Macedonia - UMTS

T-Mobile Makedonija wins UMTS (3G) license

The Macedonian Agency for Electronic Communication granted a UMTS license to T-Mobile Makedonija AD Skopje on December 17, 2008, Magyar Telekom announced on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

T-Mobile Makedonija AD Skopje, the leading mobile operator in Macedonia, is a fully owned subsidiary of Magyar Telekom's Macedonian unit Maktel (Makedonski Telekom AD).

The agency granted T-Mobile Makedonija AD Skopje the right to use the Macedonian UMTS frequency blocks for a period of ten years for a one-off license fee of EUR 10m, which was paid in December 2008.

The obligations of the license include launching of the service within six months, reaching 50pc population coverage within one year and 80pc population coverage within three years from the date on which the license was granted.

T-Mobile Makedonija had a market share of 58.5pc on September 30, 2008, down from 63.2pc a year earlier, Magyar Telekom said in its Q1-Q3 report. Subscriber numbers rose 22.1pc in a year to 1.301m, and 25.5pc of them were contracted clients. Monthly turnover per subscriber rose 10.5pc from a year earlier to 95 minutes in September, and monthly revenue per subscriber fell 15.9pc to HUF 2,600.

(HUF 100 = EUR 0.3794)