Connex and Electrica sign deal

MobiFon, the leading GSM mobile telephony operator in Romania in terms of number of users and the owner of the Connex brand has concluded a $12 million five-year contract with Electrica SA for providing the communications infrastructure and services to the electricity distributor and supplier at a national level. Electrica’s officials say the contract was concluded as a result of a bid MobiFon won. The announcement stirred a quick response from the second GSM operator, Orange Romania.

“This contract between Connex and Electrica is a bilateral one, as each is the other’s client. This partnership was not that interesting to us, as we have got our own fibre optics network, unlike Connex, which uses Electrica’s,” Yves Gauthier, Orange Romania commercial director said.

Ted Lattimore, MobiFon president and COO, however, says the “deal illustrates our capacity to provide clients with high quality voice and data solutions, both fixed and mobile, integrated into a single high performance communications network.”

The opportunities arising from the deregulation of the communications market have allowed the major operators to provide a broader range of services and focus on corporate clients likely to generate significant revenue.

The bid was held by Electrica SA and its officials say participants included RomTelecom besides MobiFon.

“Following the public bid, Connex proved to be the only provider able to totally meet the communications necessities of our company, with a dedicated solution enabling the best possible operational efficiency, ” Silviu Lucian Boghiu, Electrica SA general manager said.

Orange Romania did not participate in the bid.

Connex did not say whether this was its most important contract ever, financially speaking. ” The complexity of the services, the $12 million value of the agreement and the 5 years term of contract make this an important deal for all parties involved,” Ted Lattimore said.

As for Orange Romania, its record deal amounts to $1.8 million a year. Yves Gauthier, however, would not specify the name of the client and the duration of the contract, either.
iuliana.susanu@zf.ro ; adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro