Page 21 - bne_Tech_12_2018

NIBs
December 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Albania and Kosovo start working on removal of roaming tariffs
Albanian and Kosovan telecommunications agencies launched preparatory works to imple- ment the agreement on removing roaming tariff between the two neighbours, the Albanian telecoms agency said.
Both governments adopted the agreement to abolish prices of roaming services at the joint meeting in the Kosovan city of Peja held on De- cember 26.
Albania telecommunication watchdog AKEP and its Kosovan peer ARKEP welcomed the agreement as a decision going in the “direction of the spirit that the EU is promoting for the region to remove barriers to citizens,” AKEP said in the statement.
The agreement could be extended to other coun- tries in the region.
The removal of roaming charges between Albania and Kosovo is expected in the first half of 2019.
Kazakhtelecom to develop 5G technology
The near-monopolist of Kazakhstan’s telecoms market Kazakhtelecom has requested frequencies from Kazakh Information and Communications Ministry to prepare for the launch of 5G cellular communication technology, Trend news agency reported on November 27, citing company manag- ing director for innovations Nurlan Meirmanov.
Meirmanov noted that the new technology would allow the connecting of up to 50,000 different de- vices to one source as well as boosting speed and data transmission distance.
The announcement is in line with the Kazakh government’s plans to float the company on inter- national markets.
"We asked the regulator for the appropriate fre- quency within ranges where we plan to develop 5G,” Meirmanov said. “This is the millimeter range
and C-band in which mobile networks will operate. Now we start to test them."
"We conduct tests in all directions and plan to launch ready-made technologies by 2021-2022," Meirmanov added.
Much of the testing for the new technology will take place in late 2019/early 2020, while existing LTE base stations will be used for the new tech- nology in the first stage.
Czech PPF Group gets three bids for newly- acquired telcos in Serbia, Montenegro
Czech investment group PPF Group that belongs to Czechia’s richest man Petr Kellner has report- edly received three bids for the units in Serbia and Montenegro it recently acquired from Telenor, business news portal Investitor.me reported.
PPF Group acquired Telenor's subsidiaries in Bul- garia, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia at the end of July in a deal worth €2.8bn.
According to Investitor.me, Telekom Austria and Telekom Srbija, as well as UK-based investment fund BC Partners have filed offers for the units in Serbia and Montenegro. It is not clear whether PPF Group actually intends to sell the newly-ac- quired assets.
BC Partners owns the regional cable and media company United Group, which is active in the two countries, while Telekom Srbija would look to merge the Montenegrin unit with its local busi- ness m:tel. Telekom Austria already owns Vip Mobile in Serbia.
Back in July, Telenor and PPF agreed on a de- ferred purchase price, where €400mn of the proceeds will be paid in four instalments over four years. The agreed transaction price corresponds to an enterprise value (EV)/Ebitda multiple of 6.4 based on 2017 Ebitda.