 TELECOM FEVER |
The Balkans is one of the fastest-growing GSM markets in Europe, and Montenegro is no exception. In less than five years, the mobile phone market has grown to a base of approximately 400,000 subscribers (statistically, almost two out of every three Montenegrins use a mobile phone) and Telekom Montenegro, the national telecommunications operator, is the most profitable company in the country.
The first mobile phone operator in Montenegro entered the market in 1997. Created as a joint venture between Norwegian Telenor and Greek investors, Promonte broke into the market during sanctions and started operating from scratch. Montenegro was a strategic foothold into the Balkan market for Telenor, and it quickly established a dominant presence and heavily invested to establish a modern national network. Telenor and its partners are now present in neighbouring Albania, as well as Serbia and Romania
Following the success of ProMonte, in July 2000 Telecom Montenegro decided to establish its own mobile phone provider called "Monet GSM".
Competition was fierce. ProMonte was intent on maintaining its dominance, while Monet GSM was attempting to attract new customers. Finally, both companies succeeded to save its market and even to increase it.
"We must prepare ourselves for hard competition in the next two years" says Oleg Obradovic, the founder of Montenegro's Internet provider and current Managing Director of Telecom Montenegro.
Obradovic is now leading the company into a new development phase: networks will be digital by 2003, billing will be modernized and the company will be slated for privatization this year.
In fact, Montenegro Telecom is surprisingly healthy. It is one of the rare companies paying dividends to its shareholders, bringing in approximately 90 million DM in revenue for 2001 and over 2 million DM in profits last year.
| A majority stake of Telecom Montenegro is now up for sale to investors. "Privatizing the Telecom sector means that we are a secure country for an investment, because we have good investment possibilities "points out Obradovic.
Telecom Montenegro is not only working with Swedish Ericsson and other multinationals, it is also linking its network to Croatia, Greece and Serbia.
"We have built up a very modern infrastructure and we are in the process of finishing our NBH network, which means that all towns in Montenegro will be connected to each other by fibre optical cable with an additional alternative line" said Obradovic.
Telecom Montenegro is building a completely new infrastructure. "We can say that we are in the family of Western European telecom operators. We are working on new projects; equipped with the highest European standards" continued Mr. Obradovic.
Even though the company has 1,300 employees and wants to reach the European standard of 200 subscribers per employee, Mr. Obradovic declares: "We want to reach this level, not by cutting jobs. We want to increase the number of subscribers and keep the number of employees".
The national telecom operator has 185,000 subscribers, and 80% of its switches are digital. New investments will ensure a fully digital network, and capacity will allow for increase of an additional 50,000 subscribers. Business revenues are currently derived from a spread of 15% from subscribers and 85% from private users.
Rumours suggest that Deutsch Telekom is interested in buying out the telecom giant… Why not? After all,Telecom Montenegro has the potential of becoming a regional powerhouse in the fast-evolving Balkan market. |
