Alcatel Romania makes profit out of Internet access

Alcatel Romania this year will register turnover standing at 60 million French francs (8.2 million dollars) out of exporting parts for ADSL equipment that offers quick access to the Internet. Sales in this sector are expected to increase in 2001 up to 100 million French francs (13.6 million dollars), Dan Bedros, the company’s general manager, told Ziarul Financiar.

The Romanian branch of the French concern annually produces about 1.5 million converters (the input part) for ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Line) technology. These solutions allow rapid access to the Internet and increase traffic, under the so-called “instant Internet” concept.

The converters are currently produced in Romania and Mexico on an exclusive basis, while a new line is being set up in Malaysia. This way of organising the business reveals the French concern’s concept of specialising each branch.

Most of the equipment is exported to the United States, where Alcatel has a 45 percent market quota, but exports also go to many Western-European countries, such as France and Germany. “ADSL is a multiplexing technology allowing a regular phone line having a 64 kilobit/ second transfer speed to reach a transfer speed of up to ten megabits per second,” Dan Bedros explained. As a matter of fact, ADSL equipment offers transfer speeds 200 times higher than any analogical modem.

Such equipment was produced in Romania last year for the first time, the investment amounting to 4 million dollars. At present, this activity involves about 300 employees working in four shifts. “Every important hard-line operator currently acquires such technology in order to be able to face competition, which offers high speed cable Internet services. For operators, this solution is cheaper than changing the cable network,” Dan Bedros said.

Among Alcatel’s customers there are telecommunication world giants such as Bell Atlantic and SBC (the United States), Telia (Sweden), British Telecommunications (Great Britain), France Télécom (France).

Unfortunately, these systems are not used in Romania. Alcatel has experimentally installed ADSL equipment for the mobile phone operator MobilRom (operating under the Dialog name), but negotiation attempts with RomTelecom met the reluctant attitude of the Greek partners from OTE, who do not seem to understand the advantages of such a system.