Albania
In the country’s largest move to privatize to date, the Albanian Privatization Ministry said it is prepared to sell between 51 percent and 85 percent of Albanian Mobile Communications, the state mobile phone monopoly, to investors, according to a Reuters report. AMC began offering GSM service in 1996 and has 7,000 subscribers. Privatization was originally planned for April.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria sold 51 percent of its Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. (BTC) monopoly to a consortium of OTE of Greece and KPN of the Netherlands for US$510 million. The sale includes a GSM license. The deal also includes an obligation of a US$200 million investment-US$150 million in the Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. and US$50 million in the GSM system. KPN has a 60-percent share in the new GSM license, while OTE has a similar share in the fixed network. The companies plan to buy a 49-percent stake in the local mobile phone company, Mobikom, which is currently owned by Cable & Wireless.
Czech Republic
The winner of the Czech Republic’s third GSM license is scheduled to be announced 30 September. Bidders include British Telecom, Vodafone AirTouch, France Telecom, Orange, Telekom Austria/Telecom Italia Mobile, Telenor and Telesystem International Wireless.
RadioMobil awarded Motorola a contract to deploy a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network.
Poland
Poland received only two bids by the preliminary bid deadline in August for a 25-percent to 35-percent stake in government-controlled Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA), according to press reports. The two bidders apparently are SBC Communications of the United States and France Telecom. Along with basic wireline services, TPSA has the majority interest (66 percent) in cellular operator Centertel along with France Telecom (34 percent).
Romania
Romanian GSM operator Connex on 16 July launched a new service under the brand name Xnet. With this service Connex became the first Romanian GSM operator to deliver Internet services. Connex currently has more than 400,000 customers.
