Bulgaria's Max, Blizoo sign wholesale agreement

This could well be the most significant deal concluded so far in Bulgaria, where the market is quite conservative and mobile operators mostly sell their own services to end-customers, the companies said in a joint press release.

Three mobile carriers operate on the Bulgarian market - Telenor, Mobiltel, a unit of Telekom Austria Group, and incumbent telco VIVACOM - operate on the Bulgarian market.

Blizoo Media and Broadband was set up following the merger of the two leading cable operators in Bulgaria – CableTEL and Eurocom, after they were bought by private equity group EQT. It operates in more than 40 cities in Bulgaria.

Sofia-based Max Telecom launched as a WiMAX operator in 2007. The company was acquired last year by London-based private equity investor Daniel Kupsin. The company launched in May a mobile internet service based on 4G Long-term Evolution (LTE) technology, which currently is available in nine cities in Bulgaria and covers around 50% of the country's urban population.