Plus to become Vodafone, Idea to become Orange?

The third largest Polish mobile phone operator, Polkomtel (Plus GSM), is holding talks with its shareholders Vodafone and TDC over a possible brand merger. "We are looking in greater detail to pick up the brand which would be most profitable for us," said Polkomtel's deputy chairman Robert Krawczyk. According to sources the best runner in the race is Vodafone. The so far policy adopted by the foreign owners of the Polish brands was the one of evasion. The first one to mention the possibility of a brand name change was TPSA. Early in August, TPSA's deputy chairman Bertrand Le Guern informed that by the end of this year, his company would make a decision whether to change its Idea brand name into the pan-European Orange one. Orange, controlled by France Telekom, hold 34% in Centertel telecom operator (IDEA). According to Krawczyk, the change of brand name will also depend on how well the new name will be received by the market as Plus is recognized by 80%-90% of Polish customers. (Parkiet, p. 4) J.K.