News Page

March 2005 - Lycatel Announces Appointment of Vice President

Chris Tooley today was appointed as Vice President for the Lycatel Group;
Mr. Tooley has thirteen years experience in the prepaid industry worldwide. Specifically responsible for the development of Mobile products across Europe, he comments, "Lycatel has clearly emerged as the fastest growing pre-paid operator in Europe and is ideally positioned to take advantage of the convergence between mobile telephony and pre-paid calling cards."
Milind Kangle, CEO comments "I am very pleased to welcome Chris Tooley to the Lycatel management team and am confident that Chris with his rich experience in the telecommunications industry will lead Lycatel's mobile business to great heights of success. As co-founder and former Chairman of the European Calling Cards Association, Chris had the opportunity to interact with all of the players in the industry and I am particularly proud that he has chosen to partner with Lycatel - a testimony to our commitment to develop a world-class organisation".

April 2005 - Lycatel inks deal with leading Italian Telecoms Operator

Lycatel today signed its first prestigious interconnect contract with Wind, Mobile Network Operator in Italy. Providing Lycatel with access to mobile users in the Italian market place it allows Lycatel to position low cost international telephony services to the growing fixed to mobile telephony convergence customer.
Milind Kangle, CEO, commented, "We are pleased to have inked this prestigious business deal with Wind and are keen to nurture mutually beneficial relationships with partners of this caliber across Europe."

Lycamobile to present at Economist conference - Rome June 2005

Lycatel launches Belgium's first low cost pre-paid international mobile SIM. Consumers purchase a Lyca Mobile SIM from participating retailers, activate, and within hours enjoy ultra competitive low cost international calls from their mobile handset.

December 2005 - T-Mobile Netherlands Mobile Virtual Network Operator Invoice Contract Signed

Lycatel are pleased to announce the signing of its inaugural MVNO contract with T Mobile Netherlands. Set for a June 2006 launch this signing signals the strategic intent to roll out prepaid international mobile SIM products across Europe over the next three years:
Subas Allirajah, Chairman of Lycamobile comments:
" We are pleased to partner with T-Mobile Netherlands on this exciting venture – our focused MVNO strategy will concentrate on leveraging our current competitive advantages of call quality, pan European distribution, brand equity and awareness, 7 million customers and prepaid billing technology, to position the Lycamobile product providing our customers with cheap international calls from the mobile."
Milind Kangle, CEO of Lycamobile comments:
"This is an exciting first step towards the strategic addition of mobile services to the business. Investment in the technology platforms for this business will enable Lycamobile to interconnect with mobile operators across the world through a wide choice of protocols including Camel Phase 2 providing flexibility to adapt to MNO requirements. The application platforms have been developed ground up with a number of features tailored to the needs of mobile customers such as person to person airtime transfer, SMS bolt-ons, prepaid accounts based conference calling and parent child account relationships."

June 16th 2006 - Lycamobile Launches in Holland

Today Lycamobile SIM cards went on sale to the general public in the Netherlands, the Lycamobile product offers quality and price conscious international callers with a fully functioning mobile prepaid SIM card product.
Milind Kangle, CEO of Lycatel commented: "The mobile business and Lycamobile brand will form the cornerstone of our future growth and investment strategy globally."
Chris Tooley, Executive Director Lycatel Ireland commented: "We are delighted to partner with T-Mobile for this exciting venture. With the Lycamobile brand we aim to acquire over 5 million ethnic and expatriate consumers across the globe in the next three years. The Lycamobile offering leverages on the high quality provided by T-Mobile combined with the high quality of international calling that customers using the Lycatel brand currently enjoy in the Netherlands."
Pim van der Feltz, Marketing Director T-Mobile Netherlands: "We welcome Lycamobile as the first mobile virtual operator that is using our network. In the UK and Germany T-Mobile has been giving access to service providers for many years. Lycamobile is the right partner to enter this market in the Netherlands as well and provides us the opportunity to serve more market segments by using our international experience."
Click here for the T-Mobile Netherlands Press Release

December 2006 - Lycamobile Netherlands acquires 100,000 active subscribers

Lycamobile Netherlands today acquired its 100,000 active subscriber, 6 months after its initial launch.
Milind Kangle, CEO Lycamobile comments:
" Lycamobile customers have embraced the brand and the rapid growth is a reflection of the quality of the product. This achievement renews our focus and determination to grow the brand into Europes largest prepaid international MVNO in the next three years"
Andrew Monnery Vice President for Lycamobile comments:
"Our ongoing success in the Netherlands reflects the focused approach we have adopted in order to provide customers with a quality International mobile product with market leading international calling rates. We would like to thank our customers and we are sure that they and many more will continue to enjoy the Lycamobile experience"

