The Orange and Vodafone campaign comes a few months after RCS&RDS, no. 1 on the fixed internet market with over 1.2 million clients, launched a nationwide network of several hundred hotspots, including in the subway. The RCS&RDS network can be accessed free of charge for one hour a day by any user with a device equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity, even if they are not RCS&RDS clients.
Is this campaign a response to RCS&RDS’ developing the Wi-FI network? Orange representatives say this has been planned for some time.
“The upgrading of the network that provides mobile data services in the Bucharest subway is part of a strategy involving the metropolitan area. This strategy also entails the launch of 43.2 Mbps mobile data services above-ground, improving indoor coverage (femtocell solutions are a first for the Romanian telecom market), HD voice. All this entails a significant budget effort, which was planned a long time in advance. It was also then that the current promotional offer was also decided,” Vanina Ungureanu, Business Division Manager of Orange Romania, told ZF.
Asked whether France Telecom was planning to offer free-of-charge data services in other countries, Vanina Ungureanu said she did not have information on similar offers in other countries in the Orange group.
In a statement to ZF, Inaki Berroeta, CEO of Vodafone Romania specified the local subsidiary of the British group will also soon launch free-of-charge services for the subway, with the technical solution having already been implemented.
“We have already finalized a 3G/HSDPA mobile internet solution in the Bucharest subway, which covers all stations and tunnels,” Berroeta told ZF. “Vodafone clients will be able to access mobile internet for free within the confines of the subway soon. We wanted to launch our solution together with the results of a new set of measurements conducted by independent auditor P3 communications on the networks of mobile data in Romania. They will be made public soon and we hope they will reconfirm our position as leader in terms of performance, speed and coverage of our network.”
What is the target audience for the data services provided by Orange, RCS&RDS and, soon by Vodafone in the subway? During the weekdays, more than 600,000 people travel by subway, while during the weekend, their number is around 250,000, according to Metrorex data.
Orange, which launched this free internet offer on November 1, had 40,000 clients in the subway for its data services, Vanina Ungureanu specified for ZF.
Orange had 4.3 million clients at the end of September for mobile data services. Vodafone has not reported its number of 3G clients since March 2009, when it had 1.135 million clients.
Asked by ZF whether they plan to launch similar services, officials of Cosmote Romania, no. 3 on the local mobile communications market, had not answered by the time this story was posted.
How is the offer of the mobile phone operators different from that of RCS&RDS?
RCS&RDS’ services are provided through Wi-FI technology, so they are accessible only in subway stations and in the nearby area, while the data services of Orange (and Vodafone) are available inside the tunnels.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)