“About 5% of the people living in urban areas are now consuming video content, TV channels on tablets, laptops and smartphones and 18% would like to have access to TV channels any place any time.”
A survey UPC cited shows the broadband Internet contribution to the economy stood at EUR3.5 billion or 2.6% to 2.8% of the GDP in 2013. The indicator might reach EUR7 billion to EUR8 billion or 5% of the GDP by 2018.
“It’s an extraordinary growth driver because quite a lot of other industries rely on it,” Redeleanu said.
Romania’s Internet infrastructure is currently one of the best in Europe and allows for average speeds of over 100 mbps, four times the Western level.
As a paradox, however, the Internet service penetration rate is lower, about 50% of the total households. Penetration rate in Western Europe stands at about 70% to 80%. Only two thirds of Romanian companies have broadband Internet access services, compared with 90% to 95% in the West.
“Romania has state-of-the-art infrastructure. Investment started later here than in the West, which led to a fast-paced increase in the speeds offered by operators in a very short time,” UPC Romania’s CMO explained.
UPC expects revenue to grow by 8% in 2014, and continue to grow at the same rate in 2015. The customer base is up 16%, as a result of infrastructure development and transfer speeds offered.
“It’s been a good year, which confirms that our strategy is successful. All business segments have grown, we’ve achieved a net customer growth and an over 10% growth in the number of services offered.”
The operator will continue infrastructure investments next year in order to make the 500 mbps speed available throughout the entire country and continue the move towards digital services.
More than 65% of UPC customers are now using digital services, and the 2015 target is 75% to 80%.
“We are optimistic about 2015, we see growth of over 10% of Internet and digital services. We invest about 30% of our revenue in infrastructure development, which does not include special projects.”
Cable TV company UPC Romania rose by 8% in the first nine months from $103.6 million in the year-earlier period to $111.9 million. Customer base rose slightly from 1.160 million on September 30, 2013 to 1.165 million in September 2014. Number of Internet service subscribers went up 17% to 420,500 in the first nine months, while the number of phone service customers increased to 311,500, according to the company report.
UPC Romania will soon launch a new platform, Horizon Go, which allows customers to watch TV channels they subscribed to on tablets and smartphones. The service is free and can be accessed via an application.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)