IPKO NET pays € 75 million to Kosovo's budget

Prishtina, 22 February 2007 – The consortium of Telecom Slovenia and the Kosovar company IPKO NET claimed today in a press release that they have paid the amount of € 75 million to Kosovo’s budget for the license of the second mobile operator in Kosovo.

Initially, the Kosovar company Kosmocell was declared the winner of the second GSM license. Only after Kosmocell failed to transfer in time the amount of € 85 million, offered by this company in the tender, the Kosovar Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (ART) announced that the license goes to the second placed consortium.

If ART confirms the license to IPKO NET – Telecom Slovenia, this consortium will be the second mobile operator in Kosovo. Kosovar Telecom was so far the only mobile operator in Kosovo.

Among participants in the tender was also Austrian Mobilkom, a sub company of Austrian Telecom. Since the end of the war 1999, Kosovo pays millions of euros annually to use the country code of Monaco, refusing this way to use the country code of Serbia.

ECIKS