Orange and Telekom felt the greatest impact of all, according to their financial data analyzed by ZF.
UPC, the second largest cable company, whose telephony business accounts for very little in the total, was the only large telecom whose revenue rose in the third quarter, because of the increase in the customer base mainly on the Internet segment.
The data published by the mobile phone operators show post-paid plans continued to increase, while the number of prepaid cards went down again. On the other hand, the average revenue per user that telecoms get from post-paid customers is down, according to Telekom and Vodafone data.
Since the third quarter is the first when the operators felt the impact of the lower termination rate, all companies posted decline to some extent, with Vodafone seeing the lowest decline of all in the third quarter.
The data about the fixed Internet market show UPC continued growth in the third quarter, while the Telekom group stagnated after a slight growth in the first half. Vodafone, on the other hand, which started almost from scratch, saw significant growth in the period considered.
TV service is the top performer of all Telekom’s business segments, unlike the telephony and fixed Internet services. The former Romtelecom posted growth of almost 6% in the third quarter, slightly lower than in the first half. UPC, on the other hand, continued decline on the direct-to-home segment, while gaining ground on the cable segment.
The total revenue of the operators reporting such figures (except for the RCS&RDS) stood at almost EUR700 million at the end of the third quarter, and at almost EUR1.4 billion in the first nine months.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)