Macedonia's third mobile operator -- Mobilkom Austria Group's subsidiary VIP Operator -- began operations on Wednesday (September 19th). The operator's tariffs are 51% lower than the average in the country. The mobile phone usage rate in Macedonia is one of the lowest in Europe, while call rates are among the highest.

Mobile phone’s.in.Macedonia Looking for a banana in the Jungle! by: Hans van Bergkamp

Macedonia is in need of a third mobile operator!

In Macedonia there are 3 mobile GSM operators. Mobimak, now T-Mobile, VIP Austria and Cosmofon a company from the Greek OTE. Both start to offer cheaper rates specially for business use of a minimum use of 4 numbers. But as its known in other European countries no free phones are offered beside some cheap no good thrown away from many other countries types. We just had a visit from one of the new player, Cosmofon and by getting a cheap no good for anything phone, first we must sign a contract for 3 YEARS! So lets say that we as a company with 4 numbers will have a monthly bill of 350 euro times a year will be 4,200.00 euro/y times 3 = 12,600.00 euro with no phone offered! Also T-mobile is not offering besides some bad types of phones.

We have been informed that also the European union is worrying about a possible deal made between both operators and that steps are being taken to start a case against the both services. Also Macedonia this year will open the door to another GSM operator and talk as we speak are between 3 operators showing interest for the Macedonian market. One of these is TELE2 as they are offering the cheapest combination, ADSL, TV, fixed and GSM phone services. This for rates all included of 29 euro p/month.

Links to the GSM operators are:

Cosmofon: www.cosmofon.com.mk

Mobimak-TMobile: www.t-mobile.com.mk

Two operators are present working in Macedonia, T-Mobile and Cosmofon.
But soon also number 3 will be announced and as it looks like a Austrian operator will join the battle for users sympathy.
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still the number one but for how long?

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Rates has dropped since Mobimak has been taken over by T-Mobile but Cosmo phone has has also started but as it looks now they did not learn a thing since the began some five years ago.
Its probably a need for them to take money back from the users from being sponsor for famous singers like Toshe and Dario. www.cosmofon.com.mk/en/

We have done a research on potential business and private users with “post-paid”.
Now they called because their contract was soon to be finished with T-Mobile and normally being interested what Cosmofon wanted to offer for a 3 years contract.
So lets say average those business users made a monthly bill for €300 times 3 years with 5 numbers it would be €3600 p/y times 3 would be €10.800! So what did they offer the potential business user? 2 cheap phones worth not even 88 euros! When one company with over 7 numbers was complaining they told the owner that first they wanted to see how much their bill will be!

  free phone offered: Siemens A31

Going back to T-Mobile they got 2 Samsung D900 (500 euro a piece) and a Sony-Ericsson W850!
This has not been a one time only deal with Cosmofon as we asked four companies about their experiences with Cosmofon.

Now today a friend of mine called to Cosmofon for a private postpaid account. She is a medical doctor and a very respected name international.
She wanted to surprise her husband for his birthday to have besides the postpaid from T-Mobile also a Cosmofon postpaid with the same number (070 to 075) Now when she called no one answered and it took her 9 minutes to get some one on the official Cosmofon information number.

You would think that they would have a website telling their fixed number instead puzzling through they website and to find a mobile number that can only be used if you are already a client from them. A normal main page link such as "contact us" is missing! You would think that any serious mobile operator has a contact for press. With a very good look at all their webpage you can find ONE link that says "contact' still no email address or question box can be found. They might like to work with SMS or fax only............

Now finally after 9 minutes she got some one on the other side and she asked about special offers. The man said that when she would sign a two years contract she would have a Sony Ericsson W810 for 160 euro. When she explained that with any phone shop in Skopje this price also was €160 and what it means that this was a special offer the Cosmofon operator started to shout and told to her that THIS WAS THE PRICE like: take it or leave it!
This was her last wish ever to communicate with Cosmofon believe me! So for any company interested to learn how to lose potential customers please hire this Cosmofon service operator desk clerk.

Conclusion:
For Business and private users T-Mobile is far out a winning horse and looking to her share at the Macedonian market T-Mobile is also the largest and winning more and more! Cosmofon after 5 years did not follow any trend that is known in the world of mobile operators. Known fact is that phone are given free and those are not cheap ones like Cosmofon is offering. Customers in Macedonia are aware of this and they do count. It seems that Cosmofon (OTE Greece) will lose the battle in gaining more professional users, they do not have kind service. Also the SMS trends are not implicated with VOIP such as Skype.
Now we will wait that the 3rd operator (Austria) will start their service the first news is that they will start June 2007 and will bring the prices down to 60%. We will update you.

Internet in Macedonia, slow, expensive and no choice as mobile operators! But Telekabel is winning!

Still the internet besides, some good alternative of Neotel (http://www.neotel.com.mk/) Offering free hotspots unlimited till one hour of wireless ADSL

The rest are expensive slow and unstable. Almost on a daily base errors are taking place at Macedonian largest internet supplier Macedonian Telecom (www.adsl.com.mk) Also strange conditions are offered to their customers.

Conclusion:

For Macedonia its an important step to invite new investors that are willing to offer fast internet access with no data limit! Also to start with ADSL2 the newest ADSL with possibility of lots of different services such as telephony and digital TV/pay per view.

The monopoly of the fixed lines should be urgent banned as its important to open the market for new and professional players.

conclusion: For good and reasonable internet connection which is always on Telekabel is still the best choice. We have tested their ADSL for over a month and the average speed was faster than any other. And NO DOWNLOAD LIMIT! Also they do not make any different in prices for professional business or private users as others are doing. ADSL by MT Net is charging business users almost double! Count that most offices have a 8 hours working day sounds ridicules!