NOM hopes new ad campaign may help resolve billing dispute with TPSA

Independent long-distance telephone operator NOM is launching a new advertising campaign today, aimed at strengthening its image opposite dominant competitor TPSA. The campaign, featuring the rocket-like lift-off of Warsaw landmark the Palace of Culture, is being launched five months after NOM began its operations. The company hopes that the advertisements, to be carried on billboards, as well as in the press and on television, will also indirectly help it resolve a dispute with TPSA. A demand by TPSA that new long-distance operators bill their customers separately has been rejected by NOM, claiming this would markedly increase its costs and limit the sphere of its activities. NOM spokesman Marcin Gruszka commented that the advertising campaign, since it would raise the company's profile, might force the telecoms authorities to do something about the dispute. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Nov. 17-18, p. 31) M.T.K.