January 25 (SeeNews) - Five Bulgarian providers of fixed telecommunication services - Net 1, Neterra, SKAT, Telekabel and Telesim - said on Thursday they plan to establish a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), the country's first.
"[...] we believe that a country like Bulgaria does not provide room for more than three overlapping mobile networks with national coverage. The launch of a virtual mobile operator benefits all market participants," Neterra manager Neven Dilkov said, as quoted in a joint statement of the five companies. "That is why we sincerely believe that the ongoing talks with the mobile operators will be completed successfully," he added.
The five companies have established a joint venture, Mobile Alternative Communications, in which they hold equal stakes, according to Trade Registry data. The joint venture has a capital of 5,000 levs ($3,194/2,557 euro).
MVNO is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers.
Three mobile operators - Vivacom, owned by Viva Telecom Bulgaria which in turn is held by Luxembourg-registered InterV Investment; Mobiltel, part of A1 Telekom Austria; and Telenor, part of Norway's Telenor Group - operate in Bulgaria using their own networks.
(1 euro=1.95583 levs)