February 8 (SeeNews) - Norway's Telenor is in talks to lease fixed-line infrastructure from Serbian state-owned Telekom Srbija after winning a tender to provide landline services in the Balkan country, local media reported.
The Norwegian telco is also in the process of obtaining the relevant documents for the deployment of proprietary fixed-line infrastructure, news outlet EMportal (www.emportal.rs) reported on Friday, quoting an unnamed company source.
Telenor intends to also provide broadband Internet to its fixed-line subscribers, the source told EMportal.
Last month, Serbia said it had accepted a 1.05 million euro ($1.44 million) offer of Telenor Serbia, the local unit of the Norwegian telecommunications group, placed in a tender for a landline permit launched in late 2009.
Serbia's telecommunications regulator RATEL is expected to formally issue the licence by mid-February, EMportal said.
Under the terms of the licence, Telenor is obliged to make the service commercially available within a year.
State-owned Telekom Srbija is the sole provider of fixed-line services in the country. It also controls about 70% of the domestic wireless services market through its MTS unit.
($=0.7311 euro)
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