The Prague Post
http://www.aaaradiotaxi.cz/index.php?xSET=lang&xLANG=2
September 7th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague accommodation
Prague Art & Antiques Prague Art Prague Antiques

Home » Archives » Business

U:fon launches mobile network

Country's fourth mobile provider plans to target families

By Paul Voosen
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 18th, 2008 issue

There are more active mobile phone accounts than there are people in the Czech Republic — the very definition of saturation. Yet, in the view of the upstart mobile phone provider U:fon, the country’s heavily penetrated mobile market is ripe for a “revolution.”
U:fon began offering commercial mobile phone service June 16, with its network covering some 75 percent of the country. U:fon becomes the fourth mobile phone provider on the market — joining Telefónica O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone — and it is the first new entrant in the mobile scrum since Oskar (now Vodafone) launched in 2000.
U:fon, which is run by Mobilkom, plans to target families by emphasizing its “nula” rate plan. This plan promises to charge no fees to customers, provided that all of their calls are within the
U:fon network.
With more than 13 million active accounts on other networks nationwide, that may be a difficult proposition. U:fon said it expects to draw 75,000 clients by year’s end, with 300,000 clients joining in the next three years.
Also by the end of the year, U:fon promised that its network would cover 85 percent of the country. Network coverage is an important point for the company since it uses CDMA technology, rather than GSM like the country’s other operators. This means its customers will be unable to access the networks of U:fon’s competitors.
“Customers have grown accustomed to the high standards of the Czech mobile market, so we realize that our network coverage is not yet one of U:fon’s strong points,” said Peter Hall, U:fon’s CEO, when announcing the service. “We counterbalance this by offering very attractive prices.”
U:fon first broke into the telecom market in the spring of 2007, when it began offering mobile Internet access and fixed-line calls. Since then, it has focused on building out its network, Hall said.
Like its competitors, U:fon offers both prepaid and fixed-term contracts, with 90 percent of its customers choosing two-year contracts, which come with subsidized handsets, said Jana Studničková, the company’s spokeswoman.
The market’s third-largest operator, Vodafone, has railed against fixed-term contracts. The operator most recently announced that, as of June 9, its prepaid customers would be offered per-minute rates equal to that of its contract customers, thanks to a rate system that scales according to the amount spent. No other telecom in the country offers a similar plan.
U:fon’s operator, Mobilkom, is owned by the Czech-Slovak private equity group Penta Investments, which also controls the betting firm Fortuna and the aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody, among other investments.

Paul Voosen can be reached at pvoosen@praguepost.com


Other articles in Business (18/06/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.