The local market of pre-paid mobile phone card users - whichamounts to over 15 million active sim cards at the end of last year- has in the past three years been the scene of one of the mostspectacular and aggressive commercial fights among Orange, Vodafoneand Cosmote - the biggest players on the mobile communicationsmarket. In just three years' time, the number of minutes and SMSesoffered to card users has risen more than 15 times, while fees haveremained more or less the same: from around 200 on-net minutes andSMSes offered ahead of the 2007 winter holidays, to somewherebetween 3,000 to 5,000 on net minutes at present. How can theseaggressive changes in the offers of the three players be explained?The regulations introduced in the past few years, which encouragedcompetition among mobile phone operators, have played a key part inthe emergence of such offers, says Cătălin Marinescu, president ofthe Regulatory Communications Authority (ANCOM). "The offerslaunched by mobile and fixed telephony operators are the result ofmarket competition, which has been promoted and encouraged by ANCOMthrough the measures taken over the course of time, from the smoothauthorisation process for providers through to regulatinginterconnection fees and liberalising the GSM band," saysMarinescu, adding that the introduction of phone numberportability, which allows users to change network without losingtheir number, played an important part on the mobile communicationsmarket.
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