Astral Telecom applies for $10m from EBRD

The largest foreign investor in Romania ($2.2bn), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), might help Astral Telecom fulfil its ambition to become the first operator to propose a significant alternative to RomTelecom’s fixed telephony services. EBRD’s Board is to convene in six weeks, i.e. July 29, to debate Astral Telecom’s $10 million funding application.

Seven of the ten million are supposed to come from EBRD, with the remaining three million supplied by a syndicate of banks. Astral Telecom is planning to mainly use this money to expand its broadband Internet services (a worldwide trend at the moment) and telephony services. Astral has recently announced that it is the first operator to have concluded an interconnection agreement with RomTelecom and will launch fixed telephony services in four cities: Bucharest, Cluj, Galati and Braila in September. ZF