The communications industry, still effervescent seven months after the market deregulation, sees consolidation efforts pick up speed. This is also the case of Internet service providers Globtel Internet (Ploiesti) and AIGNET (Bucharest). The two companies announced they would merge and become Globtel Holdings. They have bold goals, because, as soon as they put their operations together, they intend to engulf other smaller players in the sector by using the snowball model. Globtel Internet’s shareholders, Iulian Ernuteanu and Dragos Burcescu and those of AIGNET (including businessman Dan Dragoiu, owner of Concept Electronics computer company) have come to the conclusion that making a name for yourself on the communications market in Romania takes a solid player with a wide coverage so that they made one company, Globtel Holdings, from two separate ones.
“One cannot survive long on the telecom market if confined to a regional business,” Globtel Internet’s Iulian Ernuteanu explains. AIGNET has stood out on the ISP market so far due to its partnership with Akamai Technologies, which allows clients to access World Wide Web pages extremely fast.
Globtel Internet in its turn was one of the first operators in the provinces to have launched prepaid international telephony cards (Kardinal) early in the year. It is now selling about 200,000 call minutes a month. Both companies are also experienced in telephony services for the corporate segment and have concluded alliances with major international VoIP carriers.
Globtel Holdings plans to see turnover up from $4 million in 2002 to $6-7 million in 2003 and to $14-15 million in 2004. It also intends to expand to Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova, as well as expand its telephony and data services from 9 to 20 counties by 2004 and conclude the internetworking agreement with RomTelecom by September.
iuliana.susanu@zf.ro ; victor@zf.ro