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Telecom.IT : European contribution to Ro-Net
The European Commission has approved the financial contribution to Ro-Net, a project worth 85.6 million euros to get Internet broadband to 783 localities identified as 'white spots', the Ministry for the Information Society (MSI) announced in a media release on Tuesday.
According to the MSI, the project aims at 'building a national broadband Internet infrastructure in disadvantaged areas, by using structural funds,' as a part of the Increase of Economic Competitiveness operational programme for assistance through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Romania's ?convergence' goal.' It would promote economic growth and job creation in the target localities.
This is a major project on Priority axis 3 'IT&C technology for the private and public sectors', amounting to 85,622.190.6 euros, VAT included; the European grant for it is 57,104,477 euros.
The ministry estimates that Ro-Net will contribute in closing the gap between rural and urban areas, bringing broadband Internet closer to 130,000 households with 400,000 members, plus 8,500 enterprises and 2,800 public institutions by building a new distribution network of approximately 3,256 kilometres. The completion of the project will result in roughly 99.2 percent of Romanians having access to broadband Internet.
Telekom Romania is to develop over the next two years the infrastructure of the distribution networks for high-speed connections in rural areas currently not covered by these services.
MSI has subcontracted the works to the former Romtelecom and Cosmote Romania companies, now Telekom Romania, for 18 years. Over this period, the new entity will provide the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure, which will remain public property and will be available on a wholesale level for any operator interested in offering broadband Internet services to end users.
Cosmote revenue down 2.6 pct and Romtelecom up 2.4 pct in first nine months
Telekom Romania Communications, formerly known as Romtelecom, reported a 2.4 percent increase to EUR 457.7 million in January-September, while Telekom Mobile, formerly known as Cosmote, posted a 2.6 percentdecline to EUR 326.8 million in the same period, writes Mediafax.
Both Romtelecom and Cosmote switched to the Telekom Brand in September.
Telekom Romania’s EBITDA profit increased 7.5 percent in the first nine months to EUR 118.4 million from EUR 110.1 million. In the third quarter, its revenues dropped by 0.9 percent year on year, from EUR 152.6 million in the same interval in 2013, to EUR 151.3 million.
“Bigger revenues from Internet and TV subscriptions limited the decline in voice subscriptions. Big IT&C projects and an increase in traffic also helped with the decline”, according to the press release.
In terms of clients, the total number of TV subscribers increased to 1.39 million, up 5.8 percent year on year; while the number of Internet subscribers stagnated (1.23 million) and the number of voice clients dropped in the first nine months of the year by 4.6 percent, from 2.27 million to 2.16 million.
Telekom Mobile posted an EBITDA revenue of EUR 107 million in the first nine months of the year, down 7.8 percent year on year. In the third quarter, EBITDA went down 22.7 percent to EUR 25.5 million from EUR 33 million in Q3 2013.
At the end of september, Telekom Mobile had a base of 5.9 million clients, out of which 26.8 percent pay subscriptions. In the first nine months of 2014, the business client base increased 6.4 percent, while revenue from the B2B segment also went up by 12.7 percent.(Source: http://business-review.eu/)