Bosnia’s Telekom Srpske Picks Nokia Siemens To Expand GSM Network

The network expansion will allow Telekom Srpske’s mobile arm, m:tel, to accommodate the demand from new subscribers across the country as well as offer advanced mobile data services at higher speeds to its 1.1 million subscribers, Nokia Siemens said in a statement posted on its website.

The upgrade will increase m:tel's availability of GSM services throughout the whole country so customers in rural areas can enjoy the whole range of m:tel offerings.

With the award of this project, Nokia Siemens Networks maintains its sole supplier status in 2G radio and core, as well as for IN (Intelligent Network) prepaid solution, for Telekom Srpske, the statement said.

"Telekom Srpske has exciting and important development plans for mobile [services] in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nokia Siemens Networks will facilitate them with a fast, effective roll-out and first class support,” Goran Ninkovic, Account Manager for Telekom Srpske at Nokia Siemens Networks, said in the statement.

Telekom Srpske, majority-owned by Serbia’s state-controlled telco Telekom Srbija, is Bosnia’s second-largest telecoms operator. It has clients mainly in Bosnia’s Serb Republic, which together with the Muslim-Croat Federation forms war-divided Bosnia.

The country has two other telecoms companies, both state-controlled. The biggest one, BH Telecom, and a smaller company, HT Mostar, operate in the Federation. The Federation government plans to offer for sale stakes in those companies in early 2009.