Mobile Networks… You’ll never cease to amaze me!

I’m being serious here. Since my time here as Mobile Industry Review I’ve read hundreds of news articles on the latest goings on with the mobile industry. Yes a lot of the so called news is terribly “boring”, but every now and then, I have to sit back laugh, and ask “why”?

Ricky kindly sent me over a link to a piece of “why” news; O2 who recently stopped subsidising their top end phones, have decided to subsidise them again! Well, at least on two phones, the Samsung Tocco and Sony C902.

The Samsung Tocco, Sony C902 and Nokia N95 were all raised to a £75-per-month tariff, but only the Tocco and C902 have been reduced. They are now subsidised on a £35 tariff.

Amazingly O2 have decided against subsidising the Nokia N95, and as Ricky mentioned to me… Couldn’t this cause a stir between the giant manufacturer and the mobile network? Maybe even Nokia penalising O2 by not giving them exclusive launches or something dramatic along those lines.

Personally, I don’t quite understand what O2 were trying to achieve with this, yes okay, they were hoping that other networks were going to follow suit; but who in their business-thinking-right-mind would make existing and/or potential customers pay more in the current credit climate?

Vodafone made me question them the other week too, with their higher prices they’ve introduced. They may be trying to make money here, but surely out-pricing yourself from the high-street competition isn’t the best way to do it, is it?

As for Nokia and O2, what’s going to happen here! I fear O2 are making some risky moves here, which I seriously doubt will pay off; and if Ricky has guessed correctly, this could affect them in the future too.

I wonder what they will do next!