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BITĖ and Vodafone partnership

History

The partnership between BITĖ and the world’s largest mobile connection operator — Vodafone — started on July 21, 2003. The company’s joining the elite alliance of Europe’s mobile connection partners first of all opened new opportunities for customers, who received exclusive conditions to use international mobile services when travelling abroad. In addition, according to the international partnership agreement, BITĖ and Vodafone agreed to cooperate in the development of mobile services and products for travelling and local customers.

The first international service jointly offered by BITĖ and Vodafone was Vodafone Eurocall, launched on the market in November 2003. This service guaranteed customers a single tariff all over Europe, ensuring that charges for calls abroad are up to 57% lower. In addition, when travelling in any country of the old continent, BITĖ customers can call regular short numbers and see the number of an incoming call.

The first international SIM card was a market innovation introduced by BITĖ and Vodafone in May 2004. It automatically selected the Vodafone or a partner network, and this ensured the best communication tariffs for BITĖ customers in all 24 countries of Europe. 2005 was an especially successful year for cooperation with Vodafone. That year, the launch of the service Vodafone World expanded better roaming tariffs outside European borders to 100 countries around the world. In four zones of the Vodafone World services, the same, clear tariffs for communication and SMS entered into force, and beginning in February 2006 the same tariffs for mobile data transmission and MMS were ensured in many foreign countries.

2006 was significant as a new step in the cooperation between BITĖ and Vodafone. Services were expanded to BITE Latvia customers. In November, BITĖ introduced the mobile internet service Vodafone Mobile Connect, which has no analogues on the market in terms of speed and is used by over a million people worldwide. BITĖ customers became the first in the Baltics to start using this service, which operates at a record speed of up to 7.2 Mbps.

Partnership Advantages

The key advantages of the partnership for BITĖ customers:

  • the chance to be a part of the largest community of mobile communication in the world. According to 2006 data, Vodafone, the biggest mobile communication group in the world, operates in 25 countries on five continents, has partners in another 35, and has a total of 198.6 million clients worldwide. According to data from the end of 2006, about 600 million clients can use Vodafone services via its partners;
  • clear and favourable roaming tariffs. BITĖ customers can have the same and some of the lowest communication tariffs on the market while travelling in over 100 countries;
  • fast mobile data transfer. BITĖ clients can enjoy extremely fast mobile internet both in Lithuania and abroad. The mobile internet speed is up to 7.2 Mbps;
  • convenient planning of expenses — the ability to plan and control expenses for communication abroad, since the same tariffs are applied in all countries;
  • fewer problems. Vodafone World service is activated automatically and free of charge, and the foreign operator offering the best tariffs is selected automatically.

Facts about the partnership

Key facts about the partnership:

  • July 21, 2003 — the cooperation agreement between BITĖ and “Vodafone” is signed;
  • November 1, 2003 — the first joint international mobile communication service, Eurocall, which operates in 24 European countries, is offered;
  • May 18, 2004 — the first international SIM card in Lithuania is launched, allowing automatic connection to Vodafone Eurocall network countries;
  • March 25, 2005 — Vodafone World service is launched, giving better roaming tariffs in more than 100 countries worldwide;
  • February 1, 2006 — Vodafone World service is expanded by mobile data transfer;
  • April 11, 2006 — partnership with Vodafone is expanded into Latvia;
  • November, 2006 — Vodafone Mobile Connect mobile internet service starts in Lithuania and Latvia.