Michael Krammer, the CEO of Orange Austria until it was acquired by Hutchison Whampoa's 3 Austria in 2012, plans to return to the Austrian mobile market in 2014 with a new MVNO called Ventocom, which is set to be one of several new mobile virtual network operators on the market.
Krammer, who is currently the president of Austrian football club Rapid Vienna, told the online version of Austrian newspaper Der Standard that his new company would start in the second half of this year. WebStandard added that Ventocom plans to lease capacity on the T-Mobile Austria network.
Krammer has already launched Ventocom GmbH, which on its web site professes to offer "MVNE and MVNO solutions for mobile and telecommunications". The company also said it plans to target Austria, Switzerland and Germany as well as non-German speaking countries.
Krammer told WebStandard that he sees great potential for his project. "I have run two mobile operators in Austria, and now I want to start my own," he said. As well as Orange Austria, Krammer has managed tele.ring in Austria and E-Plus in Germany.
Krammer also said he is considering setting up another virtual operator along the same lines as Red Bull Mobile, which is a brand partnership between Telekom Austria's A1 and Red Bull. For this project, Krammer would target the Rapid community, but he said nothing is definite as yet.
Cable provider UPC and Vienna-based technology provider Mass Response also plan to launch MVNOs on the market this year, both using the network of 3 Austria. Tele2 is also believed to be considering a similar move, but is not expected to launch anything before 2015.
For more:
- see this WebStandard article (translated by Google Translate)
- see this Heute article (translated by Google Translate)
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