KPN Unit E-Plus To Launch Turkish Mobile Brand In Germany

FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- Royal KPN NV's (KPN) German wireless arm, E-Plus, said Friday that it will launch a Turkish brand targeted at the 2.6 million Turks living in Germany.

E-Plus said the new prepaid service will charge EUR0.29 a minute for all calls to Turkish and German wireless and fixed networks. Sending a text message to any network in Germany or Turkey will cost EUR0.14.

Consumers will pay a one-off charge of EUR19.95, which includes a EUR10 call credit. E-Plus said it will launch the offering, called Ay Yildiz, Oct. 17.

Earlier this year, E-Plus launched two new discount mobile phone products in Germany, called Simyo and BASE.

Simyo offers SIM cards online with discount rates for calls, while BASE allows users to pay a flat fee of EUR25 a month, which covers all calls to German landlines, and all calls and text messages to other BASE and E-Plus customers.

E-Plus is banking on a multi-brand strategy as it battles Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), Vodafone Group PLC (VOD), O2 PLC (OOM.LN) and several service providers for business.

Company Web site: http://www.eplus.de

-By Frankfurt Bureau; Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 500; djnews.frankfurt@dowjones.com

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Posted to the site on 14th October 2005