Orange, the largest telecom operator in Romania, has signed a preliminary agreement with the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Communications to take over the fixed operations of Telekom Romania and create a new entity in which the Romanian state would hold 20% of the shares, sources familiar to the deal told HotNews.ro.

A memorandum on this agreement was also presented in the Government meeting last week, according to HotNews.ro sources.

The preliminary agreement, signed about two weeks ago, between Orange and the Ministry of Transport and Communications strictly targets the shares held by the Greek group OTE in the former state telecom operator Romtelecom - and not the state's participation in the former mobile operator Cosmote. According to HotNews.ro sources, the mobile operations in Telekom Romania (formerly Cosmote) could be bought later by local group Digi Communications.

Orange, the leader of the Romanian mobile communications market, is interested in taking over the fixed communications infrastructure of the former Romtelecom, to become a provider of fixed-mobile services.

Orange's main competitor Vodafone also started offering fixed communications services after taking over UPC Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com

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