The largest fixed telephone operator on the local market has had major growth on these segments in 2008 and is betting on sustained advances for this year as well, as companies are resorting to reductions in budgets intended for communication and IT, and are analyzing offers much more carefully, based on business needs.

“The client always requests a fixed line, but now he wants to spend less and is much more selective in terms of packages which he needs.  Last year, we had major growth, especially for internet service, private virtual networks, and system integration, a segment for which we reached some €20 million.  This was the first time that Romtelecom started to look carefully at the system integration market.  Furthermore, revenue from the data center was also up to several million euro,” according to a declaration for Business Standard by George Makowski, Chief Commercial Officer for Romtelecom’s Business Segment.

The company posted 400 percent growth last year in terms of number of data service clients for medium and large companies, making up the most dynamic  portfolio segment. In 2008, Romtelecom gained 15,000 company clients for fixed telephony, up 97 percent, while virtual private networks (VPN) advanced 66 percent, and broadband internet connections for the business environment increased 47 percent.
 
Makowski does expect a slowing in growth this year, although he also believes that the number of clients will rise.

The company hired some 250 sales employees last year to sustain growth in these segments.