The alternative mobile operator now offers LTE and launches new MAXI package
by Raymond Johnston
Mobile virtual network operator OpenCall has been using O2 about 10 months ago, and the transition has been very successful. OpenCall mobile is the number one MVNO in the Czech Republic on the foreigners’ market segment. Expats and other people living in the Czech Republic often do not want to get caught up into a long-term phone service contract, and prefer to use a MVNO that lets you pay as you go. OpenCall powered by O2 offers some of the lowest rates on international calls.
“Over the last 10 months we have managed to successfully migrate the majority of our clients from the Vodafone network to the O2 network. At the same time, we haven’t stopped working on our product with O2. We can offer greater services to our clients and also increase our market segment — for example, with LTE or with a new flat tariff package launched few days ago,” said Vincent Charollais, CEO of DH Telecom, which operates OpenCall powered by O2.
LTE increases the speed and capacity over previous platforms, but customers won’t be paying more. “There is no price difference between our new LTE package and our previous data package. We are still offering data packages starting from CZK 99 per month, but we now offer a much greater data experience to our customers,” he said.
One package available is OpenCall Maxi, a flat tariff at a fixed price of CZK 799. It includes unlimited calls to Czech Republic, 1.5 GB of data and 150 minutes to selected countries worldwide. “It competes with contractual offers from our competitors, but the difference is that you can activate it from any prepaid OpenCall SIM card without further commitments. It is very convenient for expats and foreigners in the Czech Republic; they can easily activate the package only for the months when they are here, and, of course, there is no contract,” Vincent Charollais said.
Since it is a pre-paid service, there are always new customers joining and others leaving. But the overall figures are stronger. “Today we can say that after 10 months of cooperation with O2, we have a larger customer base and turnover than we had on the Vodafone network,” he said.
OpenCall offers anonymous prepaid services, so the company doesn’t have exact details about the client base. “Of course we analyze all available data. We, for example, know that about half of our clients are using our services for calling abroad. There is quite a big portion of clients that use our SIM cards only for calling abroad,”.
“As we have great prices for both domestic and foreign calls from the beginning we have been focusing on all people living and working in the Czech Republic, and we have adapted our customer service to all major groups. Currently our info line is conducting about 70 percent of calls in the Czech language, 12 percent in Bulgarian, 8 percent in Vietnamese and the rest of calls in English and Russian. We also plan to expand our team for Romanian support,” he said.
In the following months OpenCall will be focusing on a website redesign to ensure a better user experience for clients and to have fully responsive page. “And of course we are continuously working on improving our product portfolio with many surprises to come,” he concluded.
OpenCall mobile launched in September 2013 and is one of the most successful MVNO on the Czech market.
For more visit www.opencall.cz
