OXFORD, United Kingdom—Following its successful cell-phone investments in Croatia and Slovenia, Mobilkom, part of the former state monopoly Telekom Austria, admitted that it is investigating further investments in Eastern Europe, especially given that mobile penetration in its home market of Austria is more than 80 percent.
The company, which is 25-percent owned by Telecom Italia, said that its VIPnet cell-phone service is the market leader in Croatia with a 48.7-percent market share, while Si.mobil in Slovenia increased its market share to more than 20 percent last year from 14 percent in 2000.
This intent from Mobilkom came as Cesky Mobil of the Czech Republic said it now has more than 1 million subscribers to its Oskar services, two years after launching its GSM network in March 2000. The company claimed it had acquired more subscribers since launching its 2G network than its competitors, Eurotel and RadioMobil, which only managed to recruit between 300,000 to 450,000 new subscribers each. Oskar also reported revenues of more than US$125 million in 2001.
Further evidence of the interest in Eastern Europe is the report that Vodafone is negotiating with the owners of the Montenegrian mobile operator, Promonte, to purchase a majority shareholding. The deal, rumored to be valued at more than 100 million euros (US$89.8 million), would make it the largest foreign investment in Montenegro this year.
