The last six months in France have seen the arrival of a couple of tiny international communications resellers who are intent on cornering their own share of the enormous market with tariffs that, in some cases, make France Telecom look like a robber baron. Both Bruges-based Transworld Communication BV and Toulouse-based Communications Telephoniques Internationales SA are legally sanctioned to practise business in France by an international accord passed on December 27 1990, and eliminated monopolies on international communications.
Family business
The two, however, use completely different means to provide discount calling to French consumers. Transworld, a family business of three people, is sales representative in France for the services of San Francisco-based MTC Telemanagement Corp. For MTC’s International Passport service, a subscriber opens an account free of charge, and is given an access code, which is essentially a telephone number to dial the MTC server in San Francisco. The user dials the number, which accesses the server without registering an answered call, the server emits three beeps, and the user hangs up. Between six and 10 seconds later, the server rings the user back with a US phone line and the call is processed as though it is under the preferred rate schedule MTC gets as a telecommunications broker, says co-owner Daniel Celerier. His daughter Carole is the managing director. The biggest savings Transworld offers French consumers are for calls to the US, Asia, South America and Africa. Transworld does not include European rates in its price list, apparently since savings are not significant enough to matter. On that same price list, the savings range from a low of 1%, to Oman, and a high of 90%, to Guam. Calls to continental US are claimed to be 57% cheaper, 83% cheaper to Alaska or Hawaii. The subscriber is billed directly from MTC, in dollars, which can be paid with an international credit card. Says Celerier, We’ve had an excellent reaction from French customers because they have had enough of [France Telecom’s] monopoly. They didn’t know this service existed in France. In the month we’ve been here, we’ve had 500 requests for accounts, half of them from residential customers, and half from companies. Some firms interested in the service in France include IBM Corp, Ford Motor Co and Sony Corp, he said, adding Sony gave us the figures for their monthly communication to Japan and, well, if they can save 59% per year on that, the president could buy himself a new car! Transworld’s per-minute call rate to Japan is $0.86, compared with France Telecom’s business-hour, per-minute rate of $1.81.
By Marsha Johnston
Transworld has been helped by some hefty press coverage, including a one-page feature in the regional paper Sud-Ouest Dimanche, sent out by Agence France Presse to all the national press, including television and radio, Celerier said. For now, he is not worried about a threat from France Telecom. We’re really David to their Goliath. I mean, their budget is $21,000m. If they can spare us a small billion of that over the next few years, we will be happy! He noted that the Ministry of Industry did call to find out who we were, what we were doing and we said, ‘Telephoning, just like you!’ In contrast to Transworld’s callback service, Communications Telephoniques installs special lines that reach to the UK’s Mercury Communications Ltd exchanges. Communications Telephoniques says that it first determines the customer’s requirement, and then has France Telecom install an appropriate number of private circuits to its office in Toulouse, which are run through a Newbridge Networks Corp multiplexer and on to its leased circuit between Toulouse and the UK. The 256-line circuit, which is leased from both France Telecom and Mercury, includes four 2Mbps lines. Communications Telephoniques gets a corporate rate from Mercury, to which it adds commission. We get our billing information from the UK, including the start time and the amount of time talked, says managing director Robert Fischer. C
ustomers are billed by Communications Telephoniques in francs. The minimum Communications Telephoniques can save users is 17%, with up to 40% for high-volume users with bills equivalent to $1,725 and up. However, it says savings can vary, since it also tailors its tariffs according to user requirements: If you’re a company calling a lot to Hong Kong, we give you a large discount to Hong Kong and less to Europe. The firm says it doesn’t make too much money on European Community countries, because UK rates to European countries are higher than France Telecom’s. Nonetheless, its rate to Germany for example is 35 cents, against France Telecom’s 52 cents.
Complaints by customers
Communications Telephoniques says savings it quotes to customers include installation and monthly subscription fees, which are the same as those for Colisee International SA, the France Telecom subsidiary that resells the operator’s own capacity. (Following complaints by competitors and questions by clients, Colisee is currently under investigation to determine how France Telecom can justify selling its own capacity at a discount to some clients). A subscriber who is paying France Telecom between $1,700 to $2,500 for call charges to European Community countries would find Communications Telephoniques charging $220 to install its two lines and approximately $135 per month, but would still see a savings of between 18% to 20%, the firm says. The more they call, the more that rate of savings goes up, says Charlotte Polivka, sales manager. Fischer says Communications Telephoniques will reduce or even waive fees for high-volume clients. If someone is making between $850 and $1,700 in calls to Germany, we will charge them, because our margins aren’t high enough, but if they are making the same amount of calls to the UK, we might not, he said. Having acquired nine subscribers in four months of operation in France, Communications Telephoniques has just opened in Paris, using the sales force of a subsidiary of an unnamed German telecommunications equipment manufacturer. We are doing it city by city, Fischer commented.
