Talk industry leaves behind many traditional businesses

Internet and mobile telephony will remain among the most dynamic sectors of the Romanian economy over the next few years. Internet usage will increase by about 50% every year, whilst mobile telephony operators will redouble the number of clients over the next five years.
By yearend, one in ten Romanians will have Internet access. This is a rather small figure compared with the developed countries in Europe. Still, it is precisely the huge growth potential in this area that will lead to a “50% increase in the Internet penetration rate, which will reach 10% in late 2002,” Dan Nica, Communications and Information Technology minister yesterday explained. In other words, whereas approximately two million Romanians will have Internet access at the end of this year, the end of 2003 will see three million Romanians online.  As a comparison, one million people had Internet access in 2001.
“The low Internet penetration at the moment makes this rate possible to increase by 40%-50% in the short-term. At any rate, this trend will have to be calculated according to computer usage rate and will equally depend on the quality of the Internet access services,” Valentin Radu, senior consultant with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants estimates.
In his turn, Mihai Batraneanu, chairman of PCNET, one of the leading local players on the Internet service market estimates “the most spectacular trend will be seen on the broadband segment, as we are lagging far behind other European countries. We will even witness a 250% annual growth of the number of broadband subscribers for at least four years from now.”
The PCNET head estimated the Romanian Internet service market amounts to $25-$30 million, while the voice communications market stands at $1.5bn.
A quick development pace is expected for the mobile telephony, as well. Back in 1997, when GSM mobile telephony operators MobiFon and Mobil Rom (now Orange Romania) entered the market, the mobile telephony penetration rate was of 0.87%, Bernard Moscheni, Orange Romania CEO explains.
Three years later, in 2000, the mobile telephony usage rate had gone well beyond that point, reaching 10.88%.
“We estimate 21.25% mobile telephony penetration rate by yearend. We are hoping to see a 50% rate in Romania over the next five years,” Moscheni added.
The mobile telephony operators will jointly gain up to one million new subscribers next year, said Yves Gauthier, commercial manager of Orange. The four operators on this market currently register some 4.5 million clients, according to minister Nica.