Sonera has launched its SMS portal Zed in the UK with Vodafone.
Finnish telco Sonera has launched its mobile information service, Zed, in the UK. Zed is available to all 11.7 million customers on Vodafone’s UK network, with the revenues split between Vodafone and Sonera. At first sight, it looks like a strange move for Vodafone, since it already has its own global mPortal in alliance with Vivendi, Vizzavi. Vodafone’s web-enabled devices default to the Vizzavi site, which substantially boosts the portal’s traffic.
However, Zed operates on a different model from Vizzavi. Instead of being a portal for web-enabled mobile devices, Zed is based on the SMS text-messaging standard. Users send a text message from their Vodafone phone to a certain number with a particular keyword in the message; Zed sends them a text message with the information they require.
This has various advantages. Users are skeptical about using WAP devices – less than 10% of Vodafone’s UK customers currently have a WAP phone – so a universal service has a higher potential customer base. The revenue streams from Zed are also much more immediate than those from conventional mPortals: Vodafone and Sonera get paid whenever a user sends a request. In addition, offering SMS services while advanced wireless Internet services are being developed and next generation networks rolled out will prepare users for the full experience, once it is truly available.
However, it will be interesting to see what happens in the long run. In Finland, Zed is already an mPortal as well as an SMS service. So will Vodafone’s UK users migrate to Vizzavi or Zed? Vodafone has bridged the technology gap, but that comes with a cost – the risk of being outperformed by its ally going forward. Sonera is one of the most advanced mPortals worldwide and is among the few who has already piloted wireless multimedia trials. With improved navigation possibilities in the future, users are only likely to be loyal to Vodafone if Vizzavi can keep up with Sonera’s pace in providing exciting mobile content.
