tele.ring
tele.ring was an Austrian mobile communications brand from the telecommunications company Magenta Telekom , known as T-Mobile Austria until spring 2019. The brand was discontinued on March 23, 2020.
history
tele.ring was founded in 1997 by the largest Austrian electricity company, Verbund , the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and the Graz municipal utility holding Citykom Austria as a landline and internet provider. In 1998, Mannesmann Mobilfunk took part in the company. With the acquisition of the cell phone license, Mannesmann Mobilfunk wanted to offer its own customers the possibility of a network in Austria. Mannesmann pursued the goal of becoming a Central European provider (Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary).
At the end of 2000, Mannesmann - now part of the Vodafone Group itself - took over 100% of the shares in tele.ring. Due to Vodafone's strategic goal of always being either the largest or the second largest mobile operator in a country, tele.ring was sold on to the US group Western Wireless International, a subsidiary of Western Wireless , in 2001 for a symbolic amount of ten euros . Tele.ring was completely excused. The UMTS license was later transferred for another symbolic euro.
In mid-2005, Western Wireless was taken over by the US telecommunications company Alltel . Alltel wanted to sell all international Western Wireless subsidiaries - including tele.ring. The political controversy surrounding the introduction of a transmission system fee on cell phone masts in Lower Austria is said to have delayed sales, and non-binding bids are said to have reached 1.5 billion euros. At the beginning of August 2005, Alltel and T-Mobile Austria agreed to sell tele.ring for around 1.3 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars).
The workforce and employee representatives were initially against the sale. After the tele.ring owners had promised special payments for the tele.ring employees and T-Mobile had given an employment guarantee until the end of June 2006, the workforce refrained from a strike.
On August 4, 2005, T-Mobile International officially approved the purchase of tele.ring, and the purchase contracts were signed on August 10, 2005. After approval by the EU antitrust authorities and the Austrian regulatory authority, T-Mobile Austria and tele.ring merged on April 28, 2006. The brand name tele.ring was continued. T-Mobile had the takeover cost just under 1,300 euros per tele.ring mobile phone customer.
In February 2007 the tele.ring GSM network was partially shut down. In many places the former tele.ring network with the network identifier 232-07 could no longer be received with the cell phone. Instead, some of the end devices now had to be logged into the T-Mobile network manually.
According to T-Mobile, redundant transmission systems from tele.ring were dismantled and others were gradually integrated into the T-Mobile network. The LTE mobile network from tele.ring has been integrated into the T-Mobile network since the takeover, the UMTS network was switched off at the end of August 2006. tele.ring customers used the network infrastructure of Magenta Telekom after the takeover. After the work was completed, around 40% more transmission stations were available, and around 16% more transmission stations for T-Mobile customers.
Marketing strategy
tele.ring was able to use its aggressive pricing policy (at 1 cent per minute, internal network calls with contract mobile phones were cheaper than the tariff for landline local calls for the first time; the company slogan Weg mit dem Speck , advertised with massive television advertising , even found its way into a budget talk by Finance Minister Grasser moved in and has meanwhile been incorporated into general Austrian parlance) to gain more shares in the mobile communications market and thus create the basis for the viability of the company - with a share of postpaid customers over 75% and a market share of 11.5% ( As of April 2005). While other network operators invested in their networks and infrastructure, tele.ring used its financial resources more in aggressive pricing policies and new customer acquisition - which other companies were not able to do because of their structure.
The price war, however, was not without criticism: The trade unions in particular called for cost leadership not to be the top priority, as this would have or would have lost many jobs. On the other hand, it is also argued that a price increase would rather lead to profit maximization for telecommunications companies than to a more responsible labor market policy. Tele.ring was also the only GSM network operator in Austria whose workforce did not shrink after 2002, but grew.
In 2003 tele.ring achieved notable net profit for the first time, but a planned IPO had to be canceled due to US tax regulations - the parent company Western Wireless or its shareholders would have had to pay tax on the proceeds. At the beginning of 2005, tele.ring repaid all external debts early. After the market leader Mobilkom Austria, the company had the highest EBITDA margin and the highest brand awareness.
With new competitors (such as Hutchison Drei Austria , YESSS! Or bob ) tele.ring had competition in the low-tariff segment. With a longer response time, established mobile network providers have also brought cheaper offers for network-internal telephony onto the market.
Market share
The table below shows tele.ring's market share in the Austrian mobile communications end-user market from the beginning of its activity as a mobile communications operator to the takeover by T-Mobile Austria.
| year | Market share in% |
|---|---|
| Late 2000 | 1.63 |
| Late 2001 | 3.70 |
| Late 2002 | 4.40 |
| Late 2003 | 7.776 |
| Late 2004 | 11.274 |
| Late 2005 | 11,992 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ingrid Perschl: telering - 20 years of low prices and innovative tariffs. In: Magenta Blog. T-Mobile Austria, February 4, 2020, accessed on March 25, 2020 : "On March 23, 2020, the tele.ring brand will be incorporated into the new Magenta world."
- ↑ tele.ring is now magenta. T-Mobile Austria, accessed on March 25, 2020 : "tele.ring is ... in the ... network and the service world of Magenta."
- ↑ tele.ring is absorbed in magenta. After UPC, "Get rid of the bacon" is now also disappearing. In: Wiener Zeitung online. February 4, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .
- ↑ pressetext.austria: tele.ring is now 100 percent owned by Vodafone. December 21, 2000, accessed January 14, 2018 .
- ↑ New Austrian cell phone tax delays tele.ring sale . Heise message
- ↑ Information about the telecom market in Austria ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
A1 Telekom Austria | Hutchison Drei Austria | Magenta Telecom
Former network operators: Orange Austria | max.mobile. | Mobilkom Austria | tele.ring | Yesss