 | |
Native name | А1 България |
|---|---|
| Formerly | Mtel, Mobiltel |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | , Bulgaria |
Key people | Alexander Dimitrov, CEO |
| Services | |
| Revenue |  €574.1 million (2021) [1] |
| €104.1 million (2021) [1] | |
Number of employees | 3,291 (2021) [1] |
| Parent | A1 Telekom Austria Group |
| Website | www |
A1 Bulgaria (previously known as Mtel or Mobiltel) is a telecommunications company in Bulgaria owned by A1 Telekom Austria Group.
A1 Bulgaria was founded in March 1994 but was not launched commercially until September 1995 (as Citron). [2]
In 2001, M-Tel (the brand then) launched its prepayment sim cards, which allowed customers to purchase credits prior to calling friends. This proved to be a great success and saw the number of customers using their network increase dramatically.
The company had a market share of about 58% and 3,000,000 clients in September 2004. On 14 September 2006 M-Tel reached 4,000,000 clients. As of May 2006 [update] the company has 4,400,000 subscribers and its market share fell to 51.1%. Its contract customers increased to 1.7 mln, while the profit per customer dropped to 9.9 euros for Q1 2007. [3]
The operator has been owned by Telekom Austria Group since July 2005, when it was acquired for up to €1.6 billion in one of Central and Eastern Europe's largest deals and one of the largest foreign investments in Austria. Mobiltel was the first Bulgarian operator to offer EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSPA+ and second to offer LTE services to its clients, with video telephony services being available since 6 March 2006 in the capital Sofia and since mid-July 2006 throughout the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts. [4]
The company was the official sponsor of Bulgarian football club PFC Levski Sofia. Since 2005, the company also organizes the strong annual M-Tel Masters chess tournament, which is attended by six of the world's best International Grandmasters.
Despite the difficult economic environment affecting the entire IT and Telco industry in Bulgaria, Mobiltel's performance remains stable with a customer base of 5.3 million. The postpaid subscribers increased from 61% to roughly 66%. Mobiltel's market share by end Q1/2011 stays at 49.3%.
The Mtel network uses the access code 88. Until 2003, it also used the codes 89 and 87, which had been added as the network had expanded. In mid-2003, however, mobile numbers in Bulgaria increased by one digit and the M-Тel network code returned to being 88 only.
Mobiltel owns Loop, the largest virtual mobile operator operating in Bulgaria, specially designed for young customers. In 2011 Mtel created pre-paid service for cheap telephone calls, SMS and mobile Internet Bob, which is available in Austria and Slovenia too.
In 2012 M-tel was rebranded with a new logo, and the dash in the name was removed leaving Mtel (Мтел) as shown in the new logo.
On 28 July 2015, Mtel and Max signed a contract for national roaming. This is the first agreement for sharing networks in the Bulgarian telecom market.
On 29 July 2015, Mobiltel said it has agreed to buy cable TV and internet service provider Blizoo. On 18 September 2015, CPC gave green light of the deal and the merger was done by the end of the year.
On 15 September 2016, Mtel became the official sponsor of the most successful Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia. From 2016 to 2017 season, Mtel became the team's principal shirt sponsor.
On 14 January 2017 Mtel launched its own pay television sports pack – MAX Sport (then under the brand Mtel Sport), consisting of two TV channels. [5]
As of 22 May 2018 [update] , the company is operating under the A1 brand.
A1 has currently deployed a few different mobile networks. The company was first to launch GSM, GPRS, HSPA, HSPA+ and test LTE in Bulgaria. They also have fiber optic internet offered in most large cities (thanks to recent acquisition of former blizoo). In 2012 A1 (Formerly Mtel) announced DTH. As of 2016 [update] depending on a viewer's location A1 can offer to IPTV (marketed as interactive television), CATV (former blizoo), HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and fiber internet (up to 1 Gbit/s).
A1 currently operates 2G, 3G, 4G, and limited amounts of 5G to their wireless subscribers. They offer both prepaid and postpaid plans, with different data, calling, and messaging allotments. As per Opensignal's 2021 report, [6] A1 ties with Vivacom in both download and upload speed, with Yettel Bulgaria in third place regarding download and upload speed. Meanwhile, Vivacom beats A1 in 4G availability, leaving both A1 and Telenor in 2nd and 3rd place.
A1 offers satellite television, and cable television as part of select packages to their customers.
A1's IPTV is marketed as interactive television.
A1 acquired blizoo in June 2015 as a result the company now has access to up to 1.5 million people thanks to blizoo's DVB-C network. Most of the network is FTTB.
In 2012, after big commercials, A1 announced DTH.
After many unsuccessful tries with mobile IPTV, A1 finally made a breakthrough with its latest new service called A1 Xplore TV. As of June 2016 [update] it has been free for current television users (including blizoo's). A1 Xplore TV offers up to 74 channels (as of April 2018 [update] ), some in HD on all type of devices. The app is available in Google Play Store and AppStore.
A1's first major investment was in Megalan Networks.
T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic, Poland and the United States.
Celcom Axiata Berhad was the oldest mobile telecommunications provider in Malaysia. Celcom was a member of the Axiata group of companies. Celcom was merged with Digi to form CelcomDigi on 1 December 2022.
Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation S.A. is the largest technology company in Greece. It is one of the three largest companies listed in the Athens Stock Exchange, according to market capitalization.
Telus Mobility is a Canadian wireless network operator and a division of Telus Communications which sells wireless services in Canada on its numerous networks. It operates 5G, LTE and HSPA+ on its mainstream networks. Telus Mobility is the second-largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 10.6 million subscribers as of Q3 2020.
