RCS&RDS Group estimates turnover for this year to reach some 123 million euros (160 million dollars), an increase of 23% on 2004, when the two member companies Romania Cable Systems (RCS) and Romania Data Systems (RDS), prior to merger, posted a cumulated turnover of 93 million euros (120 million dollars).
RCS and RDS recently merged under the new name of RCS&RDS in a move to improve the operation of their infrastructures and to reduce operating and administrative costs for their networks.
Company officials say RCS&RDS currently accounts for 25% of the cable TV services market and 20% of the market for Internet access services in Romania.
"The domestic telecommunications market has expanded a great deal over the last few years meaning the possibilities to sell services are promising. This can be described by a higher consumption of TV services (both cable and state-of-the-art digital technologies), an increase in the Internet access service consumption, especially among residential customers, as well as a search for alternative solutions for fixed telephone services. This is why we are focusing on providing consumers with all these services integrated in a single infrastructure, by offering complete telecommunications solutions," Ionut Tarcea, RCS&RDS marketing manager told ZF Transilvania.
This year the company has concentrated on the development of the Digi TV service (DTH by satellite), which was introduced in December 2004 and provides subscribers with 57 different TV channels and 5 radio stations. So far RCS&RDS has attracted more than 80,000 subscribers for its Digi TV service.
The total market targeted by the three digital satellite TV operators in Romania (RCS&RDS, Focus Sat and DCS) amounts to 600,000-800,000 households over three years. This includes both users in the areas not covered by regular cable TV, and those that already receive TV services.
RCS&RDS is one of the main operators on the cable TV market. The service portfolio includes data, Internet, cable TV and fixed telephone services. Company officials say RCS&RDS is also the second leading cable TV operator in Slovakia and the third leading cable operator in Hungary, with a total of more than 1 million users of these services in the three countries where it operates.
The group invested 100 million dollars in building a national network of data transmission, Internet, voice and image services. It acquired a number of players on the telecom market over the last three years, including TotalNet (April 2002), TerraSat (April 2003), FX Communications (February 2004, together with Astral Telecom) and PCNET Data Network (end of 2004).
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