THE Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) is launching high-speed internet access via ADSL in another 27 towns in Bulgaria.
ADSL will be accessible in Kazanluk, Sliven, Razgrad, Silistra, Vidin, Montana, Lom, Berkovitsa, Knezha, Kozlodui, Dobrich, Shoumen, Yambol, Lovech, Levski, Kurdjali, Svilengrad, Sandanski, Kyustendil, Turgovishte, Gabrovo and Smolyan.
With the coming of the summer tourist season, BTC is to provide ADSL access in a further five resorts on the Black Sea coast: Albena, Slunchev Briag (Sunny Beach), Nesebar, Pomorie and Sozopol.
People in the 27 towns will have a month to take advantage of the BTC ADSL promotion which includes free installation plus a bonus of two months' free internet access.
Meanwhile, the final sitting of the Supreme Administrative Court on the GSM 3 cases was scheduled for Thursday June 9.
At the sitting, a five-member bench was to decide on the cases of the GSM licence awarded to BTC and of the alleged concentration within the market during BTC's privatisation.
A three-member panel has affirmed a decision by the Communications Regulation Commission over the licence issuing and by the Competition Protection Commission in regard to the alleged concentration within the market.
The GSM network of the third mobile operator is already developed, BTC said. It already has clients in Sofia.
The court battle was widely seen as linked to the purchase of mobile phone operator MobilTel by Telekom Austria, which is part of an increasingly competitive scene in the telecommunications market.
The contract for the sale of 100 per cent of MobiTel to Telekom Austria was signed on Wednesday June 1.
The deal is valued at 1.6 billion euro and will be finalised in July, when the buyer will pay for the shares.
The price has several components, Telekom Austria said in a media statement. It includes a 100 million euro deferred payment, which will be made by the end of 2005 if Mobiltel meets certain financial and operational criteria during the third quarter of the year. A further deferred payment, of 182 million euro, will be made in the last quarter of the year but the criteria for this payment concern the first four months of 2005 and have already been met. The third component is the 80 million euro already paid by Telekom Austria for the option to buy Mobiltel. Yet another component is the net debt of the operator, which will be undertaken by the buyer. According to information posted on Mobiltel's website, the debt of the company by the end of March 2005 was 510.9 million euro. The deal with Telekom Austria is the fourth change of ownership in Bulgaria's first mobile operator since its launch in 1994.
The current deal was launched in late 2004, when Telekom Austria signed an exclusivity agreement with the owners of the wireless operator. According to an official release, the Bulgarian company will be integrated into Telekom Austria's mobile unit, Mobilkom, which will accelerate the introduction of new products on the Bulgarian telecommunications market. Mobiltel already holds licences for fixed-line telephones and UMTS and the acquisition is expected to speed up the start of services in a highly competitive environment, where two other operators, BTC and Globul, also hold landline, GSM and UMTS licenses.