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PRAGUE, April 12 (Reuters) - Vodafone slashed itscalling rates in the Czech Republic on Friday, just a day afterrival Telefonica Czech Republic cut itsprices, in a market long criticised for lack of competition.
Vodafone said it was launching unlimited calls and textmessages along with 600 megabytes of data for 691 crowns($35.04) per month.
Telefonica offered unlimited call and text messages alongwith 1 gigabyte of data for 745 crowns on Thursday.
Analysts said the price cuts, to about half the previouscomparable offers, were triggered by the prospect of a newcompetitor joining the market with the auction of new mobilefrequencies planned for later this year.
The price cuts, which analysts expect to put significantpressure on margins, would make it more difficult for the newentrant to launch services and win customers easily, they said.
The country's third operator, T-Mobile said onThursday it would also launch a similar offer in the comingdays.
