Cosmote România
Encyclopedia
Cosmote România is a Romania
n mobile phone
operator. It is the third largest mobile phone operator in the country, following Orange Romania
and Vodafone Romania
after surpassing Zapp Mobile
. It has 6.6 millions subscribers as of March 2011.
It started operations under the brand name Cosmorom, but was re-branded as Cosmote România in 6 December 2005, after the takeover by the Greek Cosmote
in August 2005.
Cosmorom was the mobile arm of Romanian national incumbent operator Romtelecom
and had never reported any profit. It has been estimated that the initial investment and subsequent loss that was covered by the mother company reached over a billion dollars. Having less than 1% market share and making nothing but losses, there were talks about closing it down, but the final decision was delayed several times and Cosmorom's future was uncertain due to disagreement between OTE (the Greek telecoms ex-monopoly that also owns the majority stake in Romtelecom) and the Romanian government.
Nevertheless, OTE's mobile arm Cosmote
(which also owns mobile operators in Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia and Albania) agreed to buy the majority (70%) of shares from Romtelecom and relaunch the troubled Romanian operator under its management.
Cosmote officials believed that there was room for Cosmote România in the market of Romania
where mobile penetration was growing fast, so they prepared for an aggressive come back at the end of 2005, with the aim of extending its poor network coverage to match rival operators and providing affordable services to gain customers.
The process of relaunching, started at the beginning of December 2005 with a wide advertising campaign, aggressive commercial offers to attract customers, a flat tariff pricing policy and some totally new services (like "missed call notification" and "notify me" services) both for prepaid and postpaid customers. A strong accent was given to the prepaid market, including a very aggressive campaign offering a limited number of cards with 2000 free minutes within the network per month.
After acquiring Zapp Mobile
Cosmote Romania has launched 3G
services and mobile broadband Internet that can be purchased in 11 cities and are available in 300 localities. Subscriptions for data transfer speeds are up to 21.6 Mbit/s.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
operator. It is the third largest mobile phone operator in the country, following Orange Romania
Orange România
Orange România is Romania's largest GSM network operator, the subsidiary of Orange SA. It is now fully owned by the France Télécom Group , the biggest initial investor, who gradually increased its ownership....
and Vodafone Romania
Vodafone Romania
Vodafone is a Romanian mobile phone network operator. It launched in April 1997 as the first GSM network in Romania...
after surpassing Zapp Mobile
Zapp Mobile
Zapp Mobile is the first CDMA 450 MHz mobile phone operator in Romania, now part of Cosmote. Zapp has around 200,000 subscribers left, giving the CDMA network around 1% market share, and the number is declining because of migration of the customers to other GSM or UMTS networks...
. It has 6.6 millions subscribers as of March 2011.
It started operations under the brand name Cosmorom, but was re-branded as Cosmote România in 6 December 2005, after the takeover by the Greek Cosmote
Cosmote
COSMOTE is the largest mobile network operator in Greece, with 7.9 million subscribers. The company is headquartered in Athens and it is a fully owned subsidiary of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization , the incumbent telecommunications provider in Greece...
in August 2005.
Cosmorom was the mobile arm of Romanian national incumbent operator Romtelecom
Romtelecom
Romtelecom is the largest telecommunications company in Romania; the majority of shares are held by the Greek telecommunications company OTE . The Romanian state also has a minority stake of 45.99% in the company. The company had a monopoly for the provision of fixed telephony services until...
and had never reported any profit. It has been estimated that the initial investment and subsequent loss that was covered by the mother company reached over a billion dollars. Having less than 1% market share and making nothing but losses, there were talks about closing it down, but the final decision was delayed several times and Cosmorom's future was uncertain due to disagreement between OTE (the Greek telecoms ex-monopoly that also owns the majority stake in Romtelecom) and the Romanian government.
Nevertheless, OTE's mobile arm Cosmote
Cosmote
COSMOTE is the largest mobile network operator in Greece, with 7.9 million subscribers. The company is headquartered in Athens and it is a fully owned subsidiary of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization , the incumbent telecommunications provider in Greece...
(which also owns mobile operators in Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia and Albania) agreed to buy the majority (70%) of shares from Romtelecom and relaunch the troubled Romanian operator under its management.
Cosmote officials believed that there was room for Cosmote România in the market of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
where mobile penetration was growing fast, so they prepared for an aggressive come back at the end of 2005, with the aim of extending its poor network coverage to match rival operators and providing affordable services to gain customers.
The process of relaunching, started at the beginning of December 2005 with a wide advertising campaign, aggressive commercial offers to attract customers, a flat tariff pricing policy and some totally new services (like "missed call notification" and "notify me" services) both for prepaid and postpaid customers. A strong accent was given to the prepaid market, including a very aggressive campaign offering a limited number of cards with 2000 free minutes within the network per month.
After acquiring Zapp Mobile
Zapp Mobile
Zapp Mobile is the first CDMA 450 MHz mobile phone operator in Romania, now part of Cosmote. Zapp has around 200,000 subscribers left, giving the CDMA network around 1% market share, and the number is declining because of migration of the customers to other GSM or UMTS networks...
Cosmote Romania has launched 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
services and mobile broadband Internet that can be purchased in 11 cities and are available in 300 localities. Subscriptions for data transfer speeds are up to 21.6 Mbit/s.
Radio Frequency Summary
The following is a list of known frequencies which Cosmote employs in Romania:| MCC | MNC | Frequency | Protocol | Class | | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 226 | 03 | 900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE | 2G | |
| 226 | 03 | 1800 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE | 2G | |
| 226 | 06 | 2100 MHz | UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ | 3G | Formerly Zapp Mobile Zapp Mobile Zapp Mobile is the first CDMA 450 MHz mobile phone operator in Romania, now part of Cosmote. Zapp has around 200,000 subscribers left, giving the CDMA network around 1% market share, and the number is declining because of migration of the customers to other GSM or UMTS networks... UMTS network |