Jersey Post enters the phone market
Saturday 14th November 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
Gary Whipp
JERSEY Post is to compete in the mobile phone market from next month against the three existing suppliers.
The news comes in the same week that the competition in the phone market has been blamed for the loss of 80 jobs at Jersey Telecom.
Jersey Post will launch into the £13 million a year pay-as-you-go market under the brand MeMo, which will be owned by a new company named Postfone.
The launch of MeMo – which is part of the Jersey Post International Development arm headed by Gary Whipp – is unique as no new mobile masts are required by the firm.
The new company is known as a ‘mobile virtual network operator’ and will use the masts of an existing supplier.
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More strength to MeMo’s (corporate) elbow!
The more a market is open to competition the more individual traders have to work to attract and to keep customers.
Monopoly trading does no favours to customers as the monopolist company can charge exactly what it likes and treat its customers with disdain.
Residents of Jersey are all too familiar with paying through the nose for indifferent service.
“It’s the Jersey way”, one could say – but no longer.
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Jerseypost seems to be a progressive organisation focused on providing the consumer alternative cheaper services.
Jersey Telecoms appears to be the opposite, their main tactic in the mobile market is to continue to charge high prices and provide a bad service, relying on the lazyness of consumenrs to switch to lower-cost better service providers.
Hopefully the better company will prevail, which will mean jobs going from JT and new jobs created in jersey post and their partners.
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So how does this one work then ?one wholly States owned enterprise e.g. Jersey Post is now going to compete in exactly the same market as another wholly owned States enterprise Jersey Telecom ,how did they run thatone past the brains trust at the JCRA , oh and by the way when are we going to hear about competion in the electricity and gas markets , you could not make it up !!!!!
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Great, presumably they will send you a text saying you must collect a call from the post office HQ which is only open when you are at work.
Either that or you will receive a silent call equivalant to the postman not ringing your bell but just putting a “sorry we missed you” card through the door cos he couldn’t be bothered to ring the bell.
From one bad service provider to another….
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And when JT go, so do all the masts & landline cables they own. What will the other operators do then?
JT does slightly more than sell mobile phones, they provide a fixed cable link to the world that they have installed and have to maintain, without this link, we would not have a finance industry.
So let’s bring in more operators, sure there is enough to customers so everyone can make a profit, isn’t there?
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I think this is going to bite Jersey Post on the arse in the long term, and possible not that long either.
While I’m all for competition, there are areas in such a small community/economy were a monopoly isn’t such a bad thing in some respects. the utilities being the obvious areas, and I’d include the postal services amongst the utilities.
Now that they’re expanding their services, they’ve removed any argument that their monopoly should be protected, and when they lose all the profitable fulfilment contracts to new entrants to the postal market, who’s going to lose out? the island residents who want to get a letter delivered to St Ouen, or find a sub-post office.
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So States owned Jersey Post goes into competition with States owned Jersey Telecom?
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Magnolia Man provides facinating insight and intelligent comment but entusiasm for competition is coming at a price. Judging by the silence of this JEP discussion board on this subject there are many here who have just got what they have been wishing for and maybe don’t feel quite so blood-thirsty now after 80+ redundancies. The simple fact is that the States of Jersey created (through mis-management) monsters like Jersey Post and Jersey Telecom (OK, with too much fat) but it is the innocent employees who didn’t create the problem who must now bear the brunt of it all. Without any malice on my part; it would almost be funny if Jersey Telecom started a mail delivery service in direct competition with Jesey Post in a vain attempt retain their workforce – as if! Poetic Justice eh?
I muse; the States would be shooting themselves in the foot twice and once again (for good luck) because of the drain thus created on Social Security and lost tax receipts! just as long as JT are contributing more it is OK. It is high time this nonsense was kept in-check by someone with a brain, does our Govenor have a voice or should he be put out to pasture too? Somehow we have seriously lost our way.
The States are asking for trouble if you consider that they already have the rest of their workforce up-in-arms! Maybe the States’ workforce will realise that it is just as vulnerable as the aready incorporated departments and do something about it.
Jersey needs to pull together – not apart!!!
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I think a few people should get there facts right.
Another operator, great, how will all the operators make enough money to keep their equipment up to date and fault free with small customer bases? They won’t, they will put their prices up eventually to cover these costs. And as Jersey Post have announced theirs is a ‘mobile virtual network operator’ and will use the masts of an existing supplier. So when you get your new mobile from Jersey Post and it doesn’t make calls etc, who are you going to contact to sort the problem out when Jersey Post say it’s the equipment not our fault! Who has lost out here, the customer!
