Q & A

Do you think the number of mobile users can grow further?
It certainly can. As long as there are people who do not have a mobile phone, there is still room for further growth. There is also room for growth in terms of SIM card numbers - many people use two or more phones/cards. Very often, they have both their own private phone and a business phone number; some customers use one SIM card for calls and another one for data services. According to our estimates, up to 15 percent of customers have more than one active SIM card.
The third area where we activate new SIM cards and where I can see great room for further growth are telemetric services in the case of which SIM cards are used within industrial and other applications.

Where will you find new clients?
Penetration is close to reaching its maximum and so while fighting for new clients, operators also often compete for the clients of another operator. We are very successful in this area, which is confirmed by the fact that we have the highest number of standard tariff users (over a million) and we serve the largest number of corporate clients.

What do you think the real mobile phone penetration is among Czech users?
Client numbers are distorted by different methodologies for the calculation of the number of active clients. I think that the number of phone numbers in the Czech market which are really used is up to a million lower, as people obtained these SIM cards from their operators for CZK 1, used up the credit and then put the SIM card in the drawer or threw it away. The figures are also lower due to the fact that many people have two or more mobile phones as well as due to the use of SIM cards within telemetric applications - this may make up approximately more than a million. This way, we will get the real user numbers, which may be slightly less than eight million. There are thus still around two million Czechs who do not have a mobile phone yet. According to our rough estimates, penetration is thus around 80 percent. This is significantly less than the 99.4 percent penetration according to the officially published figures.

Are you trying to agree with other operators on unifying the method of calculating the number of active clients?
Each operator uses its own methodology and no activities leading to unifying the methodologies have been initiated so far. Nevertheless, I believe that it would have a positive influence on the transparency of the market. This way, it is really hard to compare the individual operators.

Your ARPU has dropped, when do you expect it to grow?
You are right that ARPU dropped year-on-year from CZK 489 to CZK 470. Nevertheless, we recorded a slight growth in the last quarter. I believe that we will now be able to keep this figure stable. This is also confirmed by the increase in the number of contract customers who are the most valuable customers for every operator. We are also successful in introducing value-added services which our clients like and use frequently.

Twitter

Facebook

Share:

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.