TALLINN - Estonia got another mobile telecommunications operator last week, as Diil, a subsidiary of EMT, launched services on Nov. 20. EMT officials said the new company would target clients with basic needs such as conversation, text and SMS messaging, as well as paying for parking and buying lottery tickets.
"We would like to sell our product as a basic commodity like bread or milk," said Riho Jurvetson, director of Diil. "We have a vast distribution network that makes us different from Bravocom," he added, referring the company that also started offering mobile services under the Zorro trademark this month.
"Our entry to the market is mostly connected with the number mobility rather than with Bravocom's arrival," said Jurve-tson.
He said product development and initial marketing costs would run about 500,000 kroons (32,500 euros).
"We would be glad to win about 2,500 clients by the end of the year and fully earn back the initial investment money in 1.5 years," he said.
On Nov. 22 the company reported that it had mustered 250 clients in the first two days of work.
Diil, which is marketing itself as a discount operator, will rent EMT's network facilities, which according to experts provide the strongest signal across the country.
In addition to Bravocom, Diil ("deal" in conversational Estonian) also joins EMT, Radiolinja and Tele2 on an increasingly robust market.
Tele2 said it was considering a change in its prices to remain the cheapest mobile telecommunications operator and to widen the gap between itself and Diil.
Jaanus Lillenberg, marketing and product development director of Bravocom, said the company would not alter its business plan after Diil's arrival. "What we are doing now had been planned a long time ago. We do not depend upon someone's bringing a new service package to the market or not," he said.
The main difference between Diil and Bravocom, which rents Radiolinja's network and offers prepaid GSM cards and contract options, is that Bravocom is an independent company with a 24-hour customer-support hotline and its own equipment.
"It does tickle our vanity a little that EMT has decided to apply Bravocom's business model," Bravocom manager Peep Poldsamm told the Baltic News Service last week.
In Lillenberg's opinion, more virtual operators such as Diil will be popping up in the near future, trying to offer attractive price schemes. Indeed, another such operator, ViaTel, was scheduled to begin operations in December.
"It has to be either a different product or a different sales strategy," Lillenberg commented, adding that prices would remain the focus for consumers.
Even though it is being marketed as a budget service, Diil is not the cheapest. Prepaid GSM cards are available for 49 kroons (compared with the competitors' 59 kroons - 150 kroons) and include conversation and messaging services. Extra time can be purchased in 49-kroon parcels (as opposed to 100-, 200- and 500-kroon parcels with competitors). One minute of conversation with a Diil card will cost 1.49 kroons - 2.99 kroons (compared with 0.8 kroon - 3.9 kroons at other companies).
Calls through Diil are measured in 10-second portions, not in one-second portions as with leading, higher-end operators.
Diil's most innovative service is that a client can choose the time of the day when the calls will be cheaper (like choosing the "night" tariff) and can later change that preference any time once a day.
EMT is a division of the Eesti Telekom group, which is 49.9 percent owned by TeliaSonera.