Cosmote launches i-mode service

The service is available to both pre- and post-paid customers for a fixed tariff of EUR 3 per month or a daily fee of less than EUR 0.2. More than 60 websites are available through i-mode offering news, weather, music and games among other options.

The operator is keeping its prices low in order to attract clients to the new service, and has released several customized handsets, whose number will increase in time.

“I-mode is now launched on the Romanian market, a dynamic and increasing market with a significant potential. By this move Cosmote makes an important step in the sector of value-added services,” said Evangelos Martigopoulos, CEO of Cosmote Group.

The number of i-mode Cosmote customers for Greece and Bulgaria, where the service was launched in 2004 and 2006, is more than 500,000.
“We expect the dynamics of the number of i-mode clients in Romania to increase faster than in Bulgaria, as Romania is a larger market and the Romanians are closer to technological developments,” Martigopoulos added.

I-mode was developed by the Japanese telecommunication company NTT DoCoMo and Cosmote has the exclusive license for i-mode in Greece, and the Balkan region where it operates.

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The other mobile telephony operators on the local market, Vodafone, Orange and Zapp, offer data services based on 3G or CDMA technologies.

Roxana Mihul