COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - TDC, battling to attract new customers and retain market share, will offer unlimited mobile phone calls in Europe for its business customers from October, the Danish telecom company said in a statement on Wednesday.
TDC shares have fallen 18 percent since Aug. 7 when it told investors it had lost two local government service tenders, which count as business mobile phone clients, and indicated it would have to offer cheaper broadband services next year.
Business clients in the former state telecom monopoly count for over 10 percent of total revenues, according to its second-quarter results. It has a market share of about 40 percent in Denmark's mobile market.
On Thursday, TDC said calls to Danish business mobile phones while holders are in any European Union or Nordic countries will be unlimited, while those businesses paying for the highest level service would also be able to call non-Danish numbers for free.
"A large number of Danes with company-paid phones are using them abroad but some may have not done so because they have been concerned about foreign tariffs," the head of TDC's business unit, Jens Munch-Hansen said. "Now they don't have to worry about that anymore," he said.
Competition from internet and mobile phone companies has forced TDC to look for extra revenue earners, such as streaming television shows from popular U.S. channels and buying a stake in betting business Bet25, whose logo is on the shirts of a top division soccer team due to a sponsorship deal.
(Reporting by Teis Jensen and Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Susan Thomas)