AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Dutch telecommunication company Royal KPN NV (KPN) Thursday said its German mobile unit E-Plus will introduce a flat fee for mobile phone use in Germany under the brand BASE on August 1.
With BASE, mobile phone users pay a flat fee of EUR25 per month, which covers all calls to a German landline, all calls and text messages to other BASE and E-Plus customers as well as calls to the mailbox.
KPN said that besides the flat fee element, calls to other mobile networks are also transparently and advantageously priced at 25 eurocents per minute round the clock and 19 eurocents per SMS.
BASE supplies the SIM card only, meaning that customers do not have to pay for a subsidised handset through call costs.
As well as lower prices, BASE also offers customers 12-month contracts instead of the usual 24.
In line with its move from a push to a customer pull strategy, E-Plus is moving away from a single brand and is now pursuing a multi-brand strategy, focussed on different segments.
The flat fee brand BASE is aimed at average and frequent users who want a mobile phone contract, whilst the recently introduced mobile discount brand simyo is aimed at low usage callers with prepaid cards.
KPN first introduced the BASE brand in Belgium in 2003.
Company Web site: http://www.kpn.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 28th July 2005
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/13587.php