It has been described as a ‘telecom war’ in the Bulgarian media and is undoubtedly hostile. What is more, it is unlikely to end anytime soon.
Earlier this week the three protagonists in this conflict – A1 Group and PPF Telecom/Yettel Bulgaria on one hand and United Group’s Vivacom on the other – issued strongly worded statements related to a ruling by Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) approving the sale of ISPs Telnet and Networks-Bulgaria to Vivacom. They also spoke about an upcoming decision by the CPC on the controversial acquisition of some of Bulsatcom’s assets by a subsidiary of United Group.
United Group has expanded enormously across South Eastern European in the last few years, and nowhere has this been more evident than in Bulgaria, where its interests now include the national commercial broadcaster Nova, incumbent telco Vivacom, Sofia-based Net1 and ComNet, and Plovdiv’s N3. Its competitors began to raise concerns some time ago and these have since grown much louder, reaching a crescendo earlier this week following CPC’s latest ruling.
A1 Group and its local subsidiary expressed “great surprise and concern”, while PPF Telecom said it was “dismayed” by the ruling. Both emphasised their fears that it will result in the creation of a dominant player in the telecom sector, to the detriment of consumers, and added that they will take up the matter at a European level.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Vivacom dismissed their criticism as “irresponsible” and containing “several wildly inaccurate and misleading allegations”. It also accused the two of collusion and referred to other markets in the region. In Croatia, for instance, Deutsche Telekom accounts for nearly 60% of the broadband and pay-TV market, while in Greece, through local subsidiaries, the figure is over 50%.
All eyes will now be on CPC’s upcoming decision on the sale of Bulsatcom and its potentially far-reaching implications on the Bulgarian market.
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