The Ministry of Communications issued a statement addressing the outsourcing of the SMS application service known as Application to Person (A2P). It stated: "The auction conducted by Touch to outsource the A2P service under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications was launched before the new public procurement law came into effect. Invitations to participate in the auction were sent to 25 companies, with 10 companies submitting bids. In the end, the company that offered the highest-value bid and the highest revenue amount won. Under this auction, a rate of 7.5 Euro Cents per text message was approved instead of 5.4 cents.
Regarding Alfa, after winning the auction conducted under the terms of the public procurement authority, Vox Solutions, and after exchanging drafts of the contract, Alfa received the final signed contract from the winning company, which is currently undergoing internal administrative procedures. It is important to note that the winning company needs at least three months to become technically and functionally ready. The Minister of Communications requested Alfa to adopt the rate on which Vox Solutions won the auction, which is 10.50 cents per text message, starting from July 1 to preserve public funds.
It should also be noted that the Ministry of Communications requested Touch to apply the rate of 10.50 cents, which is the price on which Vox Solutions won the auction for Alfa. Since the price of the message is not the only reason for the revenue differences for this service between the two companies, Touch is in the process of implementing a DPI and advanced protection system to limit illicit messages and improve revenues.
In summary, both Alfa and Touch are now receiving 10.50 euro cents for each text message for both companies instead of 5.4 euro cents for Touch and 6 euro cents for Alfa. The Ministry of Communications has sent an official response regarding the SMS contracts for Alfa and Touch to MP Yasin Yasin, who addressed this issue earlier."
