Six months from the deregulation of the telecom market in Romania, the impact on the former monopoly of the industry has started to show. RomTelecom’s fixed-line revenues went down 21.1% in Q2, 2003 from Q2, 2002.
A report by OTE, RomTelecom’s majority shareholder says the Romanian operator posted 191 million euro revenues in the second quarter of 2003, down from the 242.2 million euros in the second quarter of 2002. This sharp revenue drop is due to a decrease in international interconnect traffic and fixed-to-mobile substitution.
As a comparison, both Connex and Orange, the top two mobile telephony operators on the domestic market have greatly improved revenues in the first half. Connex’ first half revenues amounted to $240.2 million, up 21% from January-June 2002 ($198.9 million). Orange Romania posted 206 million euro revenues in the first half, up 33.76% from the corresponding period of 2002.
CosmoRom, RomTelecom’s mobile telephony division, saw operating revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2003 amounting to 2.3 million euros and net loss of 6.6 million euros.
The six-month report shows RomTelecom’s revenues fell 18.9% from H1, 2002. Whereas it posted 389.7 million euro revenues in H1, 2003, it had logged 480.7 million euros in H1, 2002.
Regardless of the decline in its revenues, RomTelecom does not expect significant new competition to emerge on the Romanian domestic fixed-line market in the balance of the year.
OTE’s operating revenues increased by 16.5% in the three months ended June 30, 2003 to 1,240.40 million euros. This can be attributed to the continued strong performance in mobile telephony and the consolidation of RomTelecom. Six-month revenues amounted to 2,340.60 million euros, 12.2% higher than in the same time last year.
For the second quarter of 2003, OTE’s EBITDA, including RomTelecom, reached 485.9 million euros, from 395.1 million euros in 2002. iuliana.susanu@zf.ro