Evolution

 

Romtelecom, the leader of the fixed line communications market in Romania, went through a period of major transformations in the last years, managing to successfully face the challenge of becoming a more efficient operator and of developing its portfolio of alternative services, besides its traditional offer of fixed line telephony.

Currently, the company offers to its clients voice, data and broadband Internet services, bundled packages including IT equipments, as well as complex IT&C solutions. At the same time, the company continuously worked to improve its customer care service, objective which was best expressed by the “Customer 1st” program, launched in 2007.

Milestones of the past years:

  • Romtelecom entered the fixed broadband Internet market in 2005, through the ADSL based services, Clicknet; registering the biggest growth rates on this segment, the company became in 2008 the market leader on the segment addressing the business customers;
  • The data web hosting services were launched in 2006, together with the opening of the two CyberHost centers, which operate based on the latest industry standards;
  • Romtelecom launched its TV services in 2006, the Dolce platform registering in the first years of existence the highest growth rates on the segment in Romania and in the region;
  • Starting with 2007 the company focused on a new clients’ approach: “Customer 1st”, a continuous effort of improving all the offered services as well as its customer care relation.


The results of the “Customer 1st” program are visible, first of all, in the evolution of the clients’ satisfaction, the company registering, in a year and a half, an increase in the clients’ satisfaction level for fixed telephony of more than 50%. In 2008 Romtelecom was among the top 10% fixed telephony European operators with regard to clients’ satisfaction.  

Romtelecom’s brand was also repositioned in 2008, expressing the successive transformations the company went through. For the residential segment, the brand is expressed through the mantra “Enjoy life!”, while for the business segment, the mantra is “You achieve, we support”.


Historical highlights:

1930: SART ("The Anonymous Romanian Telephony Society") is established, having 90% foreign capital, from ITT (USA);

1949-1989: The Ministry of Telecommunications and Post incorporates the nationalized telecom company, which becomes a department within the Ministry; network and technologies investments are limited;

After 1989: ROM-POST-TELECOM is established, as a State owned company, acting in the field of telecommunications, post and broadcasting;

1991: Romtelecom becomes a State-owned operator, acting in telecoms field, holding monopoly over basic services; few data from that period: the penetration rate of the telephony services reached 9,5%, analogue technology was widely used, manual phone exchanges were generally used in rural areas, over 3,000 communities were not connected to the telephony network;

1997: Romtelecom becomes a joint stock venture and is prepared for privatization;

1998: OTE acquires 35% of the shares, plus the usufruct right for 16%, paying USD 675 million and taking over the company’s management;

2003: the second stage of privatization takes place, turning OTE into the majority shareholder of ROMTELECOM, for another USD 237 million; the rest of the shares are still owned by the Romanian State, through the Communication sand Information Society Ministry (MCSI);

2008: in OTE's shareholder structure, Deutsche Telekom becomes implied by taking over 25% of the shares belonging to the group in Greece;