecom has launched five kinds of WiFi time cards (5 yuan, 5 hours, 50 yuan, 100 hours, etc.) in many business halls and outlets. We are also considering making physical cards, but it is difficult to predict the growth prospects of this market."

"we hope to realize WiFi charging in oneortwo years. For example, after providing free WiFi for a certain length of time, we can charge fees for more than a certain length of time." Chen Zhu said that considering the tortuous strength retention rate of flame-retardant PP and flame-retardant ABS after aging in Figure 1, compared with the situation that many active users stopped using it immediately after the free WiFi meal of the Asian Games, it is believed that there will be a long transition period for WiFi charging. 21st Century Business Herald