Orange reports 12.4% mobile telephony market decline in Romania for 2010

Mobile telephony operators in Romania reported revenues down EUR 300 million last year compared to 2009, due to the recession, increase in VAT and austerity measures, according to a France Telecom annual report quoted by Ziarul Financiar. The local telecom market saw a decline of 12.4 percent last year, compared to 2009, to EUR 2.12 billion, a second year of decline, according to France Telecom's report. Overall, the drop on the telecom market is estimated at 10.4 percent, due to the continuous decline of the mobile telephony and of a contraction in the number of mobile communications users, a premiere for Romania. This was due to the drop of prepay cards on the market. Business customers have also reduced their mobile fleets and optimized their expenses on telecom services, according to the report. According to Orange, the company was a leader on the Romanian market in terms of new subscribers, due to the new pricing plans launched in 2009. The company had 78,000 new subscribers last year, while Vodafone gained 34,000 new subscribers and Cosmote lost 32,000 subscribers, according to Orange. However, Vodafone and RCS & RDS managed to increase their market share based on the number of total clients. Orange comes first, with a 36.7 percent market share, down on the 37.5 percent a year before. Orange had 10.4 million clients at the end of 2010, while Vodafone, 9.8 million, according to the report. editor@romania-insider.com