Cosmote: Mobile Internet and smartphone markets will see fast growth for another five years

The mobile Internet services market and the smartphone sales are still in the early stages of development in Romania, so both segments will see significant growth rates over the next five years, say officials of Cosmote - no. 3 on the mobile communications market, who hope the effervescence on the two segments will help the company narrow the gap between revenues and profit that separates it from market leaders Orange and Vodafone.

"We expect the data services market to see a two-digit growth," says Panos Makris, commercial manager of the operator. "If the market continues to grow at the same rate as it has done so far, the volumes of data will skyrocket. We expect the market of mobile data and of smartphones to reach maturity in five years' time. Growth is in the early stages on all segments," he adds.

Only 10% of the overall number of mobile phone users in Romania own a smartphone, according to Cosmote estimates, with a little over three million Romanians using fast mobile Internet services in June 2010, according to data released by the regulatory authority.