German media: Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom talk about network merger in Romania

The German and Romanian media have recently reported on the alleged plan of telecom companies Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, both active on the Romanian market, to merge their networks in the country. A recent article in the German newspaperHandelsblatt,extensively quoted by the Romanian media, mentions the merger plan for Romania and Austria, mainly triggered by an attempt to reduce costs and maintain profitability on these markets. According to the media report, Deutsche Telekom is in talks with other operators as well, besides France Telecom. The German newspaper quotes unnamed sources within Deutsche Telekom and mentions a similar move in Poland and UK. Deutsche Telekom owns local mobile operator Cosmote and landline company Romtelecom, through Greek OTE. France Telecom is the mother company of mobile network operator Orange in Romania. Orange has 10 million clients in Romania and an yearly turnover of EUR 1 billion. Cosmote had revenues of EUR 468 million in Romania last year, while Romtelecom, of EUR 716 million. Romtelecom has 4.7 million subscribers at the end of 2010, while Cosmote, around 6.7 million clients in Romania. editor@romania-insider.com