United Group’s Serbia Broadband (SBB) wants to expand its business to mobile telephony and provide the best offer in then country.
Speaking to Nedeljnik and quoted by N1 TV, which is also part of United Group, SBB’s executive director Milija Zekovic said that Serbian citizens currently pay up to 5.5 times more for data than those in Slovenia and 1.3 times more than those in Croatia. At the same time, those in the region as a whole pay up to 50% more for a triple-play package (TV, internet and fixed telephony) than the best-selling one from SBB.
SBB recently sent a public invitation to Telenor to lease mobile network infrastructure at market prices, and Zekovic explained that they “called on Telenor to be honest with all Serbian citizens and to show that they do not want to be a subcontractor to Telekom in destroying our company.” when material evidence on the goals of cooperation between Telekom and Telenor has been made public”.
Zekovic added that SBB has not received a response from Telenor. It also submitted an official request to the regulator RATEL, the Serbian government and Ministry of Trade and Telecommunications requesting a public auction for 5G frequencies. Although this was planned for March it has been postponed indefinitely on the grounds there is an economic crisis in the country.
Zekovic concluded by saying: “We have clearly said that only United Group, which owns SBB, will start construction in Bulgaria, where the 5G spectrum auction ended last week. After the auctions are completed in April in Slovenia and until July in Croatia, the construction of the 5G network will begin in those countries as well, and we want an active role in Serbia as well”.