Why does the JCRA dictate that JT has to allow other operators to use their equipment, cables etc and can’t charge them appropriately for this, JT has to lose money – is this right? Would you want your company to be run in this way not been able to do a thing.
JT has to do this – why, because they have been dictated to from outside sources. Where does JT put its money back into, Jersey. The other operators have a bigger market outside of the island and most of their money is ploughed back in to the UK etc, not Jersey.
When mobile number portability came in, JT lost customers, but GAINED more customers than it lost, does anyone remember that, it was in the JEP?
Same with ADSL, you might get a cheaper service from other operators, but most have so many connection issues and down load speed faults unlike JT, and once they can get out singed contract they have been locked into for 12 – 18 months, they move back to JT.
Yes, JT are a couple of pence more than the other operators, but at least I know I can use my mobile all over the island unlike the rest of the operators!
The vast majority are happy with JT, which is why they have such a large mobile customer base.
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PJ is being unnecessarily alarmist when he declares, “when JT go, so do all the masts & landline cables they own”.
No, they won’t.
The independent operators will snap up the infrastructure.
(I wonder if ‘PJ’ is an allusion to, or an abbreviation of, ‘Planet Jersey’.)
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The states own goal…..
just got it round the wrong way.
Do they sell an asset, JT, for around 200m then open up to competition.
or
Open up to competion. restrict jt from competing. then see what the asset is worth.
oh well all you whingers on here about JT, will be paying higher taxes for incompetant states decisions..etc
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If I was managing JT I would be asking for a licence to run a mail delivery branch in competition with the Royal Mail. I would also be asking for a licence to supply electricty to compete against the JEC.
The reason for this? According to the JCRA competition is good for the customer. Well lets have a level playing field then.
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Thicko micko , where do you get off slagging off workers on the back of another storyline ? The jersey posties do not derserve to be given a hard time by someone who has no idea how much hard graft is put into getting your mail out , and no i am not a postie before you ask . If you want to have a pop at companies do it but leave the workforces out of it . HOW HARD DO YOU WORK ? Take a good look at yourself first.
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#10 Magnolia man, in the worst case scenario that JT does go or is a shadow of its former self, who is going to make up the £10 million plus that JT currently put back into the local tax coffers , you will have to my friend.
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Magnolia Man
When any company goes bust, are all the assets not frozen, equipment and the likes of? “The independent operators will snap up the infrastructure” – I’m sure they will, once all of the creditors have been paid, by which time the finance industry will be gone. Again it you and I who suffer.
Alarmist, may be, but I live in the real world not some painted fantasy.
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I would say it was fair comment to say that JT have not really made much of an effort to be compeitive and this is why other mobile providers have been successful.
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The whole State of J set up is a mess. They alway get to do what they want, with islanders just sit and ‘complain’ to each other about it.
Same old, same old.
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what on earth are the states thinking? They are, in theory, competing against each other with JT and now ‘MeMo’! They also, own the regulator. How can this be justified.?
I really wish i could get into their heads to see what intensives they have to do such crazy things. Our island has approx. 90,000 people living here, we do not need 4 mobile phone operators.
And who will foot the bill for the millions of tax money JT pump into the states every year when they fold?
US
This is not right.
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My post always comes on time and Jersey Post always answer their telephone calls politely.
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One question it does raise is; which of the existing three operators are in such financial hardship that they’re happy to let this new competitor piggy-back on their network?
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Are Argos doing phones now?
I reckon all this teleco marlarky will end in tears then I will be able to say I told you so.
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You have to admire the sheer genius of some of our esteemed 1.1k’s.
Not content with getting a job in a States owned enterprise without 5 year residency
they can create a virtual marketplace in total contradiction to a States generated incentive to ‘Buy Local’ (because we are the suckers who actually pay tax locally!) and the politician responsible rolls over to get his tummy tickled!Chuckling ‘more choice better’ .
Now a virtual mobile telephone system piggy backing on the existing systems again with the ‘More choice’ mantra .. I have to say the logic of this one eludes me .. slicing the £13M pie smaller and adding more management and more customer interface (billing systems etc)is a recipe for failure or poor financial performance of at least one of the operators .
Whats next .. virtually nothing but the odd service industry left in Jersey.. and even richer 1.1.Ks and we thought the finance industry had sold Jersey down the river .. watch this space.
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It is becoming ridiculous, is Gary Whipp out to singlehandedly destroy the Island using Jersey Post as his Trojan Horse? In a short few weeks he has alienated the Islands retailers and laughed in the face of the States Buy Local campaign by launching Ship2Me and now he laughs in the face of the EIGHTY poor people made redundant from JT.
