Austria

Out There Campaign comes out incredibly successful

On 03.19.10, In Mobile Marketing, By Editor

Blackberry maker RIM had launched the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm 9500 Smartphone, in 2009. RIM and Out There Media joined hands to create and manage a mobile advertising campaign across Austria to target the under 26 year old market with this new device. The campaign was run for two weeks and Vodafone subscribers got it delivered through Vodafone live! portal.

Those who visited the portal were also offered a free Justin Timerlake music video for watching the 15-second long advertisement.

Through out the two weeks, the BlackBerry Storm ad was viewed for 140,000 times through the Vodafone live! portal. The advertisement as a clickthrough-rate of 5.5% and the Justin Timberlake video was streamed a total of 2,101 times. The conversion rate for the entire campaign was 27.5%.

According to Kerstin Trikalitis, Out There Media CEO, this is a great example of targeted mobile advertising in action and the fantastic results that brands can achieve through this medium.

The company strongly believes in the power of reaching out to consumers directly and they are very happy to witness through all their campaigns that mobile advertising is an ideal way of doing so. Targeted and appropriate campaigns, such as this one for RIM, prove that this approach can achieve great results.

Telekom Austria contracts Alca- Lu for triple-play deployment

On 03.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telekom Austria has contracted French equipment vendor Alcatel-Lucent (Alca-Lu) for the deployment of its triple-play service delivery architecture. This will bring smaller communities the same triple-play services today provided to customers in larger metropolitan areas.

Telekom Austria will also be provided with the bandwidth, scale and service awareness required to support the growing market for more personalized broadband services such as ‘aon TV’. ‘aon TV’ is the service provider’s IPTV offering.

According to Walter Goldenits, CTO at Telekom Austria, the rollout of the second mile ethernet aggregation network with Alca-Lu service routers enables us to confidently and economically offer converged data, voice and video applications throughout the whole country, to the furthest reaches of the network, over a single and homogeneous platform.

Tagged with: Alcatel-Lucent • Austria • Europe • IPTV • LTE • Telekom Austria

Mobile ticketing becomes popular in UK

On 03.04.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Over 600,000 mobile boarding passes has been processed by mobile ticketing supplier, Trinity Mobile, sent out via mobile text messages in 2009, up from 50,000 in 2008. Mobile phone technology to scan barcodes directly off all mobile phone screens is used by the company and is customers include Austrian Airlines and British Midlands Airways (BMI).

According to Rob Clegg, Commercial Director at Trinity Mobile, the massive growth in mobile ticketing is completely driven by the consumer’s need for the fastest, easiest and most affordable way to get tickets and the company’s technology has proven to deliver these enhanced customer services efficiently, securely and cost effectively, and has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly.

Besides delivering more quickly with cancellations, mobile ticketing also reduces the costs related to issuing paper boarding passes and even the cancellations and re-issues are managed almost instantly.

Tagged with: Austria • Europe • Mobile Ticket • Trinity Mobile • UK

M-Tel launches 50% discount on fixed line offer (Bulgaria)

On 03.03.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A special offer has been launched by Telekom Austria’s Bulgarian subsidiary MobilTel (M-Tel) under which the customers will be given fixed landline for just GBN2.45 per month for six months, a 50% discount on the regular price.

50 free minutes across all national fixed networks will also be offered to the users under the VoiceBox Basic offer, depending on the period of the signed contract. Even if the free offer is not activated, calls to fixed networks will cost just BGN0.05 per minute.

One minute of conversation to a mobile network will cost BGN0.32 per minute.

Tagged with: Austria • Bulgaria • Europe • Launch • LG • M-tel • Mobiltel • Telekom Austria • VoiceBox

Telekom Austria gains EUR94.9 million as net profit

On 02.25.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The financial results for the full-year 2009 has been announced by Telekom Austria in which the company has gained a net profit of EUR94.9 million, up from a net loss of EUR48.8 million a year earlier.

Due to the decline in the fixed line operations, the company’s revenues declined from EUR5.17 billion in 2008 to EUR4.8 billion a year later. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) jumped 40.1% year-on-year, up to EUR1.79 billion.

According to Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO at Telekom Austria Group, the company’s focus on effective cost management in both segments and reduced operative expenses has enabled it to soften the impact of lower revenues on EBITDA and Telekom will continue to improve its offering in order to strengthen its competitive advantage.

Tagged with: Austria • EBITDA • Europe • Net Profit • Telekom • Telekom Austria

Telekom Austria’s business merger approved by its board

On 02.24.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The merger of all the fixed-line division and Austrian mobile arm, Mobilkom Austria by Telekom Austria has been given a green signal from its supervisory board. Making benefits from efficiency savings and simplifying the selling and handling of bundled offers is expected to be gained from the merger.

