Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Austrians accept in principle proposed solution for Mobtel

Belgrade, 27 January 2006

The Serbian and Austrian mixed working group dealing with the newly arisen situation in Mobtel held a meeting today at the Serbian government building. The Serbian delegation proposed a model for resolving the situation which arose after the government's decision to revoke the licence issued to the mobile telephone operator.

The Serbian government permanently revoked Mobtel's licence due to an unauthorised agreement that the company signed with mobile telephone operator Mobikos. The Serbian government solution is that an international public tender be called as soon as possible in order to issue a licence to a new mobile phone operator, i.e. a top-ranked bidder at the tender.

The Serbian government proposed that both the licence and Mobtel's equipment be offered at the tender. Most of Mobtel's equipment is now in the possession of the state, after it took over the company's accounts receivable from the two Austrian banks – Reiffeisen Bank and Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank International.

The top-ranked bidder at the international tender would take over all users of the 063 mobile phone network. However, until a contract with the new operator is signed, the 063 network will be maintained and serviced by Telekom Srbija.

The Austrian side accepted in principle the proposed model. The details of the proposed solution will be discussed at next week's meeting of the mixed working group.

Both sides agreed that the proposed model simultaneously assures the most beneficial financial result for the Serbian side, protects the Austrian investors from financial losses and guarantees security to all users of the 063 network.

Other participants at today's meeting were Serbian Minister of Finance Mladjan Dinkic, Serbian Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilic and Serbian Minister of Economy Predrag Bubalo, as well as general directors of PTT Srbija and Telekom Srbija, Dragan Kovacevic and Drasko Petrovic respectively.

Austrian Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology Hubert Gorbach, Director General of Mobikos Boris Nemsic and a representative of the consortium of investors Martin Schlaff also took part in the meeting.