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The Nordic countries have always had an extraordinary relationship with telephony. They break all the records for penetration of both wired and mobile phones. Now, a Swedish company is introducing ads over the telephone line. The Swedish company Gratistelefon Svenska AB, offers free telephone calls financed by ads. Their FreePhone concept was introduced at the end of last year in the Swedish cities of Lund and Norrkøping. Now this service is being extended to the whole country.
The concept allows to make national phone calls free of charge.One can register as a subscriber free of charge. After calling a toll-free number, a voice invites you to dial the desired number. As soon as the communication is established, a first 10 seconds long advertisement starts. After one minute the next ad kicks in, and thereafter every two minutes. At present, the system doesn't allow calls to mobile phones.
More than 20,000 households are already subscribing. The company plans to consolidate its position in Sweden before extending its service to other countries.
In Gjøvik, with about 27,000 inhabitants, a similar service was tested in March of this year. In this trial, subscribers had to endure a 10 sec advertisement every minute. "Responses from the users were overwhelming. Just during the first weekend, more than 40,000 people tried out the free call service. Especially the young people appreciated the free service", says Emily Gullaksen of Telenor, responsible for the pilot. Users of the test system in Gjøvik, when contacted by InfoWin, have been somewhat less ecstatic: "A service of this nature is only appreciated for the really expensive long distance calls, otherwise I wouldn't bother. It's not worth being cut off all the time, when saving only cents. For me, the ads themselves were totally uninteresting". Telenor is considering making this a commercial service as from 1998.
The Scandinavians are not only known for being 'hooked' on telephones, but they are also known for being rather calm and laid back in nature. You could imagine that this sort of character is a prerequisite for enjoying such services - since you are regularly cut off during conversations. How successful would this service be in countries where conversations run at a higher temperature? Our Swiss correspondent, even without a very predominant Latin temperament, was quick to reply:
"This advertising formula may work well in Sweden and Norway, but Swiss people will neither accept being cut-off nor being continuously disturbed. This will delay, even prevent, the introduction of such services here", says Georges Csernatony of Switzerlands best known Media Planning Agency, Publicitas. Jacques Bettex, Swiss Telecom PTT's spokesperson, finds it hard to imagine anyone taking up this service. "But with the liberalisation", Mr Bettex emphasizes, "everything is possible". Swiss Telecom PTT's strategy is to offer "personalised" phone subscriptions, with contracts depending on frequency of use, distance, time and another parameters; different customers have different needs. Such services are already in use in France.
By Jaume Llardén Prieto, Swiss Telecom PTT and Thorbjorn Thorbjornsen, Telenor R&D, 21.05.1997