It is also expected that the company’s cash flow will be reduced by EUR80 million. The merger will take place in 2010.

According to Telekom Austria Chief Financial Officer Hans Tschuden, the market developments over the past few years have demonstrated that this step is imperative and the company is convinced that through this merger Telekom Austria will be best equipped to address future challenges, while at the same time it considerably strengthens the group’s earning power.

Tagged with: Austria • Europe • Merge • merger • Mobilkom Austria • Telekom Austria

Telekom Austria’s Q4 revenue falls 9.6%

On 02.24.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to weakness at both fixed-line and mobile operations, the fourth-quarter revenues of Telekom Austria went down 9.6 percent from a year earlier EUR 1.18 billion. Excluding some EUR 632 million in restructuring charges in Q4 2008, EBITDA also fell to EUR 399.4 million from EUR 420.5 million.

The lower depreciation and amortization adjusted operating profit which rose to EUR 120.0 million from EUR 116.4 million and net profit which rose to EUR 63.6 million from EUR 53.9 million, after excluding the one-time charges.

According to Telekom Austria, the difficult market environment of the past year is expected to continue in 2010, as a recovery in the economic environment in Eastern Europe appears unlikely in the near term. Fall in the revenue is predicted by the company for the year 2010.

Tagged with: Austria • Eastern Europe • EBITDA • Net Profit • Operating Profit • Telekom Austria

Mobile operators join force on global apps platform

On 02.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An open international applications platform has been launched by a joint force of the world’s largest mobile operators. This marks the largest unified move to date by the operator community into the mobile apps space.

A combination of 24 of the world’s largest mobile carriers, the so called ‘Wholesale Applications Community’ includes America Movil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom Austria, MTN Group, NTT Docomo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, VimpelCom and WIND.

Vodafone, China Mobile, SoftBank and Verizon Wireless in the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile apps initiative are also included in the group. The move has been backed by GSMA, an industry association. The aim of the alliance is to create a wholesale platform for mobile apps providing a single point-of-entry for developers. Operators are also eyeing the revenue-generating potential of getting into the apps business.

The new operator-led initiative has also got the support from the handset vendors including LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Tagged with: Airtel • alliance • Austria • China • China Mobile • China Unicom • Deutsche Telekom • Ericsson • GSM • GSMA • Launch • LG • Mobilkom • MTN • NTT DoCoMo • operator • Orange • Orascom • Samsung • SingTel • SK Telecom • Sony • Sprint • Telecom Italia • Telefonica • Telenor • TeliaSonera • Verizon Wireless • VimpelCom • Wholesale Applications Community

France Telecom’s Orange expands its travel data daily roaming tariff

On 02.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The expansion of a EUR2 for 2MB mobile internet tariff for roaming customers has been announced by France Telecom’s Orange. The 2MB Travel Data Daily roaming bundle has already been launched in Spain and Romania in 2009 and it will now be rolled out to the UK, Poland, France, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium and Moldova.

Orange is also offering a EU5 for 10MB daily data roaming limited to Apple iPhone users.

According to Olaf Swantee, senior executive vice president for the Orange’s global mobile business, for roughly the price of a cup of coffee, Orange is helping customers keep doing what they’re doing; not only designed for heavier users who use the mobile internet to download music or games but for everyday customers who want to be able to check their emails, tweet or upload their pictures to social networking sites, anywhere they may be within the EU.

Tagged with: Apple • Austria • Belgium • Europe • France • France Telecom • iPhone • LG • Luxembourg • Moldova • Orange • Poland • Romania • Slovakia • Social Networking • Spain • Switzerland • UK

Belarus 3G license granted to Telekom Austria

On 02.03.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Belarusian subsidiary of Telekom Austria has been awarded a countrywide 3G licence, at a price of €9.5 million and it will run until August 24, 2017. In order to support the 3G network, Velcom’s mobile network is already undergoing up gradation at a rate of 10 base stations per day.

After striking a reseller deal with CDMA operator Belcel in May 2009, Velcom has been selling mobile broadband services to its customers in Belarus. As per the 50-50 revenue sharing agreement, Velcom offered Internet services running on Belcel’s EV-DO network, which at the time was capable of supporting connection speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps.

Velcom has the second largest share of the market with 4 million customers; following MTS which currently has the largest share of the market with 4.52 million subscribers.

Tagged with: 3G • Austria • Belarus • Belcel • CDMA • Europe • MTS • operator • Telekom Austria • Velcom