New Ericsson head outlines local vision

One of De Dominicis's objectives as manager of the local subsidiary is to increase the company's turnover from last year. “As a personal objective, I want to add new clients to our portfolio, like the cable TV operator RCS&RDS, which is preparing its entrance on the mobile telephony market,” De Dominicis told BR. When rolling out a network, in the case of 3G network RCS&RDS, a company might need several vendors if it wants a fast expansion. The CaTV operator is currently working with one vendor, Nokia, and needs additional support to be able to meet the roll-out objectives.
In the case of the other operators who have already developed their 3G network, like Vodafone and Orange, De Dominicis says that they should now invest in the development of their services and selling capabilities. As the penetration rate of mobile telephony increases to over 100 percent, marketing strategies will become even more important. The operators will need to come up with more and more services, which would stimulate the market and boost the network usage level, De Dominicis said.
The new company president said that the local market is atypical because of the presence of the CaTV operators. Their existence supports competitiveness on the landline market, as well as on the TV broadcasting market. “The municipal project NetCity will rebalance the competition in fixed telephony, internet providing and TV streaming, as they will fight on equal grounds with the traditional landline operator Romtelecom,” De Dominicis added.
The manager is also planning to strengthen the relations his firm has with Romtelecom, as the company will make important investments in multimedia services, which is another development focus of Ericsson. Romtelecom has already announced its intention to launch IPTV services next year, for which the Swedish company could provide the entire solution.
The landline market should also undergo significant development in the next year, De Dominicis says, with Romtelecom as the main player with access to rural areas, not only urban ones.
When it comes to multimedia services, Ericsson has started an acquisition campaign to fill in the gaps in its multimedia capabilities. It should continue for the next five years, including smaller sized companies on regional markets.
“Depending on the strategy the company will subsequently adopt at a central level, the acquisition campaign will continue. If we address each local market individually, we do not rule out making acquisitions on the Romanian market too,” added De Dominicis.
In following months the structure of the South-East European division of the company will be changed, De Dominicis said, without elaborating.

Roxana Mihul