Dialog Axiata PLC, is one of Sri Lanka's largest telecommunications service providers, and the country's largest mobile network operator with over 17 million subscribers which amounts to 57% of the Sri Lankan mobile market. Dialog is a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad which owns 73.75% controlling stake of the company, while Bharti Airtel owns 10.36%.
América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in the world in terms of equity subscribers, as well as one of the largest corporations in the world. América Móvil is a Forbes Global 2000 company. As of Q1, 2019, América Móvil had 277.4 million wireless subscribers, and 84.3 million fixed revenue generating units.
Vivacom is the largest telecommunications company in Bulgaria and a former state-owned incumbent operator. The company is headquartered in the capital city Sofia and employs around 5,900 people, owning a mature distribution network with around 230 branded retail outlets and alternative sale points.
A1 Hrvatska d.o.o. is a Croatian telecommunications company owned by A1 Telekom Austria Group launched in July 1999.
Yettel Serbia is a Serbian mobile, fixed, internet and IPTV provider, owned by the Czech investment group PPF. It is headquartered in Belgrade. As of 2020, it is the second largest mobile telephony operator with market share of 36.98%.
A1 Telekom Austria (A1, A eins) is the leading fixed and mobile network operator in Austria, with 5.4 million mobile and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. A1 Telekom Austria traces its origins to Austria's first GSM mobile phone network which began testing in 1992 and commercial operations in 1994, under the name Mobilkom Austria, then part of the Austrian state-owned PTT agency Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung (PTV, ÖPT) until it was split off into its own company in 1996. After Mobilkom's merger with A1 Telekom Austria Group in July 2010 it operates under the new name of A1 Telekom Austria.
Telekom Srbija a.d. Beograd is a Serbian state-owned telecommunications operator. It was founded in May 1997 as a joint-stock company, by spinning off the telecommunications business from PTT Srbija. In April 2015, Telekom Srbija started providing all services in Serbia under the mts brand.
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, doing business as SLT-MOBITEL, is the national telecommunications services provider in Sri Lanka and one of the country's largest companies with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 40 billion. The company provides domestic and corporate services which include fixed and wireless telephony, Internet access and IT services to domestic, public and business sector customers. As of 2018 SLT-MOBITEL was Sri Lanka's second largest mobile network operator with over 7.9 million subscribers.
Telephone numbers in Bulgaria are under a full number dialing plan, meaning that the full national number must be dialed for all calls, while it retains the trunk code, '0', for all national dialling. Area codes are prefixed with a trunk code of 0 only when dialled domestically.
The prevalent means of connecting to the Internet in Germany is DSL, introduced by Deutsche Telekom in 1999. Other technologies such as Cable, FTTH and FTTB (fiber), Satellite, UMTS/HSDPA (mobile) and LTE are available as alternatives.
Vodafone GmbH is a telecommunications operator in Germany owned by Vodafone Group Plc and headquartered in Düsseldorf. It provides mobile phone, LTE, 5G, cable internet, landlines, cable TV, and IPTV services. As of the third quarter of 2021, Vodafone GmbH has more than 31 million mobile customers in Germany, making it the third-largest provider of mobile phone services in Germany. The company's headquarters are in the suburb of Heerdt in Düsseldorf, with regional offices throughout Germany. Vodafone Germany's main competitors are 1&1 Mobilfunk, Telekom Deutschland and Telefónica Germany.
Vodafone Hungary is the third largest mobile operator in Hungary. It started operations in 1999 after securing the third GSM 900/1800 MHz licence of the country and it was the first provider operating in the DCS-1800 band in Hungary. Vodafone is the third largest mobile network operator of the country again. The operator had a share of ~27% of the market in Q2 2020. They controlled approx. 27% of the market in December 2019. Market share The full report about the number of subscribers is available on the company website.
Max Telecom was a mobile telecommunications company and internet service provider (ISP) in Bulgaria. It was launched in October 2007 by Krasimir Stoychev, the founder of Bulgaria's first GSM operator MobilTel, as Max Telecom. Max Telecom has license for operating the telecommunication services through a network of "point-to-multipoint" with national coverage, the service is also known as WiMAX. This type of network allows fixed and mobile services, including Internet access, virtual private networks (VPN), voice services, video services and IPTV. The company is the first to launch commercial LTE network in Bulgaria. In May the company rebranded with new logo and began promoting itself simply as "Max".
MagtiCom, LLC. is a Georgian telecoms company founded on February 12, 1996 by Dr. George (Gia) Jokhtaberidze. On September 22, 1997, the Company made the first commercial call from its mobile network. The services offered by MagtiCom involve as follows: mobile telephony; mobile internet ; Cable fixed telephony (VoIP); internet television (IPTV) and fiber-optic internet. Since 2016 MagtiCom started to provide IPTV, VoIP and fiber-optic internet.
Blizoo was a Swedish telecommunications operator in Macedonia and Bulgaria. In Bulgaria it was formed by merging two of the biggest television operators in the country — Eurocom Cable and CableTel, in 2010. It was acquired by Mtel on 29 July 2015. The two operators merged their TV offerings on 1 June 2016, and then merged completely on 12 April 2017. In Macedonia Blizoo acquired CableTel on 11 November 2011 and later merged to one.VIP operator on 11 May 2016.
United Group is an alternative telecom provider in Southeast Europe that operates both telecommunications platforms and mass media outlets.
|
| Public state-owned |
| ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private with national coverage |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Private other |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Defunct channels | |||||||||||||||||
| DVB-C providers |
| ||||||||||||||||
| DVB-S providers | |||||||||||||||||
| IPTV providers | |||||||||||||||||
| Terrestrial providers | |||||||||||||||||
| Defunct operators | |||||||||||||||||
