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Bosnia Herzegovina Telecommunications Report Q1 2008Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: December 2007 Product Code: R302-2697 Description Although Bosnia’s telecoms regulator and its three mobile network operators, have yet to publish mobilesubscriber data for the end of 2006, or for the first few months of 2007, BMI believes that subscribergrowth has been accelerating in recent months. For the second quarter of 2007, we believe that the marketgrew by a much more significant 5.4%, with the total number of mobile subscribers rising to 1.881mn. Anumber of factors help to explain the much stronger growth in Q207, relative to Q107. These include aswathe of recent announcements by Bosnia’s three mobile network operators, of increased investments inthe development of their networks and services. They also include the introduction of national mobileroaming, which came into effect on 1 August, 2007. We believe that these developments have helped tostimulate increased competition in the sector, as well as expansion and take-up of mobile services.One of the most important developments to emerge from Bosnia’s telecoms sector in recent months wasthe news, in September 2007, that the government of the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina waspreparing the privatisation of the country's biggest state-owned telecoms operator BH Telecom. Theprivatisation should take place by the end of the year and, according to local media reports, the startingprice for 51% of the shares will be EUR1.01bn. The government is reportedly inclined to sell 51% to astrategic partner and then offer another 15% of the company's shares on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange orother foreign markets. The government will retain 26% of the ownership of BH Telecom. Companieswhich have been mentioned as potential buyers of BH Telecom include Deutsche Telekom andMobilkom Austria. Deutsche Telekom already has a major presence throughout the former Yugoslavregion, in addition to owning Croatian fixed-line operator Hrvatski Telekom, the German incumbent hascontrolling stakes in T-Mobile Macedonia and Montenegrin mobile operator Monet , which its holdsthrough its Hungarian subsidiary Magyar Telekom . For its part, Mobilkom Austria, which is part of theTelekom Austria group, has controlling interests in Croatia's number two mobile operator, Vipnet, andin Slovenian mobile business Si.Mobile. It also owns Serbia's third mobile operator, Vip Mobile, as wellas Macedonian start-up, Nov Operator, which was scheduled to launch a GSM network in July 2007.Although the provision of domestic voice telephony services in Bosnia was liberalised in 2001 - withinternational voice telephony being liberalised in January 2006 - the country’s three regional incumbenttelcos, BH Telecom, Telekom Srpske and HT Mostar, continue to maintain de-facto monopolies withintheir respective markets. Nevertheless, competition in the country’s fixed-line and internet sectors hasgradually been growing. In October 2007, it was reported that Slovenian incumbent telco TelekomSlovenije had acquired a 70% stake in Bosnian fixed-line operator, Aneks. Aneks has offered fixed-linetelephony services in Bosnia since 2006 and, as a result of the acquisition, Telekom Slovenije has enteredthe Bosnian market as a provider of fixed-line telephony services. The Aneks acquisition followsTelekom Slovenije’s acquisition of Republic of Srpska-based ISP Blic.net. The Slovenian incumbentplans to merge its Bosnian fixed-line and internet service businesses by the start of 2008. Table of Contents
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