The telco’s LTE trial currently reaches 28% of local population
Telekom Austria’s Bulgarian subsidiary Mobiltel has acquired fixed-line operator Blizoo Bulgaria.
Blizoo Bulgaria is the second-largest fixed-line operator in the country with an 8% share in the fixed broadband market and an 11% share in the TV market. Blizoo currently has approximately 373,000 subscribers who obtain fixed voice, broadband and TV products via DOCSIS 3 technology. In total, Blizoo Bulgaria covers 1.3 million households across the country.
“The acquisition of Blizoo is another step to further develop our challenging Bulgarian market. We see a huge growth potential together with Mobiltel in the strongly rising fixed-line segment, which will be ultimately beneficial for our Bulgarian customers,” said Alejandro Plater, CEO of Telekom Austria.
“The main goal of the acquisition is to expand our fixed-line business in Bulgaria. We have seen almost 20% growth of our fixed-line business in Bulgaria in the first half 2015,” Telekom Austria spokesman Peter Schiefer told RCR Wireless News. “The number of subscribers grew from 153,000 in the first half of 2014 to 183,500 subscribers per end of June. Now we are adding 373,000 Blizoo customers.”
The financial conditions of the acquisition were not revealed by the companies. Telekom Austria said it will finance the transaction via existing cash flow, and it expects to complete the acquisition during the last quarter of 2015. The transaction is subject to merger control clearance.
Regarding the mobile operation in Bulgaria, Schiefer said that Mobiltel is still awaiting local authorities to award spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in order to launch commercial LTE services. The company is currently testing LTE technology in certain areas of the country, covering approximately 28% of Bulgaria’s overall population.
By the end of the second quarter of 2015, Mobiltel counted 4.3 million mobile subscribers, up 4.8% year-over-year. Telekom Austria’s Bulgarian operations recorded revenue of 173.6 million euro ($189.8 million) in the first half of the year, down 5% vs. the year-ago quarter. Bulgarian operations represented 8.9% of Telekom Austria’s overall revenue. The telco said that local operations continued to be affected by macroeconomic and competitive pressure during the second quarter.
