“We are currently operating over 390 hotspots in 26 cities,” RCS&RDS officials told ZF, adding the operator had 1.2 million landline Internet service subscribers.
The data published by the communications market watchdog at the end of 2010 show there were a little over 1,000 Wi-Fi Internet access points across the country, considering none of the major telecom operators in Romania had invested in developing such a network.
The company controlled by Oradea (NW Romania) businessman Zoltan Teszari was quick to tap into this new market segment, setting up a presence in some of the busiest areas of Romania (subway stations and the Old Town in Bucharest or the seaside resorts). The project was implemented with equipment provided by China’s Huawei.
Romania’s top mobile telephony operator Orange is currently the only other provider to have launched Wi-Fi services available for free Bucharest’s Old Town.
The 1.2 million landline Internet service subscribers, 100,000 (9%) more than in December 2009, the last time RCS&RDS provided such details, helped the operator maintain the lead on the local market, ahead of rivals Romtelecom (1.084 million in June 2011) and UPC (258,000 in June 2011).
RCS&RDS, which posted EUR418 million revenue last year, took rivals on the telecom market by surprise when it announced at the end of May that it would create a national Wi-Fi hotspot network available only to its customers.