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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Government decides to revoke Mobtel's licence

Belgrade, 29 December 2005

The Serbian government made a unanimous decision at its session today to revoke Mobtel's licence for performing telecommunication activities related to the mobile phone network on account of the severest breach of contract. Mobtel is one of the two mobile operators in Serbia.

Government decides to revoke Mobtel's licence

The government found out that Mobtel signed a contract with a Kosovo mobile operator Mobikos without the government's consent, which is necessary for the contract to be valid. Mobtel has thus illegally given the licence for performing telecommunication activities in Kosovo-Metohija to Pec-based Mobikos, whose owner is Ekrem Luka.

By signing the contract with Mobikos, Mobtel has heavily damaged state economic interests and enabled Ekrem Luka to make enormous profits using Serbia's state licence and its infrastructure and exploiting the mobile phone sector in Kosovo-Metohija. Furthermore, it is clear that such a contract as well as the participation of Mobikos in Serbia's telecommunications system directly jeopardises its national security.

Though Mobtel was under obligation to ask for the Serbian government's consent before concluding the contract, the company avoided doing that because they knew that the government would never allow Ekrem Luka to use the state licence and the state telecommunication infrastructure in the province. The Serbian government has therefore decided to revoke Mobtel's licence.

The government is determined to protect state and national interests and will not allow any illegal activities and any abuses of state resources for profit-making purposes of the owners of Mobtel and Mobikos.

The government has taken all precautionary measures so that all users of Mobtel's 063 mobile phone network can keep using the company's services as usual.

Apart from taking away Mobtel's licence, the government has also sent directives to all ministries to look into the Mobtel-Mobikos contract within their own area of competence.