Zapp sets sights on 400,000 subscribers

The strategy of communications operator Telemobil-Zapp of establishing distribution partnerships with the major IT&C retail chains Germanos, Depozitul de Calculatoare and Flamingo Computers together with the significant funding it secured for its development programme are starting to pay off, says the company technical director, Victor Stan.

The company’s plans for its customer base are very bold: the attraction of approximately 120,000 new subscribers by the end of the year, with the total number set to reach 400,000 by January 1, 2006, said Stan.

He also announced that the number of subscribers for their high-speed mobile Internet service Zapp Internet Express had already reached 6,000 in the three months since its launch.

Telemobil recently completed the third phase of its development following investment of more than 50 million dollars. “We currently cover 70% of the country and 80% of the population,” Stan explained.

Telemobil’s expansion plans are based on the loan agreement it concluded last month and have a value of 94 million dollars.

From this amount, 40 million euros were arranged by Bank Austria Creditanstalt/ HVB Romania and Raiffeisen Bank Romania as coordinating banks, with the remaining amounts secured in the form of subordinated loans from the American Ex-Im Bank through Citibank Romania and Black Sea Trade Development Bank.

The loan arrangement matures in seven years.

“The funds will support work on the fourth phase of network development. Work will begin in April and be concluded in the second half of the year when we will be able to offer our customers coverage similar to that of the GSM operators, i.e. 78% of the country and 90% of the population,” the Telemobil technical director said.

“Telemobil is the largest US investment in Romania (through the Qualcomm Group) and has been financially self-sufficient for about a year and half in that it covers its operating expenses from its revenues. The loans have a definite purpose: first development, and then refinancing of previous loans,” the Zapp representative explained. victor@zf.ro