November 2006 - Lycamobile Appoints Vice President

Lycamobile are delighted to announce the arrival of Andrew Monnery as Vice President. Andrew has over 15 years experience in the mobile industry.
Subaskaran Allirajah, Chairman Lycamobile comments:
" Andrew has broad and deep experience in the mobile industry working with mobile operators such as Vodafone and Orange and we will benefit from his wealth of knowledge as we continue to make significant investments to develop the mobile business. I am pleased to welcome Andrew to the Lycamobile family."
Milind Kangle, CEO Lycamobile comments:
"Andrew has a track record of success with the worlds biggest mobile operators and his arrival to the Lycamobile family is a testimony of the solidity of the Lycamobile business model and vision. I am confident that Andrew will drive the Lycamobile brand to great heights of success."
Click here to see Andrews profile

January 2007 - Lycamobile Hits 1000 Sponsored Shops in the Netherlands

As part of the ongoing Lycamobile channel strategy we are pleased to announce the refurbishment of our 1000 sponsored shop in the Netherlands.

Rob Beswick Marketing Director comments:
"Our sponsored shop policy has enabled us to achieve two objectives, firstly a commitment to support local retailers with high impact branded merchandising options and deals on product and secondly to ensure maximum visibility on the high street for the Lycamobile brand. We will continue to grow our Sponsored shop footprint over the next year

January 2007 - Lycamobile to be distributed through Alphyra, Paybase and H@ND

Lycamobile are pleased to announce that Lycamobile top-up vouchers would now be distributed through e-voucher distributors Alphyra, Paybase and H@ND.
Rob Beswick Marketing Director Comments:
"We are delighted to announce the partnership with Alphyra, Paybase and H@ND in the Netherlands. This will allow Lycamobile customers to buy Lycamobile top up e-vouchers in over 15,000 retailers across the Netherlands."

March 2007 – Thought Leadership from Key Executives at Lycamobile

Lycamobile are pleased to share their insight into the fast developing MVNO business through participation at key telecom industry events for 2007.

26th – 27th February 2007 CAPACITY MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA 2007 Milind Kangle – Chief Executive

Click here to download Milind's presentation at Capacity MENA showcasing the Lycamobile MVNO success story.
Click here to download Milind Kangle's Carriers World Presentation 2007

24th - 26th April 2007 INFORMA : SIM SUMMIT 2007 Andrew Monnery – Vice President

Andrew Monnery Lycamobile Vice President will be presenting key thoughts on Lycamobile SIM strategy and how MVNO's such as Lycamobile manage the SIM relationship.
Click here for more details on this event

12th - 14th June 2007 INFORMA : MVNO's & MOBILE BRANDS WORLD CONGRESS Milind Kangle – Chief Executive

Milind will be discussing the Lycamobile strategy and how Lycamobile is ideally positioned to become Europe's leading International Prepaid MVNO.
Click here for more details on this event

18th - 19th June 2007 CAPACITY CEE Milind Kangle – Chief Executive

Milind will be discussing the impact Lycamobile has had in generating wholesale revenue streams through its penetration of the CEE consumer market in the Netherlands and Belgium. Milind will also discuss growth in this fast moving consumer sector, and how partnership with Lycamobile can generate incremental revenue opportunities for CEE carriers.
Click here for more details on this event

25th – 28th September 2007 CARRIERS WORLD 2007 Milind Kangle - Chief Executive

Milind will be presenting key thoughts on leveraging brand equity through the successful MVNO model and exploring the integration of MVNO strategy into traditional landline businesses.
Click here for more details on this event

March 2007 – Lycamobile Appoint Senior Business Development Manager

Jon Strickland joins Lycamobile as Senior Business Development Manager.
Jon has 12 years in the telecommunications business of which the last 5 years were with Hutchison 3G in the UK. Jon led the design and roll out of the key technical, financial and business elements required to deliver service to 3G MVNO customers
Milind Kangle Chief Executive Comments:
"I am delighted to welcome Jon and I am confident that his experience as Head of MVNO Development at Hutchison 3G will accelerate the continued growth of Lycamobile."

Click here to read Ernest's profile

March 2007 - Lycamobile Appoint Chief Operating Officer

Lycamobile are delighted to announce the appointment of Ernest Akinlola as Chief Operating Officer. Ernest joins Lycamobile with responsibility for the operational excellence of the Lycamobile product across Europe.
Milind Kangle Chief Executive comments:
"Ernest has broad experience in the mobile sector having worked with the UK's largest operators. We are delighted to welcome him to the Lycamobile team."

