RIP easyMobile: No frills no longer

EasyMobile, the no-frills MVNO, has shut up shop after some 18 months in business.

Customers of the operator were informed by email that easyMobile will be shutting its doors next month, with customers no longer able to use their phones from midnight on 13 December.

Customers who still have credit remaining in their account will have it refunded and those who don't close their accounts will be offered the option of switching to accounts with Fresh, Carphone Warehouse's MVNO, which was forced to give its easiermobile.com domain name to easyMobile after a legal spat.

The decision to close easyMobile's UK operations was taken by TDC, a Danish operator which licensed the brand from Stelios Haji-Iannou's easyGroup.

The easyMobile timeline

January 2004: Stelios considers mobile venture

August 2004: Stelios announces soft launch

February 2005: Orange sues easyMobile over use of colour orange

March 2005: easyMobile officially launched

April 2005: The MVNO opens in Germany

Spetember 2005: Then in the Netherlands

March 2006: easyMobile announces retail strategy

November 2006: easyMobile closes in the UK

TDC's business model has proven successful in Denmark, where the operator took 10 per cent market share in its first year of operation, but the no-frills approach has not excited the British public.

EasyMobile, which piggybacked on T-Mobile's network, soft-launched in the UK in August 2004 with a SIM-only proposition, offering cheap flat-rate calls and texts with online top-up.

In March this year, the company ditched its web-only strategy and began offering its services and selling easyMobile handsets for the first time via The Link retail stores.

However, TDC was taken over by private equity firms earlier this year. EasyGroup has since terminated its licencing agreement with the company, saying easyMobile was "starved of cash".

EasyGroup CEO Stelios said in a statement: "Simply put, TDC is no longer a worthy licensee of the easy brand and damages will be sought to compensate for any damage done to the brand in the past or in the future."

Stelios has not given up hope of resurrecting the business, he told Radio Five Live, and will be trying to find another provider to replace TDC. An easyGroup spokesman added: "We see this more as a change of supplier."

TDC originally licensed the easyMobile brand for 12 separate operations across Europe, although the service was only launched in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

Frost and Sullivan analyst Pete Nuthall told silicon.com that easyMobile had struggled to make an impact in a crowded market and had underestimated the importance of handsets to UK consumers.

"There was a lot of publicity at launch around the price war with Fresh Mobile. It was the main source of awareness rather than the services. I don't think there was enough there to capture the consumers' imagination or persuade them to pick up the service. The benefits to consumers were nothing new, they always had simplified tariffs with Tesco," which could rely on customers passing though stores as a potential source of subscriptions, he said.

Orange will doubtless be pleased to see the temporary departure of easyMobile from the phone world, after Orange complained about easyMobile's use of the colour Orange in its branding. The pair were due to meet in court over the issue but the matter has now been settled.