Telekom Romania Mobile Communications S.A. is a mobile network company in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, wholly owned by
OTE
OTE is the national telecommunications provider of Greece.
OTE may also refer to:
* Ocean thermal energy conversion, a renewable energy source
* Oda of Haldensleben (978–1023), daughter of the Margrave of the North March, Theoderich
* On-tar ...
, which in turn is controlled by
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...
, operating under Telekom brand. Telekom Romania Mobile had 3.5 million subscribers with 15% market share as of July 2021.
The network operated together with
Telekom Romania Communications since 2014 until 2021 under the same brand Telekom. Both companies were majority owned by
OTE
OTE is the national telecommunications provider of Greece.
OTE may also refer to:
* Ocean thermal energy conversion, a renewable energy source
* Oda of Haldensleben (978–1023), daughter of the Margrave of the North March, Theoderich
* On-tar ...
, which in turn is controlled by Deutsche Telekom.
On November 6, 2020, OTE agreed to sell the 54% stake in the fixed network company
Telekom Romania Communications to
Orange Romania
Orange România is a broadband Internet service provider and mobile provider in Romania. It is Romania's largest GSM network operator which is majority owned by Orange S.A., the biggest initial investor, who gradually increased its ownership.
Be ...
for €295 million. In order for the transaction to be approved by the authorities, OTE has committed to buy the remaining 30% of shares in Telekom Romania Mobile, which operates the mobile network. The transaction was completed in July 2021.
OTE did not succeed in selling the mobile phone company after the transaction with
Digi
Digi may refer to:
* Short for "digital" as in digicam, digiscale, digiscrap, digibee
*Digi Communications, a Romanian telecommunications company in Romania, Hungary, Spain and Italy
*Digi International, an American electronics manufacturer
*Digi-K ...
failed due to the fact that only wanted to buy
cell site
A cell site, cell tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed (typically on a radio mast, tower, or other raised structure) to create a cell, or adjac ...
s and
mobile frequencies
Cellular frequencies are the sets of frequency ranges within the ultra high frequency band that have been assigned for cellular-compatible mobile devices, such as mobile phones, to connect to cellular networks.Guowang Miao, Jens Zander, Ki Won S ...
, thus making Deutsche Telekom to rebranded it as Telekom Mobile and keep the company in OTE's portfolio until it finds a buyer.
History
Cosmorom
The company was launched as Cosmorom in 1999 by
Romtelecom
Telekom Romania Communications (formerly known as Romtelecom) is a Romanian telecommunications company, which provides fixed voice, television and data services, for residential and business customers in Romania. As of 2020, Telekom Romania Commun ...
and entered service in April 2000. In the first years, the company failed to gain market share. Having around 1% market share and financial losses, there were talks about the selling of the company, but the decision was delayed several times due to disagreement between OTE, the majority owner of Romtelecom and the
Romanian Government
, image =
, caption=Logo of the Government of Romania
, date = 1862
, state = Romania
, address = Victoria PalaceBucharest
, appointed = President
, leader_title = Prime Minister
, mai ...
. In January 2004 Romtelecom decided to sell a majority stake in the company. Buying offers were made by
Mobilkom
A1 Telekom Austria (A1, ''A eins'') is the leading fixed and mobile network operator in Austria, with 5.4 million mobile and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. A1 Telekom Austria traces its origins to Austria's first GSM mobile phone network whi ...
(now
A1 Telekom Austria
A1 Telekom Austria (A1, ''A eins'') is the leading fixed and mobile network operator in Austria, with 5.4 million mobile and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. A1 Telekom Austria traces its origins to Austria's first GSM mobile phone network wh ...
), which was seen as a favorite, and the Hungarian company Matev of
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...
. But in the end, the Greek company OTE, which owned 54% of Cosmorom's parent company, decided to buy 70% of the company, leaving Romtelecom with the remaining 30%.
Cosmote Romania
In July 2005 OTE's mobile division
Cosmote
COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS S.A. ( el, COSMOTE ΚΙΝΗΤΕΣ ΤΗΛΕΠΙΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΕΣ Α.Ε.) known as just Cosmote is the largest mobile network operator in Greece. The company is headquartered in Athens and is a fully owned subsidia ...
relaunched the mobile operator separate from the fixed services company Romtelecom, with a popular offer for prepaid services. In December 2005 had approximately 50,000 subscribers. The process of relaunching, started with the rebranding as Cosmote on 6 December 2005. On 2 March 2006 started a wide advertising campaign on
prepaid market, offering a limited number of
SIM card
file:SIM-Karte von Telefónica O2 Europe - Standard und Micro.jpg, A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout)
file:Sim card.png, A smart card taken from a Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM mobile phone
file:Simkarte NFC SecureE ...
s with 2000 free minutes within the network per month for a low price (3 euro). The network could no longer cope with the large number of users and network failures often occurred. So on March 20, the company announced that the offer will work until March 31 only for people who have activated the service until March 22.
On 30 June 2009 Cosmote acquired
Zapp Mobile
Zapp Mobile was the first CDMA 450 MHz mobile phone operator in Romania, now part of Telekom Romania. In 2006 Zapp got a UMTS 2100 MHz license.
Zapp Mobile was a company of Telemobil S.A. România, which was a spin-off of Telefónica Rom ...
, a
CDMA
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
mobile operator with 374,000 subscribers, who also had a
3G license. Following Zapp acquisition, Cosmote launched 3G service. At the end of 2013, Cosmote Romania had 6.1 million customers, of which 25.9% were postpaid subscribers and the rest were users of prepaid services.
Telekom Romania
On 12 September 2014, Romtelecom and Cosmote România unified mobile and fixed services under a single
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
and changed their respective legal names to Telekom Romania Communications and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications. The company tried to attract postpaid customers, including with bundling mobile and fixed services, but the market share dropped. The company raised prices, but financial losses continued.
Radio Frequency Summary
References
External links
*
{{Romania mobile phone companies
Mobile phone companies of Romania
Romanian companies established in 1999
Companies based in Bucharest
Deutsche Telekom