Cosmote Romania rolls out ‘Gold number’ promotional offer
Cosmote Romania has launched ‘Free gold number,’ a new promotional offer whereby new customers get easy to memorise phone numbers.
Under the terms of the offer, new post-paid customers, either residential or business, who sign a 24-month contract for a ‘Cosmote Perfect pentru Tine’ or ‘SmartPhone’ tariff plan between 4 May to 15 June receive a free of charge so-called gold number.
Customers will be able to choose from a large range of easy to remember digits combinations such as 0784444444, 0784000000, 0784848484, and so on. This promotional offer will be available only for the range of numbers starting with 0784.
On top of this, customers who choose ‘Cosmote Perfect pentru Tine’ benefit from a promotion whereby they get a 20 percent discount to all the invoices issued until the end of the year (applicable to 24-month contracts worth at least US$9 per month – VAT excluded), and many other incentives.
‘Gold number’ will also be available for the customers choosing any of the SmartPhone tariff plans, which also come with a series of incentives such as double or unlimited on-net calls and SMS, depending on the value of the monthly fee. Customers who sign 12-month contract can get the gold number at a price of US$72.05 (VAT excluded).
Romtelecom bags contract from BCR bank (Romania)
Romtelecom has awarded a three-year contract by Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), part of Erste Group, after it had won a tender in the autumn of 2010.
As per the contract, Romtelecom will provide BCR with integrated VoIP telephony using Cisco technology (IPTel system integrated with SIP Trunk service for 6,000 IP phones with non-geographical numbering), VPN data services (VPN network with over 600 points of presence), as well as mobile voice and data services provided through its partner Cosmote Romania.
In addition, Romtelecom will provide BCR with integration services of new communications equipment.
Vodafone Romania expects surge in smartphone sales
Vodafone Romania terminal manager Andrei Oltei has stated that Vodafone Romania’s sales of smartphones make up 25 percent of its total mobile phone sales at present, that is up 15 percent from a year-ago.
Oltei stated that last year, smartphones accounted for 15 percent of Vodafone’s overall mobile phone sales.
Oltei added that this rise in smartphone sales is attributed to an expanding offer as well as lower prices. Most smartphones sold by Vodafone run on the Google Android operating system.
Munteanu named as Sales Senior Manager of Cosmote (Romania)
If sources are to be believed, Cosmote Romania has promoted Alexandru Munteanu to Sales Operations Senior Manager.
In his new role, he will be responsible for creating and implementing the commercial strategy for the telecommunication products of the Cosmote and Germanos networks as well as of those of its distributors.
According to Cosmote Romania retail Director Aris Karousos, one of the projects Munteanu was involved in during the past two years was one concerning the integration of Germanos and Cosmote’s operations.
In the past two years, Munteanu was Sales Operations Manager at Cosmote. Prior to that, he was commercial director at Germanos.
Orange Romania introduces Colibri Mix data subscriptions
Orange Romania has launched Colibri Mix, a new data offer that gives customers internet access via two SIM cards. One SIM card used for connecting a laptop or a tablet to the internet and a second SIM card that already has an active subscription for voice and can be used to connect a smartphone to the internet.
Customers are offered four Colibri Mix packages, namely Colibri Mix 11 , Colibri Mix 14, Colibri Mix 19 and Colibri Mix 39, offering between 1GB and 15.5 GB at monthly subscription fees between US$14 (VAT included) and US$55.91 and download speeds of 21.6 Mbps.
Added to mobile internet access, Colibri Mix 14, 19 and 39 packages offer the add-on ‘Cost Control’ which enables end-users to continue access the web at 128 Kbps in case they reach their data threshold. Activating an add-on priced at US$6 and offering 1GB enables end-users to continue accessing the web at 21.6 Mbps when reaching their data traffic limit.
Along with Colibri Mix packages, end-users can acquire various smartphones at promotional prices, namely LG Optimus Black at US$114, Samsung Galaxy Tab at US$286 or the laptop Acer Aspire at US$357.
Orange, Vodafone offer iPhone 4 White (Romania)
Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania have started offering Apple’s iPhone 4 White 16 GB version.
It is available at prices starting from US$214.91 along with Vodafone subscriptions and for as low as US$243.76 along with Orange Romania subscriptions.
Without any contractual obligation, it costs US$1004 at Orange and US$13 less at Vodafone Romania.
Vodafone Romania launches Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v
Vodafone Romania has added a new product to its portfolio. The company has launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v.
Running on Android 3.0 OS, the tablet is available at prices starting from US$605 (VAT included) along with a two-year subscription for ‘Internet Nelimitat Extra.’
The offer is available to both new customers as well as those renewing their contracts.
Nawras rolls-out RechargePlus offer (Oman)
Nawras is offering extra value to its prepaid customers with free credit each time they recharge their mobile through RechargePlus.
With this offer, customers can gain up to 40 percent of free credit for calls to other Nawras customers, as well as up to 20 percent of free credit to use for international calls.
When using either a recharge card or paper recharge in the denominations of US$5.19, US$10.38 or US$20.77, customers simply enter the code *115*1* before the usual recharge code, to benefit from savings on on-net calls.
With this special code, customers recharging for US$20.77 for example, will receive 11,200 including 3,200 of free credit. When recharging for international calls, customers can use the code *115*2 to enjoy savings. When buying US$5.19 of credit, customers will receive an additional 10 percent free and when recharging for US$10.38 the free credit increases to 15 percent.
Customers choosing to recharge for US$20.77 will gain 20 percent of free credit for calls made to any destination outside Oman. RechargePlus credit is valid for the same number of days as the amount of recharge.
Deutsche Telekom Q1 net falls (Europe)
Deutsche Telekom AG has reported a 37 percent decline in first- quarter profit, led by its Greek and Romanian units and as T- Mobile USA lost customers.
Net income fell to $698 million, missing the US$825.07 million average estimate by analysts. Sales dropped 7.7 percent to $21.05 billion, dragged down by eastern Europe and after the Bonn-based company moved its U.K. wireless operations into a venture with France Telecom SA.
Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann is focusing on improving profitability in the German market after agreeing to sell the U.S. mobile-phone unit to AT&T Inc. for $39 billion in March. T-Mobile USA lost 471,000 contract customers in the quarter, contributing to a 14 percent decline in operating income before depreciation and amortization to $1.19 billion.
Cosmote Romania Q1 revenues down by 6.5%
Cosmote Romania has stated that its revenues decrease by 6.5 percent to US$156.1 million in Q1.
Service revenues fell 1.5 percent in Q1, mainly owing to the adverse economic conditions combined with very aggressive offers in the prepaid segment. EBITDA improved by 171.2 percent to US$26.05 million, while EBITDA margin grew 11 percent year-on-year to 16.7 percent.
Excluding voluntary exit scheme charges in Q1 2010, EBITDA doubled compared to the same quarter last year, reflecting significant operating improvements following the successful integration of Zapp.
At the end of Q1, Cosmote Romania’s total customer base reached 6.6 million (including Zapp), of which 22.4 percent was postpaid.
