T-Mobile Launches 3G in Slovakia

January 25, 2006 - source: BWCS

Deutsche Telekom's mobile offspring T-Mobile is about to launch Slovakia's first 3G service this week. The UMTS network will go live in the capital Bratislava from midnight tonight, claimed the German company. However, the rest of the country will not be covered until the end of this year.

It was back in December 2002 that EuroTel, as T-Mobile Slovakia was then known, paid its second and final installment of the SKr1.499 billion (US$35.5 million) for its 3G licence. At the time the company, which was one of three operators granted a next-generation UMTS mobile licence by the government, said it was planning to begin 3G services within 30 months of the date that its UMTS frequencies are handed over. In fact it will have just managed to meet its own deadline as the radio frequencies were handed over in September 2003, which meant that T-Mobile had to launch 3G services before March of this year.

T-Mobile is Slovakia's second largest cellular operator with around 2 million customers and a 44% share of the market. This leaves it trailing behind France Telecom-backed Orange, which boasts 2.5 million subscribers and a 56% market share. Orange Slovakia says it will launch its 3G service by the end of March.