Vodafone RO have bought Proton Technologies, a large mobile phone retailer in the country with 73 stores, most of which are in Moldavia. Previously Proton Technologies had been a major retailer for Orange, Vodafone’s largest competition, but Proton will stop selling Orange services within the next few weeks.

Liliana Solomon, CEO of Vodafone, told the ZF newspaper:

“Proton stores will go through a rebranding process in the next few weeks, after which they will start to sell Vodafone products and services.”

The move boosts Vodafone’s branded retail presence in the north of the country where it has traditionally been weak.

Proton is the third largest Orange dealer in the market, after the Fonomat and Euro-GSM retailers.

Vodafone is the second largest mobile phone provider in Romania, they ended 2007 with 8,808,000 subscribers, behind Orange with 9,665,285, but ahead of Cosmote who had 3,213,648: