Romtelecom
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Template:Infobox Company Romtelecom is the largest telecommunications company in Romania; the majority of shares are held by the Greek telecommunications company OTE (54.01% of shares). The Romanian state also has a minority stake of 45.99% in the company. The company had the monopoly for the provision of fixed telephony services until January 1, 2003. Currently, according to their web site, the company has over 4.2 million customers.
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History
In 1930, Societatea Anonimă Română de Telefoane (SART, "Romanian Telephone Company, Ltd.") was founded, more than 90% of its value being a foreign investment from ITT.
During this period (1930–1933), SART commissioned Palatul Telefoanelor (The Telephone Palace), a historic building in Bucharest. Although the building has suffered from several earthquakes and a bombardment, it is still standing, and has recently undergone a process of reconstruction and reconsolidation.
In 1949, SART was nationalised and turned into a division of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The slow pace of technological development that ensued was in accordance with a more general trend in the country during the Communist period, which lasted until 1989.
In December 1989, ROM-POST-TELECOM was created as a post and telecommunications operator, independent of the Ministry. The current name of Romtelecom was given after a reorganization in July 1991, when the state-owned company was also given the monopoly for basic telecommunications services.
In 1998, a share of 35% was sold the Greek company OTE. A corruption case arose around details of this privatisation, but eventually no measures were taken.
OTE has since acquired an additional 18% of the shares and has thus become the majority share holder of the company.
Criticism
The company is often criticised for poor services as well as expensive fees, especially when compared to other telecommunications companies on the market. Poor policy, such as constantly increasing fees for local calls (where 90% of all calls occur) and lowering fees for international calls (that are still twice as expensive as those offered by mobile or fixed alternatives) have driven subscribers away from Romtelecom to other companies after the fixed-line telecommunications market was liberalised in 2003. In the mobile telephony market, for example, Romtelecom's subsidiary Cosmote has less than 1% market share among Romania's 11.7 million mobile phone subscribers. Additionally, 250,000 fixed line customers out of 5.4 million subscribers nationwide currently subscribe to other companies, such as RDS.tel or Astral Telecom. Nonetheless, as of 2005, Romtelecom still maintains approximately 95% market share in the fixed line telephony market.
Subsidiaries
Romtelecom also owns several smaller companies: ClickNet (Internet service provider), and CableVision of Romania (providing Cable television services). It also owns 30% of the Cosmote România mobile phone operator (the ex-Cosmorom).