May 2007 - Lycamobile Launches in Belgium

Lycamobile are delighted to announce the Launch of its Prepaid International Mobile services in Belgium.
Milind Kangle, Chief Executive Lycamobile, Comments:

"We are delighted to announce the partnership with Mobistar and invite consumers to experience great call quality at competitive rates, now from the convenience of their mobile phone."
Lycamobile is already the fastest growing international mobile brand in the Netherlands with over 150,000 customers joining Lycamobile in its first seven months, testimony to the quality of the service.
Lycamobile Belgium is positioned to repeat this success by delivering sustained customer delight through a relentless focus on quality of service, the lowest mobile international rates in the market and customer service excellence.

April 2007 - Lycamobile Netherlands Generates its 100,000,000th Minute

Lycamobile Netherlands customers have now generated over 100 million minutes of voice traffic since launch in June 2006.
Rob Beswick, Marketing Director comments:
"This is a sizeable milestone for the Lycamobile brand. Lycamobile has striven to provide customers with the best value in the market place whilst ensuring that the quality of the service is not compromised. Reaching this milestone is testimony to the embracement of Lycamobile by our customers"

April 2007 - Lycamobile Appoint Project Manager

Lycamobile are delighted to announce the appointment of Neil Probyn as Project Manager. Neil has 9 years mobile telecoms experience, from his time at T-mobile and, most recently, at MVNO easyMobile.com. Neil led the project team at easyMobile and was heavily involved in the repositioning of the brand, launch of data services and the introduction of their high street proposition.
Neil joins us with the initial responsibility of project managing the roll out of Lycamobile services across Europe.

April 2007 - Lycamobile Inks Distribution Agreement with Shell

Lycamobile is delighted to announce that it has inked a prestigious distribution agreement with Shell in the Netherlands. This agreement allows Shell to sell Lycamobile SIM Packs, and top up cards through its petrol station retail network throughout the Netherlands

25th - 27th September 2007 INFORMA : EVOLVING MOBILE PARTNERSHIPS AND MVNO's Milind Kangle – Chief Executive

Milind Kangle, Chief Executive for Lycamobile will be making a keynote presentation assessing the success of MVNO partnerships in Europe and presenting a detailed case analysis of relationships and strategies that have led to Lycamobile growth.

IIR NETWORK OPERATORS & MVNO's Milind Kangle – Chief Executive

A chance to hear Milind Kangle, Chief Executive for Lycamobile present a keynote case analysis of the Lycamobile business model, the core advantages for MNO's and analysis of recent successes in the Netherlands and Belgium Markets.

Lycamobile Featured in Capacity Yearbook 2008

With the beginning of the New Year, Capacity have published their 2008 Yearbook and this year Lycamobile has had the opportunity to contribute to the Yearbook with an interview with Milind Kangle, CEO.
Milind's contribution titled "MVNOs: the future is global ethnic brands …" provides a look at the challenges that face mobile operators and examines the key success factors that MNOs need to explore as part of their selection of MVNOs to ensure that the MNO-MVNO partnership delivers genuine value.
Please click Here to download the PDF

January 2008 – Lycatel Appoints Chief Technology Officer

Lycatel are delighted to announce the appointment of Mohan Kumar as Chief Technology Officer. Mohan has over 19 years experience in the telecoms sector with industry leading experience in the development of MVNO architecture and systems. Mohan joins us from Xius-bcgi where during his role as President of the Company he drove MVNO thought leadership and technology strategy development across the Company resulting in numerous launches for core network platforms for MVNO and MNO including HLR, GMSC and OSS and BSS components for GSM, CDMA, WiFi and WiMAX.

February 2008 – Lycatel to Sponsor Capacity Europe 2008, Amsterdam

Lycatel are pleased to announce that it is sponsoring the Capacity Europe Telecoms conference to be held in November 2008 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Capacity Europe is Capacity Magazine's flagship conference in Europe and brings together prestigious global carriers from around the globe. Lycatel will also be hosting the opening evening cocktail reception and looks forward to welcoming all to the event.
For more details please click here

Lycamobile to present at Informa - MVNO Industry Summit, Barcelona, Spain

CEO, will be speaking at the forthcoming Informa, MVNO Industry Summit in June 2008. Focusing on the Lycamobile global growth strategy Milind will be presenting key insights into the Lycamobile MVNO business model and exploring the critical success factors required for a global MVNO strategy to succeed.
Click here for more event details

