Golden Telekom Announces Air Attack
// The company’s new tariffs for Wi-Fi turned out to be by 25-50 percent lower than those of their competitors
A new war of prices begins at Moscow’s broadband access market. Golden Telekom holding (GT) yesterday published tariffs for using its new municipal Wi-Fi network. They turned out to be by 25-50 percent lower than those of their competitors. GT believes that aggressive marketing will allow it to connect up to 400,000 subscribers in four years. Experts are skeptical of such plans, saying that low quality of Wi-Fi connection and limited access to extra services will scare away many potential subscribers.
Golden Telekom published surprisingly low tariffs for connecting new subscribers to its Wi-Fi network. Unlimited access for one month (GT promises speed of up to 54 Mb/s) will cost just 500 rubles.
Beside low tariffs, GT said, the project’s competitive advantage will be fast and free connection to the network, without laying extra cable into apartment. Unlike other providers, GT offers the “box” method of connection.
Analysts think that GT’s aggressive tariff policy might trigger a war of prices at Moscow’s broadband access market. GT’s competitors disagree, however, saying that already connected subscribers will not change their providers to GT out of their passivity, and that new subscribers might be scared away by technological problems of Wi-Fi network.
Valery Kodachigov, Inna Erokhina
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 25, 2007
|
