Romania - Romtelecom Prepares For Next Attempt at Privatisation as Well as a Rebrand, Reveals New Report

Romania's fixed-line telecoms market is evolving under the weight of competition and technological change. Implementation of EU Directives has opened the telecoms market to competition and introduced a regulatory framework designed to foster effective competition.

Alternative operators have launched competing services in the liberalised fixed-line voice market, with cable TV operators the most successful to date. They and the incumbent RomTelecom have invested in network capacity upgrades to accommodate customer demand for improved broadband services.

Fixed broadband services are widely available in Romania although a disparity exists between urban and rural areas, with broadband services more readily available in that latter. Healthy competition is evident where broadband is available due to the absence of a single dominant technology platform. Falling tariffs and increased availability led to improved uptake as dial-up users migrated to broadband services, a trend that has resulted in broadband accounting for the majority of broadband connections. Service providers have focused on increasing broadband uptake, with hopes of generating additional revenue through the sale of broadband content such as broadband TV (IPTV).

The mobile telecoms market is served by five network operators utilising a mixture of technologies. High penetration has stymied further growth in the voice market though mobile data has considerable growth potential in coming years, fostered by investments by MNOs in network capacity as also in widening the reach of their LTE services. Competition has encouraged these providers to make services increasingly affordable.

Lack of new subscriber acquisition opportunities due to the saturated market has led mobile operators to focus on retaining existing customers and increasing average revenue per user (ARPU) levels. Hence the mobile operators have employed a number of alternative revenue growth strategies such as segmented voice market offerings and a renewed focus on the nascent mobile broadband and content market.

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