All of this from the safety of the Jersey Post International Department, a joint venture we cannot see the accounts for! Additionally Jersey Post are moving all of their parcel business to rented warehousing on New North Quay and cutting out the unionised Postie by giving the deliveries to owner drivers. Cute when you have a free building provided by the States at Rue Des Pres!
Somebody should rein in Jersey Post.
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Jersey Telecoms has been managed in a way that allowed this stupid situation with a feeding frenzy like Hyenas fighting for bits of the same carcase….for years we knew they were charging far too much…bonuses and wage rises especially at the top,took precedence over value for the customer…and now look at it,they were in what should have been an unasailable position…..greed greed when will the lesson ever be learnt I wonder.
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#15 PJ AKA Planet Jersey
The infrastructure you describe will remain in use as the administrators have a duty to fulfill as far as possible JT’s existing contracts with the other providers.
Also, you seem to be putting the cart before the horse. as when the infrastructure is sold the proceeds will be used to pay the creditors.
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Michael Neal “The infrastructure you describe will remain in use as the administrators have a duty to fulfill as far as possible JT’s existing contracts with the other providers.”
Sounds good in theory but who would you get to do this if JT went under? In reality it could be no one. Then what?
Or if Jersey was lucky and someone was prepared to manage it they could ask for a lot more money to do so than JT was charging. What then?
As you well know in the good old capitalist system there aren’t free lunches and everything has its price. This is why I think it was a mistake to have competition in the telco market.
Good old economics says it is unviable to have four telcos in a market place of 80,000. Do you honestly believe there is enough profit to be made out of an average 20,000 customers each? I don’t.
Do you think 40,000 customers would be enough? I still don’t, so that leaves us with enough business for one operator to run the business successfully long term does it not?
I believe the JCRA could have helped Joe Public much more by sorting out import/export costs and travel in/out of Jersey. It would also have helped Joe Public by getting in a French supermarket chain. So why hasn’t it? I think I know the answer to that.
The way I’m seeing things it appears this person could do very well from these arrangements he has set up. However it looks like a different ball game for many others who could end up losing out big style. Survival of the fittest comes to mind. Isn’t this what capitalism is all about in reality?
Vic Mel is it true that they want to pay new posties a lot less for the same work? If this is what they are up to getting rid of the union would make their task a lot easier in opinion.
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Ship 2 me is a rip off it only costs £100 to ship a 20ft container to the island so think about it next time you pay £150 to get you 3 piece suite here
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Re mick (27)
No, it is worse!
Since the demise of the failed Jersey Post Logistics operation Jersey Post has been left with the former Jacksons garage complex on the Rue des Pres trading estate. A lease taken, at some expense, without States approval. This expensive resource is all but redundant.
The Ship2Me and Argos ventures are a desperate attempt to plug a large hole in the sinking ship which is the Jersey Post Group. The doorstep postmen of Jersey Post do a fine job in a declining market, but have been hamstrung by poor senior management.
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#26 Adrian
‘…who would you get to do this if JT went under? In reality it could be no one.’
Administrators are specialist accountants. There is no shortage of such accountants in Jersey.
By saying they would ‘ask for a lot more money to do so than JT was charging’, you appear to suggest that they would run JT permanently. In fact, they are required to wind down the business in an orderly manner and must honour the contracts made previously by the company.
I have no idea how the rest of your post relates to what I’ve said.
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@27. mick
You are talking nonsense, Mick, you can barely get a pallet for £100 and a container takes about 10 pallets so how do you work that one out?
Please let me know the name of the company charging £100 for a container to the island!
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As far as I know all of the new business is not being handled by the Posties and Jersey Post are trying to move all ‘commercial business’ so courier and parcels away from Postal HQ to the New North Quay.
As for shipping prices – you can get a pallet UK – Jersey for £35. A container for £350 ish.
But that said, the service from Ship2Me is poor, try returning something that is either wrong or damaged and see how it works then!
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I’m Struggling to ascertain why people are struggling with the concept of 2 States owned businesses going into competition with one another. You can’t on the one hand moan that JT were charging too much and then moan that another States owned company shouldn’t be allowed to encourage reduced prices for the customer.
You can’t also moan that the millions paid by JT to the States in dividends will be lost because of private competition, then not allow another States owned business to capture some of that market and therefore pay dividends to the States on that income.
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mick # 27
Please tell me who will ship a 20 foot container to Jersey for £100.
From my experience of shipping containers you have dropped a ZERO
If you are correct I could be saving thousands.
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Mr Knock (No30)you are getting ripped off if you are paying “nearly a £100 a pallet) “Yellow ship” from Southampton £55, “BoatFast” is £62 and “ABC” is £60 so maybe it’s worth shopping around for the good price.
Saying that , Mick , I’m also interested who is shipping containers for that… very interested!!
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