EasyMobile Scraps MVNO Contract

easyMobile, the low cost MVNO could face temporary closure after it scraped its agreement with TDC without naming a successor network. The parent of the MVNO, easyGroup says that it has terminated its brand licence agreement with TDC, the operators of easyMobile in UK and Germany. The company says that since TDC was purchased by private equity firms, the company has lost management and investment was cut. The easyGroup has decided that its brand is at risk if it stays in the hands of TDC and therefore it has terminated its brand license of the easyMobile name to TDC for breaching the terms of the brand licence agreement.

"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," said Stelios the easyGroup chairman and founder of easyMobile. "I will make sure that TDC understand that they must treat the customers and the staff well and I am already putting a new service in place with a new partner under the easyTelecom.com brand."

Under the terms of the brand license TDC are contractually obliged to relinquish use of the name easyMobile within one month , to organise an orderly transfer of the customers to another provider and to look after their staff and suppliers who were working on the easyMobile project.

The easyGroup will be regaining control of the easyMobile brand in due course and will be seeking new partners to commercialise it in the mobile telephony sector.

It is not immediately clear what will happen to the customers if easyMobile is unable to secure a replacement MVNO contract."

Posted to the site on 13th November 2006