Call cost to mobiles reduced
OTE telecom has cut the cost of calls to mobile phone networks by 14.4 percent as of January 1, as revenues from fixed-line operations continue to slide. OTE, 30 percent-owned by Deutsche Telekom, said in a statement that fixed-line calls to Cosmote, Vodafone and Wind will now be charged at 0.1149 euros per minute, or 0.001915 euros per second, including value-added tax. OTE’s last cut in fixed-line charges for calls to mobile phone networks was an 18 percent reduction at the end of 2008. OTE’s third-quarter figures showed that fixed-line phone receipts fell 6.1 percent on an annual basis to 596.9 million euros, after a 5.6 percent year-on-year decline in the same period a year earlier. Despite the economic downturn in Southeastern Europe weighing heavily on OTE revenues in the first nine months of the year and intense competition harming its mobile phone segment, the group expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2009 to come in at the previous year’s levels.
