Romtelecom's IPTV offer: From 0 to 16 euros, only together with fixed telephony

Romtelecom, one of the largest telecom operators in Romania, has launched its commercial Internet television offer (IPTV), whereby the company intends both to protect its client base for fixed voice and Internet services, and achieve its strategic goal of boosting its share of the local TV market. At present Romtelecom is no. 3 on the TV market, behind RCS&RDS and UPC, with over 900,000 clients.

The operator controlled by groups OTE (Greece) and Deutsche Telekom (Germany) started tests for IPTV in December 2009, and has since gathered 10,000 clients, with 6,000 of them in the last month and a half – by offering the service free of charge to existing voice and fixed Internet clients. The IPTV service is supplied via traditional fixed telephony lines and is available in Bucharest, Iasi, Constanta, Timisoara, Cluj Napoca, Ploiesti, Braila, Bacau, Sibiu, and Piatra Neamt for clients with access to an least 10 Mbps fixed line.

Romtelecom’s IPTV offer includes four subscriptions with prices that range from zero to 15.9 euros (VAT-free) – with fees varying based on two criteria: the number of TV channels included, and whether or not the client also bought fixed Internet from Romtelecom.