Diasporic Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean - Firm Profiles.pdf Vol 2 | Page 15

Telecommunications Firms Location: Suriname and the Netherlands Target Market: Suriname and the Netherlands Diasporic Market Analysis: From the first quarter of 2009, Telesur has been offering a dual SIM-card service which allows customers in either the Netherlands or Suriname to enjoy local rates when calling to these jurisdictions. The service is very competitive and is largely targeted at the Surinamese diaspora. Since launching its service in the first quarter of 2009 in the Dutch market, the number of Telesur’s customers has grown from 17,500 to 27,000 by first quarter of 2010 (see Table below). Telesur’s growth can be considered a reflection of the importance of the ethnic market in the mobile marketplace in the Netherlands. BOX 1: Dual Sim Card Telesur offers a SIM-only prepaid service and recently it added also a SIM-only postpaid package for the large user. The company’s main USP is calling at reduced prices both to and in Suriname and also within the Netherlands. The provided SIM card has both a Suriname phone number and a Dutch phone number in one SIM card. A special benefit for its subscribers is that no roaming fees are applied when making use of the Dutch phone number in Suriname. In prepaid all calls are charged per minute with a start-up fee and on-net calling is 50 percent cheaper than off-net calling. The newly introduced postpaid package (November 2009) has a monthly fee of EUR 30 which includes 300 minutes or 300 SMS for use in the Netherlands, to Suriname numbers or while roaming in Suriname (carry over duration is 3 months). Mobile internet is charged at EUR 1.00 per MB. Telesur is working with the drugstore chains Kruidvat and Trekpleister to distribute its mobile services, and also through resellers and online. Source: van de Roer (2010) Telesur: Company Profile. Telecompaper. TABLE 1: Number of Customers and Market Share in the Dutch Market, March 2009 - 2010 Q1 2009 Q3 2009 Q1 2010 Number of Customers 17,500 19,500 27,000 Market Share 0.7% 0.8% 0.9% Source: van der Roer, A, et al (2010), Dutch Mobile Virtual Operators: Market 15