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Freshtel, Binatone Venture Kicks Off In UK |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Friday, 28 July 2006 |
Australian Voice over IP whitelable wholesaler, Freshtel,
has announced its latest venture in the United Kingdom will kick off this
weekend on the 29th July, 2006.
The company first entered the English market for IP
Telephony services in January this year as the provider behind the VoIP service
offering sold by leading retail giant, Tesco's.
Now it has teamed up with another high profile player to
bring a retail service of its own to market. Freshtel teamed up with
Hong Kong-based Binatone, in February when the two announced they would
co-develop a range of VoIP handsets. Now that effort is set to pay off as the
two prepare to go to the market with a bundled offering.
The expansion of Freshtel's UK
operations is designed to leverage Binatone's retail distribution strength and
kicks off with availability through 660 Argos
stores in the UK.
Argos is the largest general-good retailer in the United Kingdom
and Republic of Ireland with over 660 stores and sales revenue of 3.65 billion
GB Pounds.
Argos is the number one phone
retailer in the UK
with a market share approaching 50 percent.
Its unique business model (amongst major retailers in the UK)
is a catalogue system where customers can browse through the catalogue, select
items to buy, pay for them and then collect the items from a counter in store.
"Launching with Argos is a
fantastic start for us, given their dominance in sales of telephone handsets in
the UK
market.
The Binatone brand is well known in the UK and this
will help raise awareness of our new retail service without the need for
significant advertising support," said Freshtel CEO Michael Carew.
Binatone CEO, Dino Lalvani said: "Binatone has featured in
every catalogue since Argos
was founded in 1973, delivering innovation that people can afford. Our latest
partnership with Freshtel underpins this philosophy via easy to use products
powered by the Freshtel service."
Carew added that "Freshtel is now establishing a strong
presence in the UK
retail sector with the unique position of not having to outlay marketing
capital. This development lays another building block in Freshtel's revenue model.
The website for the new Freshtel UK service can be found at http://www.freshtelinternetphone.co.uk/
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