Telekom Slovenije’s Macedonian Units Merge, Launch Digital TV

ONE is the first Macedonian company that offers integrated telecommunications service which bundles wireless and fixed-line telephony, Internet and digital television, ONE’s CEO Olivier Poncin told a news conference.

At the same time, ONE is launching the first digital wireless television in the country as of Thursday, named BoomTV, the company said in the statement distributed to journalists at the news conference.

The digital TV signal that currently covers 80% of the Macedonian households will widen to 95% of the population at the end of 2009. ONE’s network covers 98.17% of the Macedonian territory.  The company has 226 roaming partners in 105 countries and offers GPRS roaming through 67 providers in 39 countries, the statement said.

Telekom Slovenije won earlier his year a tender for the management of three Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial multiplexes in Macedonia, a country of two million.

Macedonia's Agency for Electronic Communications said in April that Telekom Slovenije should invest over 10 million euro ($15 million) to develop its own countrywide network for digital television broadcasting within a year.

Poncin declined to say how much the company has invested so far.

($=0.6655 euro)