Serbia’s second landline telephone operator license was officially presented to Telenor last Friday. The company purchased the license for €1.05million.

Director of the Republic Telecommunication Agency (RATEL) Milan Jankovic presented the license to Kjell-Morten Johnsen, CEO of Telenor Serbia, in the presence of Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society Jasna Matic.

This is an important moment for telecommunications in Serbia because now competition has been opened up formally in this sector. The government will continue to implement reforms to remove monopoly from other areas of the economy as well, said the Prime Minister.

The Managing Board of the Republic Telecommunications Agency (RATEL) reached a decision to issue a second license for public fixed telecommunications networks and services for the territory of the Republic of Serbia to Telenor d.o.o.

“Telenor welcomes RATEL’s decision to award a nationwide fixed telecommunications license to us. We are very pleased to once again have the opportunity to take positions that correspond to our long-term ambition of being a good and trusted partner for Serbian authorities.

The success or failure of this license depends to a large extent on our opportunity to secure fair access to Telekom Serbia’s infrastructure and gain national right of way so that we may proceed with our infrastructure investment plans.

In the spirit of this license, Telenor will shortly be making Telekom Serbia fair and transparent offer based on international standards, and we will commence negotiations with potential providers of national right of way”, says Kjell-Morten Johnsen, CEO of Telenor Serbia.

Telenor won the license for the second operator of fixed telephony in Serbia in a tender initially involving four companies which applied for the tender documentation. Telenor offered EUR 1.05m for the license. Following the Government's decision on January 21 that the offer is satisfactory, RATEL's Managing Board granted the licence to Telenor.

Telenor came to the Serbian market in 2006 as the largest single investor in the region, and has continuously invested in the development of its network, regional centres, sales points and customer care.

Telenor is the seventh largest global mobile operator with 172 million subscribers in 14 countries, including 2.832 million in Serbia.

In three years of operations in the, Telenor has opened 43 stores across the country and completely reconstructed the 3G network, which now covers 250 cities and villages, thus providing fast broadband Internet to a large part of the country.

Across the world, Telenor advocates environmental protection by implementing strategic programs, where Telenor in Serbia participates as well.

The CSR concept is also applied through activities of the Telenor Foundation, specialised in investments into culture and art, youth education, and support to socially endangered groups