P4 Plays hardball
Mobile-services operator P4 finally unveiled the brand name of its mobile services. The new brand on the market will be called Play.
"We will make a difference. We will bring changes to the Polish market," said Chris Bannister, P4's CEO. "We're not like those fat elephants which don't bring anything new to the market," he added.
P4 is currently setting up its transmission infrastructure. "We plan to have 1,500 transmission towers by the end of the year," Bannister said. He added that by the end of Q1 the number of towers should reach 200. Although P4 won the tender for the GSM frequencies in May 2005, its launching has been postponed by a change in environmental law which makes it harder to get permission to set up transmission towers. Bannister added that at the moment P4 has been granted permission to set up 500 towers. The company predicts that initially its network will cover Warsaw and Tri-city. At the end of 2007 around 20 percent of Poland should be covered.
Just before revealing the new brand name, P4 took more concrete steps to build solid foundations for the company. Cypriot fund Tollerton Investments acquired 22 percent of P4's shares, which in return obtained mobile-products distribution company Germanos and its two distribution subsidiaries.
"The purchase of Germanos allows us to have the best customer reach and access to the most professional Polish retail sales force," Bannister said. The acquisition gives P4's Play access to 300 sales outlets. P4's gain is PTC's loss as Germanos was the Era brand operator's biggest distribution partner.
According to a statement from PTC, Germanos informed the operator of its intention to terminate the agreement between the two parties last week. "We are looking into the details. We will do everything in our power not to let it affect the availability of our services and products to our customers," PTC's statement read.
One option for PTC might be to court stock-listed Tell, which is now the second-largest mobile-phone services dealer after Germanos, following its zł.20 million acquisition of 100 Havo outlets last week. Tell has focused to date on the sale of Orange services, but also wants to sell Era and Plus services.
