Deutsche Telekom's goals in Romania: growth on TV segment, cheap Internet and 3G services

Deutsche Telekom says it was taken by surprise by the aggressive offers of Orange Romania on the prepay segment. The Germans describe RCS&RDS as a rival to be reckoned with, and say they want to borrow some of the operating methods used by Romanians.

The rise in the number of clients for TV services, and of fixed and mobile Internet services are Deutsche Telekom’s key priorities for the Romanian market between 2010-2012, and in order to achieve these targets Romtelecom and Cosmote will invest heavily in their networks, according to the data presented by representatives of the largest telecom group in Europe at a meeting with investors.

The German group, which holds Romtelecom, Cosmote (Zapp) and Germanos on the Romanian market through Greek group OTE, says both in Romania and in the rest of countries in the region, a key target is growth on the TV segment, since clients find it most difficult to do without this service, and operators such as RCS&RDS and UPC are posing a serious threat with their expansion on the communications segment.

In Romania, the Germans have a little over 900,000 clients for TV services through Dolce satellite TV service and through cable operator NextGen, ranking third on the market after RCS&RDS (with 2.7 million cable and satellite clients) and UPC (1.3 million cable and satellite clients).