Orange Romania, the local mobile telephony branch of France Telecom, intends to conclude 2005 with one million new customers and will invest no less than 200 million dollars (155 million euros) for this purpose, Richard Moat, Orange Romania CEO told Ziarul Financiar.
The mobile telephony penetration rate will tend towards 60% compared with 48% at the end of 2004, the Orange official believes.
"Orange Romania will probably have 5.8-5.9 million users compared to 4.9 million at the end of 2004," Moat said. "Many people believe 2004 was the best possible year for mobile telephony and that stagnation is in order. I believe 2005 will be at least as spectacular," he confidently said.
The year 2004 was also spectacular because it exceeded every expectation about the mobile telephony penetration rate. A number of 3.3 million new customers were added to this segment, 1.6 million of which chose Orange. "We anticipated an increase in the penetration rate by 10% compared with 2003 and we actually achieved 12%," Richard Moat said. Still, the head of Orange Romania feels Bulgaria has left Romania behind. "They are one year ahead. Their penetration is 60%, a target we will probably reach at the end of the year," he said.
Orange's strategy for 2005 is also considering the development of the data services, which do not generate as much revenue as the customers in the West do. "The revenues derived from data services calculated per subscriber in Romania are half of those in Western Europe," he explained. Orange is primarily focusing on the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) technology. "It allows Internet access at high speeds via the phone and was adopted sooner than we thought," Moat added. Fifty percent of the data service revenues (SMS exclusive) are generated by the EDGE technology, even though the service only became available in October 2004.
The increase in the revenues on this segment is devised to be achieved via expansion of the connection services, as well, and especially through improving the offer of digital content that can be accessed.
dan.dragomir@zf.ro
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