News from Central & Eastern Europe

Investment

Will the nationalisation of Hungary’s telecoms sector deliver on its goals?

Through acquisitions and shareholdings, the Hungarian government – led by Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s Fidesz party – is increasingly displaying...

Operators

STC tower company to buy assets in Eastern Europe

STC’s tower infrastructure company Tawal signed agreements to acquire towers in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia from United Group for €1.2...

Wireless Networks

Telekom Romania Mobile joins the 5G fray

Telekom Romania Mobile has entered the country’s 5G market with a stealth launch via its existing spectrum holding.

4iG confirms June switchover for DIGI customers to Vodafone’s network

Operators

4iG to switch DIGI customers to Vodafone’s network in June

4iG group has announced that DIGIMobil customers will be switched over to Vodafone Hungary’s network from 1st June.

Operators

Regulator to reportedly block MTS Armenia sale

Armenia’s telecoms regulator the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) will reportedly block the proposed sale of MTS Armenia (Viva-MTS)...

Operators

Uzbektelecom trials 5G network

Uzbektelecom (Uztelecom) trialled its 5G network on consumers in the capital city of Tashkent as the operator prepares for a full launch,...

Regulation

Three bidders set to participate in Hungary’s 32GHz auction

Hungary’s upcoming auction of 32GHz spectrum has attracted three bidders - Magyar Telekom, CETIN Hungary, and Vodafone Hungary.

Regulation

Lithuania wins frequency dispute against Russia

The Lithuanian communications regulator Rysiu Reguliavimo Tarnyba (RRT) won a spectrum dispute against Russia, as Lithuanian airwaves along its...

Operators

Iliad sells shares in broadband wholesale unit for $414m

Iliad Group sold half of its stake in its wholesale unit Polski Swiatlowod Otwarty (PSO) to InfraVia Capital Partners for PLN1.78 billion (US$414...

Wireless Networks

Crnogorski Telekom brings 3.6GHz commercial 5G to Montenegro

Montenegro’s Crnogorski Telekom (CT) has launched a commercial 5G network in the capital of Podgorica, and is lining up the launch of a new VoLTE...

Hungarian state raises interest in Yettel in exchange for boosting 4iG’s Vodafone stake

Investment

Hungary raises interest in Yettel in exchange for boosting 4iG’s Vodafone stake

Hungary’s state-owned investment vehicle Corvinus International Investment has obtained indirect minority stakes in both the mobile operator...

Operators

Telemach achieves global recognition in Opensignal Awards

Slovenia’s Telemach has long been a pioneer in its market, launching the country’s first commercial 5G network in June 2021, and it has now had...

Operators

Rostelecom takes Armenian unit GNC-Alfa off sale

Rostelecom has reportedly reconsidered selling its Armenian subsidiary GNC-Alfa, and plans to invest and broaden the unit.

Mobile Finance

Moldcell and Comviva bring new digital wallet service to Moldova

Moldovan mobile network operator Moldcell has announced its entry into the financial services market with what it describes as a...

Operators

Orange taps OneWeb for satellites in Africa, LATAM

Orange signed a distribution agreement with satellite company OneWeb to enhance its connectivity in rural locations in Europe, Latin America,...

Revenue & Billing

Hrvatski Telekom taps Nokia’s Converged Charging to boost network monetisation

Hrvatski Telekom is implementing Nokia’s Converged Charging software solution to modernise its online charging and better harness network...

Regulation

Estonia gets the ball rolling for 26GHz spectrum auction

Estonian regulator TTJA (Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Jarelevalve Amet / Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority) has opened...

Operators

A1 Telekom Austria board agrees to tower spin-off

A1 Telekom Austria Group’s board agreed to a plan to spin off its passive telecoms infrastructure into a separate company.

Operators

Orange, Vodafone strike O-RAN sharing agreement

Orange and Vodafone struck an agreement to share Open RAN (O-RAN) networks to spread 4G and 5G coverage in rural parts of Europe, deploying their...

Regulation

EC proposes free roaming for Ukraine

The European Commission (EC) adopted a proposal to include roaming into an agreement to support war-torn Ukraine, a move that will enable...

Investment

Telekom Srbija announces infrastructure partnership with government

Serbia’s state-owned Telekom Srbija, which operates as MTS, has partnered with the country’s Ministry of Construction, Transport and...

Regulation

Veon confirms green light for VimpelCom sale

Veon has confirmed that the sale of its Russian unit VimpelCom has been approved by Russian regulators.

Operators

Telemach not for sale, but its towers and base stations are

United Group, the parent company of Croatian operator Telemach, denied it is putting the unit up for sale but rather its passive infrastructure...

Operators

Vimpelcom sale cleared following amendments

A Russian government commission has reportedly cleared Veon’s sale of its Russian unit Vimpelcom to the operator’s senior managers.

