The fierce competition between RCS/RDS, Romtelecom and UPC in Romania is not just confined to ruthless price-cutting.
According to ZF, the three companies are now also trying to outdo each other in the rollout of fibre-optic networks that give subscribers internet access at speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
RCS/RDS now has such networks in place in 76 cities, while Romtelecom is present in 10 cities and Ilfov country. UPC, however, only offers 100 Mbps at present in the city of Cluj.
RCS/RDS (Digi TV) is the market leader in both the cable and DTH sectors, while UPC is the second largest cable company and also operates the DTH platform Focus Sat.
The incumbent telco Romtelecom meanwhile operates Romania’s second most popular DTH platform and an IPTV service, both under the Dolce brand name. It also has a cable subsidiary named NextGen.