The final decision about the building strategy and whether the operator does it alone, together with a partner or by an acquisition will be made in several months.
“From an architecture perspective, it is clear where we want to go; then if we will go by ourselves or co-building or via an inorganic way, it’s still early to say,” Giovanni Chiarelli, chief technology officer Vodafone Romania told ZF in an interview. “But it’s clear that this is the trend in terms of industry, which, by the way, Vodafone heavily influenced in other countries in Europe and this is also the strategy for Romania.”
Vodafone wants to pursue this avenue, it is a clear signal it wants to invest in Romania, the Vodafone group is open to investing more in Romania, Chiarelli added.
ZF reported in February that Orange, RCS&RDS, Telekom group and Vodafone, the four largest operators on the local market had been in talks over strategic alliances to use and develop networks since mid 2014. Their goal is to launch fixed services (Orange and Vodafone) or gain access to 3G and 4G networks (RCS&RDS and Telekom) without investing tens of millions of euros in developing infrastructure on their own, by splitting the bill and pooling assets instead.
Telecom sources familiar with the talks said there were three potential alliances: Orange and Telekom, Vodafone and Telekom and Vodafone and RCS&RDS. Early this month Nikolai Beckers, chief executive officer of Telekom group, told ZF in an interview that everybody was discussing with everybody, it was the natural thing to do.
So what strategy will Vodafone choose to pursue? A decision will be made some time in the coming months, Giovanni Chiarelli says, so it is too early to discuss it, because the company is still investigating various options.
One such option Vodafone investigated, market sources say, is the takeover of Digital Cable Systems (AKTA), the largest local independent cable TV provider.
At the end of last year Vittorio Colao, Vodafone group CEO, told ZF in an interview that the group wanted to provide fixed services in Romania as well. “Now it’s time to start thinking about [providing fixed line services to] the consumer.” He also said at the time Vodafone was also considering TV.
Until a strategic decision is made, the company can only say it has a clear picture of what the architecture of the fixed network providing services to consumers should look like, Chiarelli said, adding he meant a GPON (gigabit passive optical networks)-type fiber optic network reaching consumers’ homes.
Vodafone’s choice of network architecture is similar to the one already used by the two major providers of fixed Internet service in Romania, RCS&RDS and Telekom.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)