The telephone operator from Monaco, alloyed to Vivendi, announced the opening of the UMTS, the high speed mobile network, before the end of summer. A première…
Monaco is likely to use the UMTS, the network of third generation mobiles, before France. The new standard allows high speed exchanges on mobiles (until 2 megabits per second, what ensures the spreading of pictures and videos); it is going to be experimented before summer 2000, by Monaco Telecom. This is one of the news announced at the beginning of the week, when the figures of the first accounts of Monaco Telecom alloyed to Vivendi were presented. (Cegetel that has got 51% of the parts of the operator from Monaco, had replaced the historic partner, France Telecom, in June 1999)
It made it clear that the opening of the UMTS would come up as a technical and commercial test led in collaboration with Cegetel and Vivendi. Therefore, Monaco Telecom could get the UMTS licence in the Principality, what should allow it to serve also the area of Nice. In France, the UMTS will not work before 2002, while the modes of the licence attributions are only just starting to be studied. Thus, Monaco Telecom and Vivendi could take the lead over the others, even if the experiment may slow down as the third generation mobiles (phones allowing to use the UMTS standard) have not still come out.
Other plans were announced : a new decrease in the fares towards France, what leads the discount up to 40% in one year; the launching of a local access to Internet, Monaco 377.com, interfaced with a local gate, Happymonaco.com. In the same day, Monaco Telecom, that is growing on all the niches, also inaugurated its call centre. Moreover, from a symbolic click, the Prince Albert de Monaco had to inaugurate two new subsidiaries created for the activities : Monaco Telecom Multimedia, specialized in the Internet content and the Telecom service Company from Monaco, in charge of the 'call centre'.
Some figures were also given : in 1999, Monaco Telecom made a 562 MF turnover for a net result of 75 MF. Its gross operating surplus amounted to 210 MF, i.e. it accounted for 38% of its turnover, while the staff was about 183 people in late 1999. For next year, the aim is to reach a 750 MF turnover. This is a realistic result if the three-year contract, that was got for the management of the mobile network of Kosovo, comes to be added…