Telekom Srbija to upgrade landlines for 25 mln euros
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian telecoms firm Telekom Srbija, part-owned by Greeks and Italians, said yesterday it had agreed with French Alcatel to buy digital equipment worth 25 million euros ($21.78 million) to upgrade landlines. The purchase is part of the company’s long-term plan to modernize by 2005 its landline system, neglected during a decade of sanctions under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, and double the number of phone lines to 40 per 100 inhabitants. Serbia, with a 10.5 million population, currently has 2.5 million phone lines. «The deal envisages the purchase of 300,000 equivalent lines of the latest digital technology under very favorable credit conditions,» the company said in a press release on its website. There was no one immediately available at Telekom Srbija to comment on the credit conditions, but industry sources said the suppliers traditionally allow at least a six-month grace period during which the equipment is installed. By the end of September, Telekom Srbija planned to expand several exchanges in its three largest cities – Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis – and install a new exchange in southwestern Serbia. The contract was signed a month after Telekom Srbija agreed to purchase 16.5 million euros worth of 150,000 equivalent lines of EWSD digital technology from Germany’s Siemens. Telekom Srbija, set up in 1997, holds a monopoly on landlines in Serbia until 2004. The company is 51-percent owned by Serbia’s government, 20 percent of its stake belongs to Italian Stet and 29 percent is owned by Greek OTE.
