Orange Romania, the biggest telecom group on the local market, reported that its turnover decreased by 2.1% in the third quarter (Q3) to EUR 273.1 million.

"Although we are going through a period of crisis, with multiple uncertainties, we saw a slight recovery in consumption in the third quarter of this year," Orange Romania CEO Liudmila Climoc said in a statement.

The number of customers remained at the same level as last year (10.6 million), but the COVID-19 crisis negatively impacted the sales, the company explained. This was despite the increased demand for telecom, particularly data, services in the context of the pandemic. The consumption of mobile data increased by 37% year-on-year in Q3.

The company's financial services have also been in demand recently. The number of customers who chose Orange Money for financial operations continued to grow by 60% year-on-year in Q3, reaching 245,000 users.

To address the rising demand, Orange continued developing its network between July and September 2020, when 1,297 new localities gained access to 4G+ connectivity for over 845,000 inhabitants. Thus, at the end of September, 63.8% of the country's population had access to 4G+ internet services.

The 4G network covered 98.99% of the country's population and 100% of the urban one at the end of the third quarter, the company showed. It also said that Orange's 5G network already covers the entire capital city Bucharest.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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