The connection fees charged by telecom operators globally vary from one day to another, similar to stock exchange, especially for Romanian operators that offer free international calls, says Stefanos Theocharopoulos, CEO Cosmote Romania.
“The connection fees on the international telephony industry are not regulated, and the prices depend on global policy, being some kind of a stock exchange. All operators seek the best connection fees, together with a higher quality,” Stefanos Theocharopoulos (photo) stated.
From the standpoint of seeing tariffs as prices on capital markets, Theocharopoulos finds it hard to say whether it is profitable or not to offer free international calls in the packages with subscription.
The operator has recently turned free national outgoing calls packages together with free calls offered to prepay cards users into free international calls to landline operators in European Union and to mobile and landline telephony operators in United States and Canada.
According to Cosmote Romania’s CEO, the company’s main priorities for next year are developing wap services, and drawing new corporate clients. “We grow at a similar rapid pace with the other players, and the climbing on this segment is significant. Next year we will focus on drawing a larger number of clients by developing new services and upgrading WAP service”, Theocharopoulos added.
By yearend, Cosmote and Romtelecom will launch a joint product and as of first quarter next year Cosmote clients will be able to pay the phone bills online.
In second quarter, the company posted 63.6 million euros income, up 75.4% compared to previous year. Post-paid incomes rose 119% while pre-paid incomes soared 71% from similar period of last year.
Cosmote Romania posted an operating profit before write-off of 5 million euros in second quarter 2008.
In second
