Orange’s plan to achieve that starts from its strong position on the mobile segment: 4.5 million post-paid contracts, over 1 million more than Vodafone and over twice as many as Telekom and RCS&RDS, Liudmila Climoc, 41, who became chief executive officer of Orange in May, told ZF in an exclusive interview.
“We rely on our current position on the market. This is our main goal: to give the customers who have been with us for many years, are loyal and happy with the Orange service something extra, give them value added through simplicity and price for the combined fixed and mobile services offer.”
Orange’s rivals on the fixed-mobile segment of the telecom market estimated at EUR3.4 billion in 2016 are the Telekom group, which gained 0.3 million customers for such packages over almost two years, and RCS&RDS, which is aggressively trying to gain ground on the mobile telephony area using its strong position on the cable TV and fixed Internet service market. The fixed services market stands at EUR1.2 billion.
Liudmila Climoc, who became CEO of Orange Romania after running the operations of the French group in the Republic of Moldova, says the fixed-mobile packages are a strategic priority, not just some launch to check off the list.
“Most customers are now seeing us as offering the best value for mobile services. Our goal is to become a reference on the convergent service segment, as well.”
Orange, whose annual revenue stands at EUR1 billion generated by the sale of mobile telephony services (and phones) to 10 million customers and DTH TV services to 300,000 subscribers, entered the convergent segment through a network sharing agreement with rival Telekom, which gives it access to the latter’s fiber optic network in urban areas. It is this contract enough?
“We are assessing every possibility and all the opportunities that exist or may arise (…) We will not stop here,” the Orange CEO said.
Orange will invest half a billion euros by 2020 in order to preserve its market leader position on the mobile telephony segment and expand on the convergent segment.
“We have made significant investments in our mobile network and in the fixed services this year. Our plan for next year is equally ambitious. Telecom is an industry that requires a lot of investment and we need to keep the same level (of the budget i.e.) to introduce the best and most efficient technologies for our customers. We will invest about half a billion euros by 2020.”
Liudmila Climoc has a career of almost 20 years in the telecommunications industry in the Republic of Moldova and is the first woman to become CEO of the largest mobile telephony company in Romania.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)