Astral competes on the multimedia services by cable market

Astral Kappa Telecom, one of the leading cable communications companies in Romania, will invest some $50 million in the upgrade of the communications network in at least 14 cities over the next two years.

This will enable Astral Kappa Telecom to provide the entire telecommunications service range: audio-visual, data transmission – Internet and vocal telephony to all clients in the respective areas, either natural or legal persons, according to Aurel Costea, the company’s operational manager.

“We are hoping to complete the optical and coaxial fibre in Bucharest, Ploiesti, Braila, Galati, Cluj, Odorheiu Secuiesc and Miercurea Ciuc this year,” Costea was quoted as saying by Mediafax.

At present, the company has CATV stations in all Bucharest districts and is working on a project to link them by fibre optics. The project’s outcome will consist in a metropolitan communications network to comply with every requirement in the field.

“The network will operate underground, transiting the subway tunnels and RADET’s sewers, as well as aerial. At first, the optical nodes of the network will support some 2,000 users, with their number decreasing to 500 per node as soon as we develop new services,” the Astral Telecom official said.

The fibre optics communications network is 30% complete at the moment, with Astral Telecom already providing data transmission services in the areas covered.

The company has 180,000 subscribers in Bucharest, accounting for 40-45% in the total households connected to one of the CATV operators.