Telecom operators last year competed in an unprecedented battle for customers, after companies attempted to maintain or boost their user base at all costs, stated Richard Anderson, CEO with UPC Romania, the largest cable TV operator on the market.
"Last year I saw the most competitive telecom market in my entire 30-year experience in the communications industry. There was a fierce battle between operators that fought to gain customers at all costs. In fact, UPC has never seen any other competitive telecom market as the Romanian market is now," said Anderson in an interview with ZF.
RCS&RDS, Romtelecom , and UPC, the largest providers of fixed telephony, video services, and Internet access on the domestic market, last year engaged in a price war, which resulted in lower tariffs and the elimination of several taxes.
"Under the circumstances, we did our best to keep our customer base," says Anderson.
UPC in the first nine months of last year lost 100,000 cable TV customers, but registered growth on the Internet, telephony, satellite television, and digital cable segments.
"Despite the fact that we lost users on the video segment, overall, our total number of customers increased at the end of the year. Last year was a difficult year, an extremely difficult one, in terms of competitive pressures, " explained the CEO.
Anderson believes RCS&RDS and Romtelecom are UPC's most aggressive competitors.
UPC is now in talks to acquire some cable TV operators and exclusively targets companies outside Bucharest.
"There isn't really anything left to buy on the market. Most operators have been purchased. We've made almost all the acquisitions possible. There are just several small operators that we're in talks with at the moment. There isn't anything left to buy in Bucharest. (...)," Anderson told ZF.
After losing customers on the video segment last year, Anderson stated the operator wants to halt this trend in 2008 and believes approaching RCS&RDS's customer base is one of the ways to do this.
"2008 will not be easier than last year. Fortunately for us, there's a lot of room for growth on the internet and fixed telephony segments. We won't continue losing customers as we did last year".
Anderson says the 10m-euro investment in the IT system will play an essential role in keeping customers.
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