Ericsson CEO: Telecom operators seem ready for investments in 2011

Telecom operators in Romania are ready to invest more in service networks this year, feeling that the worst of the crisis is now over and that companies and consumers are starting to loosen up their budgets, says Michele Gressani, CEO of the local subsidiary of the world’s largest telecom equipment producer, Swedish-held Ericsson in an interview to ZF.

“There is a general feeling on the market that we have left the crisis behind. We see operators and users talk a bit more about investing, about bigger budgets for communications. I am cautious yet optimistic about 2011,” said the company’s general manager. One of the reasons for optimism has to do with the projects put off in 2010, which will be carried out this year.

Last year, the biggest telecom operators on the market recorded 8-9% lower revenues, with some projects being postponed as a result. “We don’t expect investments to be postponed again, and we don’t expect the same level of budget mindfulness from end users. Last year all users were more mindful about their telecom spending budget and this made our clients more cautious when it came to launching new projects. Some of these projects were put off from 2010 to 2011.”

Ericsson, a company with over 120 million euros in annual turnover on the Romanian market, has contracts with all big telecom service providers on the Romanian market – Orange, Vodafone, Romtelecom, Cosmote and RCS&RDS – which each have annual budgets of tens of millions of euros.