BUCHAREST, Romania-A subsidiary of Canada’s Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) won the third Czech Republic mobile telephone license in September. The price tag for the GSM 1800 license was fixed at US$29 million.
The license requires Cesky Mobile, the TIW subsidiary, to cover 37 percent of the population by 8 January 2000. However, TIW
doesn’t expect to be at “full-blown commercial service” by that date, said Mark Boutet, TIW director of communications.
The operator does have aggressive roll-out plans, with a schedule for full service covering 95 percent of the country by the end of 2000. Trial calls began in October, said Boutet.
Ericsson and Siemens were selected as the network suppliers, and at press time, some sites were built or under construction. The US$200 million contract with Ericsson includes the company’s General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system, along with mobile switching and intelligent network equipment.
Cesky Mobile will be just as aggressive in regard to pricing, with plans for both post- and prepaid options. The company plans to offer 40 minutes of airtime-35 minutes of off-peak time and five minutes of peak time-for 10 Czech korunas per month (49 U.S. cents) with no activation charges, said Boutet.
TIW’s partners in the venture are Investicn
