Vodafone Romania launches free SIM offer in quest for more clients

Telecom operator Vodafone has recently launched a campaign to gain more clients in Romania. The operator is offering free pre-paid SIM cards and 100 minutes within the network. The offer was launched on the operator's website and can be used only once in a 12 month period. The 100 free minutes are valid for 30 days after the SIM is activated. A SIM card normally costs around EUR 5 on the market. Orange, which is the largest telecom operator in Romania, ran a similar campaign four years ago. The revenues of telecom operator Vodafone Romania were down 5.2 percent between April and September in 2012, the first half of the company's financial year. Vodafone had revenues of some EUR 387 million in Romania, where the drop was mainly caused by the decrease in interconnection tariffs, according to the operator. Excluding the effects of interconnection tariffs, its revenues were down only by 1.3 percent, mostly helped by mobile data revenues growth, which offset most of the drop on the interconnection side. With 7.8 million clients, 75,000 clients more over this last quarter, Vodafone saw the Romanian market stabilizing quarter-on-quarter. The average revenue per user for Vodafone – ARPU – was of EUR 7.4, an increase of 6.2 percent compared to the same period of 2011. editor@romania-insider.com