Leak: Telenor to launch “binge watching” plans

It is not official yet but we have enough information to assume that Telenor is going to release a new type of smart packages in the market.

An inextricable equation

Over the past few years, mobile data traffic has been growing exponentially. Customers are watching more and more videos on large screen with higher resolution. In the other hand, mobile operator ARPU tend to decrease slowly. As OTT (Over the top) providers flourish, telcos are having a hard time to remain profitable and upgrade their network infrastructure.

Telecom operators have developed two strategies against this huge threat.

• Fight the OTT back with filters and caps.

Example of Digicel which is blocking ads on its network 

Example of Netflix blocked in Indonesia for “censorship reason”

• Team up with OTT to monetize content and sell a new range of Internet plans called smart plans.

We believe this second option is the most viable.

All over the world, there are many examples of Telco/OTT partnerships. In Myanmar for instance, MPT teamed up with Facebook to provide Facebook Basics for free to its mobile customers. Same for Telenor which is offering 150MB of free Facebook per day with every package. Telenor is also teaming with Pyone Play so that customers can watch the Suzuki soccer cup on their mobile with a free data bonus.

Finally, nothing new here but it clearly translates Telenor strategy to become more focused on data and to provide value-added services to its customers.

The new line of products that we will disclose now basically respond to the customer endless appetite for video streaming.

(almost) all you can eat

According to our information, Telenor Myanmar is about to launch hourly and daily plans with unlimited access to video streaming on a selected list of OTT partners.

As we can see, the plans are affordable, hourly for 300Ks and daily for 3000Ks. There is a fair usage policy but details are not specified. That means Telenor reserves the right to limit or stop the plan if the customer is using beyond what is considered reasonable.

Telenor list of partners is impressive: Netflix, Iflix or Youtube and more…

Note that these movie packages can only be activated on top of a traditional data package. And this is basically where Telenor is expecting to get more revenue out of this OTT partnership. These added value packages will complement its current data revenue stream and ensure its data business to remain profitable as traffic grows.

This is still work in progress and the marketing material we managed to get access to is basically inspired from a similar campaign happening with Digi Malaysia (Telenor Group).

Note that all these information have been collected from the Internet. If we found it, can you find it too?