October 31 (SeeNews) - The Romanian unit of Greek cellphone operator Cosmote has exceeded three million customers in less than two years of operation, Cosmote said.
"The company […] is expected to be on target to reach positive EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] performance in 2008 and net profit in 2009,” Cosmote Group said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
Cosmote Romania swung to 91.6 million euro ($132.2 million) net loss last year from 79.7 million euro net profit in 2005. The net profit for 2005 was a result of a write-off of some 119 million euro of debt.
The operator had 30,000 customers at the end of 2005, giving it a market share of under one percent. There are four wireless operators in the country of 21.6 million people: Vodafone Romania, an arm of global telecoms giant Vodafone; Orange Romania, a unit of France's Orange; Cosmote Romania and Zapp Mobile.
($=0.6928 euro)