1.1.Overview
Founded in 2004, Studentsphone is specialized in reselling Orange mobile services to International students staying in Barcelona and Madrid.
The company is registered with its official name “Mobiless S.L.” on the Mercantile Registro. With the CMT in Barcelona (www.cmt.es) which is the main regulation body for telecommunication services, it has a notification for reselling both mobile phone and landline services. Due to an insufficient margin and excessive operating expense however, it is no longer offering landline services to its clients and solely focuses on mobile phone services.
The original idea behind the business was to group and bring students together on the same network in order to save them money by giving them reduced calls between them without charging fees for doing this. Based on this idea the company’s core business is to take mobile phone services provided by Orange and recompose them specifically for International students. In contrast to a mobile network operator such as Orange, Studentsphone does not possess an own network but rather resells wireless services under its own brand, setting its own tariff structure. In addition it runs its own billing, marketing solutions and customer care up to a certain degree as illustrated in figure 1.
The decision to resell particularly Orange is based on two criteria. First of all, Studentsphone is seeking optimal network coverage for its specific target group that is International students. Secondly it is choosing the operator that offers the greatest discounts to make the business profitable. Even though Studentsphone purchases 100% of its mobile phone services from Orange, obviously the company is by no means obliged to only buy from one network provider. In the past it already experimented with services provided by Vodafone. Last year (2007) Studentsphone spend €400.000 with Orange.
1.1.Mission and objectives
Studentsphone’s mission is to bring the top provider’s service to International students spending either a short or long period of time away from home in Spain. Studentsphone is above all emphasizing the money its clients can save and its friendly and above all personal service.
Studentsphone’s objective can be summarized as providing the simplest and most competitive mobile phone solution for International students living in Spain. As the owner is highly pleased with the present situation, he does not aim for any further growth but rather wants to maintain his current position. His attitude is strengthened by the belief that his current market has reached saturation.…