Romtelecom

Romtelecom was the largest telecommunications company in Romania; the majority of shares were held by the Greek telecommunications company OTE (54.01% of shares). The Romanian state also had a minority stake of 45.99% in the company. The company had a monopoly for the provision of fixed telephony services until January 1, 2003. Currently, according to the OTE Group 2006 1st Quarter Results Press Release, Romtelecom has 3,835,647 fixed telephony lines, down from 4,279,038 at the end of 1st quarter 2005. As of 24 March 2013 when Zapp network operating on CDMA was closed down, Romtelecom remained with the only CDMA network in the country until 1 January 2015 when the network was shut down, putting an end to CDMA technology in the country.

History

In 1930, Societatea Anonimă Română de Telefoane (SART, "Romanian Telephone Company, Ltd.") was founded, more than 90% of its value being a foreign investment from ITT.

During this period (1930–1933), SART commissioned Palatul Telefoanelor (The Telephone Palace), a historic building in Bucharest. Although the building has suffered from several earthquakes and a bombardment, it is still standing, and has recently undergone a process of reconstruction and reconsolidation.