ValueFirst Romania represents MVNOs at GSM 3G CEE 2006 - - Presents the strategic importance of MVNO in CEE -

The Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) region is now the third largest mobile region globally after Asia-Pacific and Western Europe, ahead of North America (USA and Canada), which it surpassed in May 2005. Central and Eastern Europe is a particularly diverse region, with mobile penetration rates ranging from less than 30% in Moldova to more than 100% in Estonia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. The region offers good growth prospects in the long term. As of March 2006 a total of 13 W-CDMA networks had been launched commercially in the region and a further four were pre-commercial.

As Third Generation and HSDPA services launch across the region, Greenfield companies and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are entering an increasingly crowded marketplace. ValueFirst is the first MVNO dedicated to data services, to enter the Romanian market. This puts ValueFirst in a strategic position to steer the growth of the industry, thereby creating value to its customers.

In a panel discussion involving MVNOs & research agencies from the region, many issues including the impact of MVNOs on mobile operators, the approach of MNOs towards the entry of MVNOs and the challenges being presented by this new world order were discussed. The audience were particularly interested in understanding the future of MVNOs. Deliberating on the future of MVNOs, Mr. George Pascu, CEO, ValueFirst Romania said, “MVNOs should not be viewed as competition by the MNOs. We are here to add value through innovative products and services, in the process building customer satisfaction and stickiness to operator’s services”.

Elaborating on the point, Mr. Vijay Shukla, Country Head, ValueFirst India, who was in Bucharest to attend the GSM 3G and the Zilele Biz conferences said, “Drawing a parallel from the traditional IT industry, when the IT revolution began, large companies were doing everything. As time progressed, the IT industry split and the leading companies started focusing on niche areas such as software, hardware, networking etc. The mobile space will see the similar split of the industry in times to come. ValueFirst is now offering MVNO services in the Data only space”.

The agenda of the conference was to build on the success of last year’s event with increased numbers of CxO and Director level speakers. As many elements of the communications markets in Central and Eastern Europe converge, this year’s agenda covered all key issues, examining latest 3G developments whilst focusing on new challenges such as MVNOs and the growth of other potentially disruptive technologies such as WiMax.