Telekom Romania plans investments worth €180mn this year, mainly in further developing and expanding its fixed and mobile infrastructure, the telecom operator announced on March 1.

The new investments will also be beneficial to the Romanian state, which plans to sell part of its shares in the telecom operator, as they are likely to increase the value of Romania’s stake. Romania holds 46% in Telekom Romania, while Deutsche Telekom is the indirect owner of the majority stake through OTE Greece.

Earlier this month, telecoms minister Marius Bostan was quoted by local media as saying that the government wants to increase the value of the company and only afterwards sell part of its shares. 

Telekom Romania plans to increase by more than 30% its optical fibre footprint and reach 2mn households by the end of the year. On the mobile side, the company will continue the modernization, expansion and optimization of the 3G/4G networks, the company said in a statement.

“Our key priority in 2016 is to consolidate our unique proposition as leading integrated provider. We will further differentiate on the market by creating more value to our users and by delivering the best customer experience through all touchpoints along the customer journey,” the CEO of Telekom Romania, Miroslav Majoros, said.

At the end of last year, Telekom Romania and the Romanian branch of France’s Orange entered into a network sharing agreement allowing Telekom Romania to access Orange’s 4G network and Orange to supply services through Telekom’s fixed line network. The two telecoms operators thus aimed to strengthen their forces against RCS&RDS – the local TV network operator that has transformed itself into the telecoms operator with the most complete range of services.

At the end of last year, Telekom Romania had 5.99mn mobile customers, 0.9% down on the year. Its fixed-network lines fell 6.6% to total 2.09mn at the end of December, while its broadband lines decreased 1.1% to €1.18mn. The company’s revenues dropped 1.8% to €984mn last year, while its EBITDA declined 22.9% to €205mn.