Serbian telecommunications sector worth EUR 10bn

Belgrade, May, 22. 2010 (Serbia Today) -The value of Serbian telecommunications market is estimated at approximately EUR 10bn, while the total income in 2009 amounted to EUR 1.5bn. This accounts for 4.8 percent of GDP, Republic Telecommunication Agency (RATEL) Executive Director Milan Jankovic said on Tuesday. At a press conference presenting RATEL's work in the period from 2005 to 2010, Jankovic said that the number of landline clients in 2009 totaled 3.145.920, thus increasing by 42 percent.  According to Jankovic, the total number of mobile telephony users added up to 9.9 million, which represents a 132 percent rise, while the number of cable-distributive system clients increased by 13 percent, thus reaching almost one million. Over 1.7 million people now use the Internet, which is 22 percent more than in 2005, Janković noted. RATEL Managing Board President Jovan Radunovic pointed out that Serbian mobile telecommunications in the past five years registered significant market opening and liberalization. A total of seven telecommunication service licenses were issued over the past few years, the most important one being the second landline operator license, which was granted to the telecommunications company Telenor, thus preventing the state-owned telecommunications company Telekom Srbija from monopolizing the market.