RCS & RDS si Orange has been negotiating for several months to buy Telekom, both divisions that the company has in Romania, and at least the group owned by the French has reached an agreement regarding the acquisition. RCS & RDS is a "difficult negotiator" because it wants the mobile services division, but without customers, while Orange takes everything, but in the end the sale of Telekom is bad for all of Romania, although it will more than likely be approved by the authorities.
Telekom will cede to Orange 4.6 million customers, and to RCS & RDS all the mobile infrastructure, and maybe millions of customers, because there is no one else to take them over at the moment. The disappearance of Telekom from the telecommunications market will leave RCS & RDS, Orange and Vodafone, and unfortunately this is a bad change for Romania, because competition will be reduced in the mobile telecommunications sector, and customers will lose in the end.
WHY Selling Telekom to RCS & RDS and Orange is BAD for Romania
RCS & RDS forced Telekom, Orange, Vodafone to reduce their prices in Romania, which created healthy competition, but the disappearance of one of them will leave customers without as many options. RCS & RDS "pulled down" the prices for telecommunications services, and separately from that, Orange, Telekom and Vodafone also offered more benefits at lower prices, but things will not be the same even after the transaction is completed.
Orange will have a new fixed infrastructure that it will control directly in Romania, but this does not mean that prices will decrease, and RCS & RDS will have new costs with the infrastructure that it takes over from Telekom. If in the case of Orange, the arrival of customers reduces expenses, RCS & RDS will only have expenses with Telekom's mobile infrastructure, and its support without a new increase in subscription prices does not seem sustainable.
The sale of Telekom will not be approved soon because the Romanian state has other priorities now, although Orange and RCS & RDS would like everything to be as simple as possible, but also because the European Commission could be involved.