Operators

4iG completes buy of Vodafone Hungary

Hungarian operator 4iG and the government sealed the acquisition of Vodafone Hungary, a major move in a series of acquisitions to mount a...

Operators

Poland fines broadband provider for illegal price hike

Polish broadband provider Vectra was slapped with a PLN22 million (US$5m) fine for illegally raising subscription fees by Poland's consumer...

Regulation

Croatian regulator signals start of spectrum auction process

HAKOM, the Croatian telecommunications regulator, has announced the start of the latest competitive frequency allocation process in the...

Wireless Networks

T-Mobile Poland confirms April 3G shutdown and dismisses tower sale

T-Mobile Poland is accelerating its timeline for shutting down its 3G network and now expects to meet this target by April 2023.

Operators

4iG agrees full takeover of Vodafone Hungary

Hungary’s 4iG has signed a binding sale and purchase agreement that will see it take a 100% stake in Vodafone Hungary.

Regulation

Crnogorski Telekom, MTEL and One win in Montenegro’s 5G auctions

Montenegro’s major operators Crnogorski Telekom (CT), MTEL and One Montenegro have all acquired 5G-ready spectrum in the 700MHz and...

Vendors

Russia announces $1.4bn boost to domestic gear manufacturing

The Russian government revealed four operators have signed contracts to buy over RUB100 billion (US$1.4 billion) worth of domestic telecoms...

Operators

Vodafone Hungary taps Netcracker for cloud upgrade

Vodafone Hungary tapped Netcracker for a cloud solution that supports fixed-mobile convergence for the operator’s consumer and SME enterprise...

Vendors

Ericsson continues Russia departure

Ericsson has sold its local support business in Russia as it continues its departure from the country due to the invasion of Ukraine, stressing...

Regulation

Polish operator faces daily €10k fine

Polish cable operator Vectra is facing fines of up to €10,000 per day for failing to meet regulatory conditions for its acquisition of rival...

Energy & Sustainability

Sustainability initiatives under way in APAC and Armenia

Sustainability is in the news again with initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region and Armenia garnering headlines in recent days.

Operators

Veon sells Vimpelcom to its Russian bosses for $2.2B

Amsterdam-headquartered Veon has agreed to sell its Russian business Vimpelcom for 130 billion roubles (US$2.2 billion).

Enterprise Ecosystems

Magyar Telekom taps Mavenir for converged packet core in Hungary

Hungary’s Magyar Telekom - a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom - has selected Mavenir to deploy its cloud-native containerised Converged Packet...

Regulation

Estonian incumbents bag 700MHz licences at near reserve price

Estonia has wrapped its 700MHz spectrum auction, with its three incumbents all securing concessions.

Regulation

ANCOM underwhelmed by Romanian 5G auctions

Romania’s multi-band 5G spectrum auctions have come to a close, with the three participants pledging a total of EUR432.6 million (US$448.3...

Enterprise Ecosystems

Montenegro’s One taps Elisa Polystar solutions for 5G transformation

Montenegrin operator One Crna Gora – formerly Telenor Montenegro, and now part of Hungary’s 4iG – is implementing Elisa Polystar’s KALIX and OSIX...

Operators

Is Veon looking for a way out of Russia?

Veon has indicated that is planning to leave the Russian market in which it operates under the name Beeline, although it has made it clear that...

Regulation

Romania confirms 5G auction bidders while Montenegro opens applications

Romania’s National Authority for Management & Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) confirmed that three operators have applied to bid in its...

Regulation

Poland urged to resume 3.5GHz licensing process

The Digital Poland Association (Cyfrowa Polska) has called on the country’s government to license 3.5GHz C-band spectrum for 5G use “as soon as...

Vendors

Nokia addresses network enhancement in Indonesia and Azerbaijan

Two recent Nokia deals, in Indonesia and Azerbaijan, emphasise network enhancement and improved customer experience but also, the vendor says,...

Operators

Telia Lithuania loses another court battle

Telia saw its complaint thrown out by Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court, ruling rival Bite was not gaining an unfair advantage from...

Satellite Networks

4iG gains approval for satellite buy

Hungarian telecoms operator group 4iG has agreed conditions to acquire a minority stake in Israeli company Spacecom, as part of a move for the...

Operators

Russia loses race to lead ITU

Member states of the International Telecommunication Union elected US representative Doreen Bogdan-Martin as its next secretary-general, beating...

Wireless Networks

Tele2 switches on 5G in Lithuania’s capital

Tele2 Lithuania has launched a 5G service in Vilnius using its recently obtained 700MHz and 3.5GHz spectrum.

Vendors

Ericsson denies selling gear for military in Russia

Ericsson stated it is providing only software and technical support to clients in Russia, not selling gear to operators as Swedish media claimed,...

Regulation

Hungary sees 50,000 2G/3G phone trade-ins

Hungary’s National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) revealed that 50,000 outdated mobile phones were traded in its replacement programme...

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