(#11)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Guru
Posts: 1,211
Join Date: 06 Feb 2005
Location: Swidnik-home, Lublin-work
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20-06-2006, 09:07
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(#12)
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The great Dictator!
Prepaid Prophet
Posts: 2,487
Join Date: 13 Jan 2004
Location: Trieste/Trst
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20-06-2006, 11:06
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Anyway as Przemolog said, fortunately there's not anohter statal operator in Poland! Deceased Prepaids: CZ: Oskar, Eurotel; SK: Orange; DE: E-Plus, Aldi, Simyo; GE: Geocell; AM: Armentel; PL: Heyah, Plus; LT: Tele2; LV: Amigo; EE: Elisa; UA: Kyivstar; NZ: Vodafone; INT: UM, UM+, ICQSim. GSM/3G Phones: Nokia Lumia 630 dual sim |
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(#13)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Pioneer
Posts: 573
Join Date: 15 Jun 2006
Location: Berlin
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20-06-2006, 16:20
I agree that TPSA being sold to France Telecom was a very bad idea; FT was itself (and is) another state-run, bureaucratic "national champion" that had nothing really to offer TPSA apart from a French-government-guaranteed cashflow. For many years, Poland had some of the highest telephone prices anywhere, simply because the government avoided introducing competition to "protect" TPSA, even though it ultimately sold it to France.
France's mobile market is overpriced and suffers low penetration and low adoption of features (SMS is not very popular in France) precisely because Orange is so dominant and #2 SFR is seen only as a cash cow by majority owner Vivendi; no doubt Vodafone would liven the market up a lot there if Vivendi would sell it its share for a reasonable price (ie, not the 20 billion euros they once suggested). Elektrim was an example of a Polish company that did have expertise in this area (and it still has influence in Era, as its consortium with Vivendi (again, same issues) has 51 percent of PTK, and thus can tell T-Mobile what to do). But the companies that own the rest of Polkomtel have nothing to do with telecommunications (coal, oil, steel); it's just an equity stake for them. In this context, the company would probably be better off in Vodafone's hands; at the very least they might do things such as make it possible to top up an account outside Poland, and end the incredibly stupid policy of having prepaid cards expire rapidly without frequent, relatively expensive topups, which is one of the best ways to lose a customer to the "competition" without winning new ones. Former DE: Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Blauworld, 01051mobile, Solomo, Lycamobile, Simyo, Congstar, Fonic, Edeka Mobile, Lidl Mobile; PL: Heyah, Era, Virgin, Sami Swoi, Orange, POP, iPlus, Carrefour Mova, Telepin Mobi, Play, Lycamobile, T-Mobile; UK: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Virgin; US: T-Mobile, AT&T, Lycamobile; CZ: Vodafone, Oskar; ES: Lebara; GR: Vodafone, Wind; UA: Vodafone; IL: Orange; TR: Turkcell |
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(#14)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Guru
Posts: 1,211
Join Date: 06 Feb 2005
Location: Swidnik-home, Lublin-work
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21-06-2006, 11:29
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(#15)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Guru
Posts: 1,211
Join Date: 06 Feb 2005
Location: Swidnik-home, Lublin-work
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21-06-2006, 12:19
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As to prices, basically you're right but those money were used also for modernisation of landline network. Telephone services until early 1990's were horrible here.... Quote:
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a wholesale telecommunications operator. Quote:
Polkomtel prepaids have the best expiration rules among Polish prepaids. After expiration of incoming calls, a 1-year "waiting period" starts in which no credit is lost and the SIM is theoretically "hybernated" but you can still receive calls. Sami Swoi has an 80 PLN top-up which extends the validity for outgoing calls by 7 months (11,43 PLN/month - the best offer on the market coupled with lowest national rates and free VM). Of course, things can always be better but please don't tell that Voda would radically improve Plus offer. Believe me - even now it's a very good offer as for such an underdeveloped country:P. As to prepaids, Plus is the only one in Poland to offer: - HSCSD - 3G data transmissions/videocalls - special SIM with low data rates - e-mail2sms gateway - free e-mail account with instant SMS notification - PushToTalk - SMS top-ups with direct charging the credit/debit card - Pay4Me collect calls - SMS to CDMA networks |
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(#16)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Pioneer
Posts: 573
Join Date: 15 Jun 2006
Location: Berlin
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21-06-2006, 13:10
Actually, my complaint about the prepaids is more basic than that. The amount of account activity you get per topup is not very generous, and only PTC allow account validity to accumulate (buy 50 Zl, it adds 3 months; buy another 50 and it goes up to 6 months), but only to a maximum of 1 year. Compare that to, say, 2/3 of Czech operators, where it lasts 1 year or 15 months, typical for most prepaid countries. I realize that the per-minute price, and some of the features, in Poland are very good (I've been a customer of all of them), but there has only been slight movement on this; PTC only introduced cumulative validity about a year ago. (And before Heyah came along, all the prepaid deals were poor value: 1.50 a minute, 60-second billing, and 3 months expiration for 50 Zl.
The problem with the rapid expiration and non-cumulative credit is it discourages new users, who might not be willing to spend 200 Zl per year (at least not at first); in Germany the minimum spend per year is only 20 ?, in Italy as little as 3?, and in the UK and elsewhere basically nothing. Poland has a relatively low penetration rate (even so, nearly 80 percent), but elsewhere the slack has been taken up by prepaid. Polish operators seed the market with super-cheap starter packs, but I'd be surprised if more than a small fraction turn into long-term customers, simply because of the overall cost and frequency of recharges necessary; I know a couple of older people who found it to be "too much trouble" before they had a chance to discover just how useful a mobile phone could be. I'm not sure the 1-year "receive calls" period is all that useful. When my Orange card (the worst offender) ran out, I put it away for good; the incessant "recharge within three months or lose all your credit forever" was too annoying; what if I was abroad? It's better than total account cancellation, but it's not very friendly, and this kind of pricing policy does little to retain users. Many people in Poland I know are on their fifth or sixth mobile number; there's a very high churn rate, not surprising when each account expires so quickly and long-term customership isn't rewarded. Considering how much operators elsewhere pay to retain customers, this is very surprising. Sami Swoi has a 7-month account activity for 80 Zl recharge, but again, it isn't cumulative (and their website has no useful features, and their software doesn't work properly, and they let you choose either GPRS or roaming but not both). FWIW, my Heyah card is maxed out to 1 year (they really do mean 365 days; charge more, and you might even lose a couple of days!). BTW, you're right, copper not steel. I was writing from memory. Former DE: Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Blauworld, 01051mobile, Solomo, Lycamobile, Simyo, Congstar, Fonic, Edeka Mobile, Lidl Mobile; PL: Heyah, Era, Virgin, Sami Swoi, Orange, POP, iPlus, Carrefour Mova, Telepin Mobi, Play, Lycamobile, T-Mobile; UK: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Virgin; US: T-Mobile, AT&T, Lycamobile; CZ: Vodafone, Oskar; ES: Lebara; GR: Vodafone, Wind; UA: Vodafone; IL: Orange; TR: Turkcell |
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(#17)
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Senior Member
Prepaid Guru
Posts: 1,211
Join Date: 06 Feb 2005
Location: Swidnik-home, Lublin-work
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21-06-2006, 15:36
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I think that now Polish operators want to make millions of new "virtula" customers (=millions of activated SIMs in drawers or trashbin ) than to really keep them. Quote:
And, I like Sami Swoi website - I appreciate there's no much stupid graphics there and I like green colour . |
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