Bright future or a bad Idea?
PTK Centertel created quite the fuss when changing Idea to its parent company's Orange brand. Sting was flown in to sing its praises, and some said it was a sign of things to come. But although PTK seems only too happy to ring in the change from Idea to France Telecom's international mobile brand, Polkomtel (owner of Plus GSM) and PTC (owner of Era) aren't following suit.
However, the decision to keep it local has more to do with boardroom brawling than marketing nous. Ownership uncertainties at the top of both operators have paralyzed their operations.
"That is the major obstacle. As long as these things remain unclear, they will be unable to rebrand and no one will do that because there is no one to take the decision," says Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk, a CEE telecom analyst for Deutsche Bank.
Although Vodafone's chief executive reaffirmed his company's interest in gaining a controlling stake in Polkomtel last week, it's unlikely to happen until after the new government takes office, since three state-controlled companies (PKN Orlen, KGHM, and the Polish Power Grid) together own a nearly 60-percent stake in Polkomtel.
"First, we need to wait for the government elections. Second, we need to wait for the management changes in all these companies," says Kaczmarczyk. "Then, all these managements need to decide what their attitude is towards the mobile stake in Polkomtel, and then, they need to decide if they will cooperate. Then they can make an offer to Vodafone."
Era looks further away than ever from its own switch to the T-Mobile brand (Deutsche Telekom's mobile alias). Deutsche Telekom is embroiled in a court battle for ownership of PTC that shows no signs of being resolved.
"A year and a half ago I was of the opinion that Era would be the first [to rebrand]," says Tomasz Kulisiewicz, an independent IT analyst. Now, he says: "I cannot imagine how they can do it."
Netia, which won a tender for UMTS frequencies this summer, will also join the fray, though most likely under a domestic brand name. However, their entire infrastructure remains to be built and optimistic estimates have the operator entering the market at the end of 2006. Even then, analysts are skeptical that the entity will be able to offer lower prices, since Netia will have to recoup the costs of building the network.
The upshot is that Centertel has the luxury of making a major brand shift without resorting to lower prices to keep its customers. Iwona Kosman, marketing director at Centertel, says: "Prices are not the most important for us." Prepaid phone tariffs, and subscription rates have remained roughly unchanged.
The other major names will be in a similar position, if they rebrand, since customers won't be bombarded with new choices all at once - a situation from which the clients, says Kaczmarczyk, "clearly will not benefit."