March 2008 – Lycatel to Sponsor International Telecoms Week Washington DC, June 2008

Lycatel are delighted to announce that it has taken a main sponsorship position at the forthcoming International Telecoms Week held in Washington this June. Lycatel will also be hosting a round table at this event in the Monroe West Ballroom on Tuesday the 3rd between 5pm and 7pm in the evening.
Rob Beswick Marketing Director Comments
"Lycatel are pleased to support ITW with their inaugural event in Washington, this event is a fantastic opportunity for the global telecoms community to meet and do business under one roof. As part of our ongoing wholesale marketing strategy we will be closely working with ITW to showcase Lycatel's capabilities in the wholesale market."
For more details on ITW please click here:

March 2008 – The Lycamobile Brand Crosses the 1,000,000 Subscriber Mark

Lycamobile is delighted to announce that it has crossed the 1,000,000 user mark.
Subaskaran Allirajah, Chairman Comments:
"I am proud of the Lycamobile team of professionals who are driving the Lycamobile brand to provide the best value proposition to our consumers."

CEO Comments:
"We are delighted to have added over 1,000,000 subscribers to the Lycamobile family. Our customers can be confident that they will continue to benefit from the Lycamobile unparalleled international call quality and our cost leadership position. With more launches imminent in Europe over the next months we are firmly on track to achieve our mission of acquiring over 7 million global subscribers."

May 2008-Lycamobile to present at Economist conference - Rome June 2008

Milind Kangle, CEO, will be the guest speaker at the Economist II European MVNO Summit in Rome on 26th and 27th June 2008.

The topic at the III Round Table will be: A pan-European MVNO: is it a feasible objective?

MVNO business model application across different countries with similarly MVNO friendly regulatory environments.

Expertise required to successfully assist companies in undertaking a pan-European operation.

Best MVNO partnerships to suit a pan-European MVNO. Choose the most effective strategy: find a single trans-national MNO partner or negotiate MNO partnerships in different territories.

May 2008-OVUM - Another MVNO to enter the crowded UK mobile market

Lycamobile is looking to launch as an MVNO in the UK. Discussions with MNOs have begun, but no agreement has been signed yet.
Click here to read more

May 2008 - Mobile News - Dextra in for debut MVNO's 750k goal

Lycamobile, the fast-growing European MVNO business of market leading calling card company Lycatel, is in talks with network operators about an imminent UK launch.
Click here to read more Page1 , Page2

June 2008 - Mobile News - Lyca bat out of hell

Lycamobile hasn't even launched in the UK yet, but chief executive Milind Kangle is already talking about securing 60 to 70 per cent market share. James Blackman reports
Click here to read more

Lycamobile's Swiss launch to be first of eight new markets for ethnic MVNO in 2008

Ethnic market MVNO Lycamobile last week launched its Swiss offering on the Orange Switzerland network.
It follows Lycamobile launches in The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
Click here to read more

Lyca closes on UK Orange MVNO

Ethnic MVNO Lycamobile is close to signing with Orange in the UK as it pursues 750,000 UK subs in first year
Click here to read more

UK network operators ramp up MVNO activities

Vodafone leads the charge for new service revenues from wholesale, as O2, Orange, T-Mobile and 3 respond to its aggressive strategy in the space
Click here to read more

Wish friends and family Eid Mubarak with Lycamobile's 3p per minute festival off - 30th september '08

BanglaPost – Lycamobile launches new pay as you go SIM card – 29th September'08

The Observer – Cheap International calls on new free SIMs – 28th September'08

Times Online – Mobiles that beat the phone giant – 28th September'08

Guardian Unlimited - Cheap international calls on new free Sims – 28th September'08

Ogilvy PR shakes hands with Lycamobile on launch of low-cost pay as you go sim card in uk – 22nd september'08

The Times - Orange is seeking new subscribers in Britain among ethnic minority consumers in a new mobile venture with Lycatel – 22nd September'08

Mobile News – Lycamobile aims for 1m subs in first year – 22nd September'08

Brand Republic – Mobile network Lycamobile hands £10m account to Ogilvy – 22nd September'08

Total Telecom – International MVNO thrive in tough economic times – 22nd September'08

Lycamobile Launches Low-Cost Pay As You Go SIM card in UK – 22nd September'08

Like a Chat? Like a Bargain? Lycamobile launches Pay As You Go SIM card for High Quality International and National calls at Lowest rates ever. – 22nd September'08