The key for Engin in Australia is that its traditional future competition can be counted on one hand. Mostly big telco's, these companies will hold onto traditional revenues for as long as possible. This gives Engin plenty time to establish until these companies will finally need to make changes to be competitive.
I agree that VOIP on its own is not a very profitable exercise except for the consumer, this can be seen in overseas models and is moreso the reason traditional competition in Australia will be slow to change.
However the ability to attract the customer due to VOIP savings and then offer them other compelling profitable bundled services such as broadband (no landline cost), tivo (sole rights) and mobile (to come) will make these bundled services overall profitable for Engin.
For example not many Engin customers would subscribe for VOIP and not take advantage of the (no landline fee) broadband bundle.
Next to enter and give the market some sex will be Vodafone next year. Technology such as wi-fi however will still cut into their tradional revenues, but for Engin it will add to revenues. This is as Engin has no traditional revenue to protect.
Engin just needs to stay focussed on adding services that have benifits to the consumer from digital technologies and moreso with extra benifits by combining these technologies, for example wi-fi and Nokia.
This way savings from unprofitable VOIP can be used to attract customers and then on sell extra profitable services due to the advantages and savings of these services from the one supplier. Advantages include savings up to 50%, quality assurance of combined services (ie. broadband and phone service), one contact and one bill.
Seven is the perfect major shareholder for Engin providing the media and tivo opportunities that no other potential competition in Australia currently has.
Cheers
ENG Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held