Images from Yallo, Coop, Migros

Budget Mobile (SMS and Voice) gets some traction. Coop and Migros, the local Walmarts, enter the mobile business.

Coop und Migros steigen in den Mobilfunkmarkt ein. Ab September wollen die beiden Detailhändler Handys mit Prepaid-SIM-Karten anbieten. Coop arbeitet mit Orange zusammen, Migros mit Swisscom.

See also:
Der Standard: Migros und Swisscom starten Billig-Mobiltelefon-Angebot

Now Sunrise offers Yallo, Orange and Coop offer CoopMobile (with MMS) and Swisscom and Migros offer M-Budget-Mobile. And all offer only Voice calls and SMS (+MMS for CoopMobile) for a lower price. This looks a lot like "milking the cow till the last drop", as SMS and voice calls are both the most profit-yielding and rapidly declining. Businesswise it makes therefore a lot of sense to be in such a hurry and to seek allies like Migros and Coop: first, both SMS and voice are well-established and you don't have to explain these services to your customers and second Skype and mobile email are just around the corner.