Mtel (Bulgaria)
| joint stock company | |
| Industry | mobile telecommunications |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Sofia, Bulgaria |
|
Key people
|
Aleksander Dimitrov, CEO |
| Products | mobile / fixed telephony, Internet services, Digital TV services |
| Revenue |  €371.3 million (2014) |
 €47.9 million (2013) |
|
| Website | www.mtel.bg |
Mtel ("Мобилтел" or "Мтел" in Bulgarian /network code 284-01/), also known as "Mobiltel", is the first and largest GSM mobile phone operator in Bulgaria. It has more than 4.2 million customers. Company was founded in March 1994 but was not launched commercially until September 1995 (as Citron).[1]
In 2001 M-Tel launched its pre payment sim cards which allow customers to purchase credits prior to calling friends, this was a great success and saw the amount of customers using their network increase dramatically.
The company had a market share of about 58% and 3,000,000 clients in September 2004. On 14 September 2006 M-Tel reached 4,000,000 clients. As of May 2006 the company has 4,400,000 subscribers and its market share fell to 51,1%. Its contract customers increased to 1,7 mln, while the profit per customer dropped to 9,9 euro for Q1 2007.[2]
The operator has been owned by Telekom Austria Group since July 2005, when it was acquired for up to €1.6 billion in one of Central and Eastern Europe's largest deals and one of the largest foreign investments in Austria. Mobiltel was the first Bulgarian operator to offer EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSPA+ and LTE (for testing) services to its clients, with video telephony services being available since 6 March 2006 in the capital Sofia and since mid-July 2006 throughout the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts.[3]
The company is the official sponsor of Bulgarian football club PFC Levski Sofia. Since 2005, the company also organizes the strong annual M-Tel Masters chess tournament, which is attended by six of the world's best International Grandmasters.
Despite the difficult economic environment affecting the entire IT and Telco industry in Bulgaria, Mobiltel's performance remains stable with a customer base of 5.3 mln. The postpaid subscribers increased from 61% to roughly 66%. Mobiltel's market share by end Q1/2011 stays at 49.3% .
The M-tel network uses the access code 88. Until 2003, it also used the codes 89 and 87, which had been added as the network had expanded. In mid-2003, however, mobile numbers in Bulgaria increased by one digit and the M-Тel network code returned to being 88 only.
Mobiltel owns Loop - the largest virtual mobile operator operating in Bulgaria, specially designed for young customers. In 2011 Mtel created pre-paid service for cheap telephone calls, SMS and mobile Internet bob, which is available in Austria and Slovenia too.
In 2012 M-tel was rebranded with a new logo, and the dash in the name was removed leaving Mtel (Мтел) as shown in the new logo.
On July 28, 2015 Mtel and Max have signed a contract for national roaming. This is the first agreement for sharing networks in the Bulgarian telecom market.
On July 29, 2015 Mobiltel said has agreed to buy cable TV and internet service provider Blizoo. On 18.09.2015 CPC gave green light of the deal and the mergerer is expected to be done by the end of the year.
References
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- ↑ http://www.mtel.bg/mobiltel/press_det.php?press_det_id=138
External links
- Official website (Bulgarian)
- Official website (English)
