OTE’s Bulgaria GSM operator sees hefty rise in subscribers this year
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s Globul GSM network, wholly owned by Greece’s largest company OTE Telecom, announced yesterday its subscribers had rapidly increased over the past two months and it expected the trend to continue in 2002. Globul, the second digital mobile phone operator in the Balkan state of 8 million, launched operations in September. Globul’s subscriber numbers jumped over 30 percent to 205,000, from 150,000 at the end of January, a Globul spokeswoman said, adding this was «slightly higher than initial forecasts.» «We expect this trend to remain stable during the year and the number of subscribers to top 350,000 at end-2002,» she said. Globul’s network area now covers 44.4 percent of Bulgaria’s population, which is more than half of its goal for total planned area coverage, said the spokeswoman. The company plans to complete its network by end-2002, when it is aims to cover over 80 percent of the population. Last month, the country director for Bulgaria of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), John Chomel-Doe, told Reuters the EBRD was in talks with OTE to provide up to $100 million euros ($87.7 million) in funding to back Globul’s expansion. The EBRD will be organizing a syndicate of lenders, made up of other other banks, to secure the funding, Chomel-Doe said. Globul is the trademark of Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile, the Bulgarian unit of OTE, which won a 15-year license to operate Bulgaria’s second GSM network in late 2000. OTE has invested 500 million levs ($225.23 million) in Globul, including the $135 million it paid for the license. Another 450 million levs were earmarked for investment by end-2005, Globul has said. Globul competes against Bulgaria’s two existing mobile phone operators – GSM operator Mobiltel, owned by an Austrian consortium, and analog operator Mobikom, in which Britain’s Cable & Wireless holds a 49-percent stake. Mobiltel says its subscribers have topped 1.3 million. Bulgaria plans to offer a third GSM license as an incentive to potential buyers of up to 65 percent of telecom monopoly BTC, whose sale is expected to be launched by the end of this week. OTE has indicated it might bid for BTC, but said it still needed to examine the exact terms.
