Press Releases

Budapest, May 16, 2006 12:00

In the first two months following the market entry over ten thousand customers selected EUfonika, the wireline telephone service offered at favorable rates in Romania. The service was launched by Combridge the Romanian subsidiary of Magyar Telekom, which extensively relies on the international technological, innovation and marketing experience of the parent company. Since the start of EUfonika at the end of February an advance call center service was launched as well, the sales channels were expanded with an extensive sales agent network, and the focus of marketing communication shifted from national to local level. As a result of these activities and an intensive advertising campaign EUfonika now has a solid foothold in the Romanian market, and as a result its customer base is expanding currently by 10 percent a week.

EUfonika service is very popular in Bucharest where over 20% of the residential customers live. 19% of the EUfonika customers live in the areas of Cluj/Kolozs, Timiş/Temes and Hunedoara/Hunyad counties, while 61 % of them use the service in other areas of Romania. Many of these customers live in country towns and villages not covered by the alternative telecom operators, and in counties where EUfonika service is used for cheap communication with friends and relatives working in the EU. The service is especially popular among the cost-conscious middle-aged or elderly population, the age group above 40 makes up nearly 71 percent of the customers.

During the past two months the experts of Combridge operating as the subsidiary of Magyar Telekom have launched supplementary technical solutions which made the service available also to business customers as from May 1. By using EUfonika Business Call service the phone calls to domestic long distance directions are 20% cheaper on the average, and as much as 40% can be saved on international calls by business customers with Romtelecom subscription. Unlike the residential customers, the company and institutional customers do not have to dial the normal EUfonika prefix of 1688, as these customers are connected to the system by using a special technical solution.

The business tariffs are basically the same as the residential ones; for example, a domestic long distance call costs 4.3 euro cents per minute from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and 3.2 euro cents per minute in other periods of the day for both subscriber groups. In addition, EUfonika offers further, special discounts to the business partners based on usage volumes and call directions. The balance of the two weeks passed since the implementation of the business service: 120 telephone lines used the service and negotiations were underway with over 100 customers.

EUfonika also developed the administrative activities associated with conclusion of agreements, to allow the customers to access the service within a shorter time frame. When signing the contract residential customers are allowed 25 minutes of free calls to test the service. In this way conclusion of the agreement does not impose commitments of any kind on the customers, it just creates an opportunity for cheap phone calls over the long term. When presenting the dynamic growth of the customer base of EUfonika, Levente Csenteri managing director of Combridge emphasized: "We acquired ten thousand customers during this initial phase of service development which is fully in line with our preliminary expectations. Ten thousand customers have already realized that EUfonika is simple to use, risk-free and very economical. Nearly fifty million people use similar services in the European Union, and clearly an increasing number of customers are happy in Romania to enjoy the freedom of selecting the most favorable service provider on a call-by-call basis."