The first specific user group that TelCro aims to capture are Croatian emigrants in the USA and their relatives in Croatia.
In Croatia, the first mobile phone operator has emerged that will not set up a base station on your building, nor on the neighboring one… This is the company TelCro, which is the first virtual mobile phone operator, meaning that it will exclusively lease the infrastructure of existing GSM operators for its services, rather than building its own.
– Because of this, we do not have significant investment costs, so we need several tens of thousands of users to become profitable, which is much less than what existing large operators require – explained the advantages of TelCro Goran Gašparović, the company’s financial manager.
Focus on a specific population group
Like in developed countries, where virtual operators are already common, TelCro plans to find its niche. We exclusively learn that the first market niche that TelCro will conquer is the Croatian diaspora in the United States and the relatives of those emigrants in Croatia. Namely, in addition to Croatia, TelCro has employees in the United States, so it will start offering services in cities with the highest number of emigrants. It is a notorious fact, which you are painfully aware of if you have relatives in America, that they, in most cases, cannot send you even the simplest SMS.
– We are still considering which market segments we will focus on in Croatia. Although there are differences among operators in our market, with Tele2 standing out as cheap, VIP as youth-oriented, all are still ‘focused’ on everyone. We target much smaller user groups, and for now, we have several market plans, and which will be first depends on the timing of the service launch – said Krešimir Profaca, the company’s general director, adding that in the West it is common for virtual operators (eng. Virtual Mobile Network Operator – VMNO) to focus on a specific population group, whether ethnic or age-related, or on a professional or interest group, as there is an operator in Germany that specializes in Turkish guest workers, and there are well-known examples of VMNOs that cater only to fans of a particular club or readers of certain newspapers.
– Our services will primarily be focused on specific user groups – explained Profaca the advantages of a smaller number of users, clarifying this with the example of a virtual network that focuses on, for example, students, so there is no need to offer services needed by business people. This, Profaca noted, achieves better service adaptability.
– Our goal is to become recognizable for a specific user group compared to large operators – emphasized Profaca.
However, because negotiations are in full swing, he could not tell us whose equipment and resources TelCro will lease. Likewise, due to negotiations, although he explained the payment systems for leasing infrastructure in detail, he was unable to say in advance what prices would be offered, but he emphasized that they would primarily be tailored to individual user groups.
