Telekom Austria Has Success with Combi-Packages

Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Telekom Austria logo

VIENNA — Fixed net business in Austria continues to be in an intensive competitive situation with mobile communications providers. At year-end 2008, 75% of telephone minutes took place via mobile communication networks and approximately one-third of all broadband access lines in Austria were conducted with mobile data cards.

The fixed net continues to lose access lines; however, compared to 2007 the trend slowed down in 2008. In 2008 Telekom Austria TA AG lost 97,600 fixed net access lines, in 2007 the figure was as high as 224,500. At year-end 2008 the trend momentarily stopped and there was even a turnaround. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Telekom Austria TA AG, said: “In Christmas sales 2008 in November and December for the first time in 12 years we turned around the negative trend in access lines. That is a historic stage win in the fixed net!” In November 2008 Christmas sales resulted in slightly positive net growth, and in December 2008 there was a net win of 2,580 access lines.

This success was possible with the consistent marketing of innovative combi-packages (Kombipakete). In 2008 a total of 334,800 Kombipakete were sold. The fixed net with up to 3 SIM cards and a broadband access line for EUR 19.90 was very popular. In Christmas sales alone roughly 100,000 aonKombis were sold. The mobile telephony offer contained in the package was used by 199,500 at year-end 2008. At the end of December 2007 only 30,500 used it. This makes aonMobil the fastest growing mobile telephony offer in Austria. Altogether at the end of December 2008, Telekom Austria had 818,900 broadband retail and 66,800 broadband wholesale customers. This is a rise of 153,700 retail customers and a decrease of 18,600 wholesale customers.

The development was also very positive in terms of aonTV customers. They rose from 10,930 at the end of December 2007 to 63,800 at the end of December 2008. Customers from Telekom Austria who decided on the aonSuperKombi package including aonTV have high customer satisfaction and great loyalty to the company. Ametsreiter: “With the Kombipaket and also with aonTV we demonstrate the achievement potential of the fixed net. We are going to gradually raise the fixed net’s range of services. Those who cancel the fixed net today will miss out on the future.” aonTV customers are increasingly using the integrated video library as well. This is shown in December 2008 where a total of 112,000 movies, series and documentaries were accessed.

The marketing of all the products from Telekom Austria TA AG was intensively supported by the new brand positioning and the new advertising line. According to the European Branding Institute, since 2008 the brand “Telekom Austria” is one of Austria’s ten most valuable brands.

Hannes Ametsreiter took over the position of Telekom Austria TA AG on January 1, 2009. “I am convinced that in the long-term we will succeed in bringing the fixed net into a phase of customer growth. Besides growth, primarily investment in new technologies and efficiency are the most important strategic cornerstones,” said Ametsreiter about his goals.