The technological development will bring exponential growth for the speed of data services, and so will new gadgets and apps, but the big question for telecom operators is how to get the money they need to develop the infrastructure, said Stefanos Theocharopoulos, chief executive of Cosmote Romania at a conference organized by market regulator ANCOM to mark ten years since taking its first decision regulating the Romanian market. One of the topics of the conference was how the market would evolve over the coming years.
He says the future evolution of the Romanian telecom market, which is a very competitive market with very low prices, is dependent on investments in infrastructure, which are very difficult to sustain long-term.
Talking about the future of the communications industry, the head of Cosmote – no. 3 on the Romanian mobile telephony market, and of Romtelecom – no. 2 on the fixed internet and TV services market – says growth will come from three key elements: network development, evolution of terminals and development of data network apps.
Networks will definitely be ALL-IP based, with all services – even traditional ones – to turn into IP-based services.
As mobile and fixed networks are in a race for faster data transfer, the networks’ ability to carry data will explode.
“This is happening, these technologies are in the pipeline, the only problem is to find the money to invest in these networks,” Theocharopoulos said.
The evolution of the Romanian telecom market over the next ten years will depend very much on the authorities’ regulatory strategy, said Jean Francois Fallacher, CEO of Orange Romania, leader of the Romanian telecom market. He says the industry is a capital-intensive one, so players need more predictability as to the regulator’s longer-term strategies on the Romanian market.
Fallacher says the Romanian economy had seen a long trend of growth in the past ten years, with the telecom industry growing because the rate of service usage used to be low. But now usage of mobile telephony services in Romania is unprecedented, with the sector to develop in a different direction in the next ten years, as the data market is starting to grow quite heavily.
The coming period will be dominated by internet services, and voice services should be provided by operators in fixed-price packages, said Valentin Popoviciu, development manager of Romanian company RCS&RDS, the largest provider of fixed internet and cable & satellite television on the market.
“The most important thing, infrastructure apart, is for technology and services to be available at a price that users can afford. (…) As for phone call termination fees, we have a completely different vision from the other operators. We have to create products where voice calls are included in a product with a fixed charge, because from now on voice will move to the internet.”
The Romanian telecom market can remain one of the most competitive in Europe in terms of technology and of service quality, but a balanced regulatory market is needed in order for this objective to be reached, said Inaki Berroeta, CEO of Vodafone Romania, no. 2 on the Romanian mobile telephony market.
He says the almost EUR700 million overall amount invested in frequencies allowing telecom companies to provide mobile services until 2029 will probably be equal to the overall value of profits obtained by the industry in Romania over the next three or four years. Additional investments will be needed in 4G technology, in order for companies to continue to have top infrastructure in Romania, he also says.
The Romanian communications market rose from EUR2 billion in 2003 to EUR3.5 billion last year, becoming one of the most competitive in Europe in terms of infrastructure quality and of data services speed, according to data provided by operators and the communications market regulator ANCOM. At the end of last year Romania had more than 23 million active sim cards, 4.68 million fixed telephony users, 3.28 fixed internet connections, 7.48 million mobile internet connections and almost six million TV subscribers.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)