Kosova Airlines Seeking Partners to Achieve Ambitious Growth Plans

KOSOVO
Transport & Communications
figure considering the brevity of the
industry in Kosovo. Nevertheless, this
provides extremely good potential
for rapid growth.
From a network point of view, PTK
is already well placed to absorb this
growth. Vala’s mobile network has
been rolled out over approximately
90% of the country. The company
also has 127 roaming agreements
for post-paid customers showing
its intent to expand its international
network. On the fixed line
segment, Ipko Net, the country’s
largest internet provider has rolled
out an extensive broadband network
which has far-reaching population
coverage.
However, the country is not resting
on its laurels. 2007 saw PTK’s
monopoly of the mobile segment
come to an end when Ipkonet
Telekom Slovijne/Mobitel won the
second operator mobile license
for €75 million. The consortium
announced their intention
immediately with investment in
its network which is expected to
reach €120 million by the time
roll out is complete. One of the
first contracts for the GSM network
went to Ericsson Nikola Tesla
which won a €37 million contract
for the supply, implementation
and operation of the GSM communications
and transmission system.
While Ipkonet Telekom Slovijne/
Mobitel will initially concentrate
on achieving coverage in Kosovo’s
dense urban areas, labelled the
Kosovo city ring, it expects to
achieve full network coverage
within three years. Indeed, the
consortium has ambitious plans
hoping to capture a 50% market
share by 2012 and approximately 1
million GSM customers by 2015.
However, competition is likely to
be stiff with the state planning to
privatise the incumbent operator
Vala in the near future. Indeed,
with a young, educated, technologically
savvy population, penetration
rates on both voice and data should
shoot up over the coming years.
This young work force, which has
a competitive cost advantage over
many neighbouring countries, will
also allow Kosovo to position itself
as an outsourcing hub following
a model similar to the one so successfully
employed by Bulgaria.
Currently, public and private institutions
in the field of information
technology, supported by leading
multinational firms such as CISCO
and Microsoft, are being rolled
out across the country supporting
the development of a knowledge
and high-tech economy. Initially,
Kosovo is certainly well placed
to develop the full spectrum of
outsourcing operations including
software development, data
management, call and support
centres and other consulting
services.
The government realises that to
achieve these aims the regulatory
and legal framework has to be in
place. To this end, the Telecommunication
Regulatory Authority
(TRA) has been working on
licensing, encouraging private
sector participation and ensuring
fair competition. While the country
is still in the process of receiving
recognition from the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU)
which will allow the country to
register a telephone country code
and internet domain name, much
of the ground work has been done
to provide fertile soil for further
investment.
Indeed, the telecommunications
sector should provide unbounded
opportunities for investment in
the coming years. Indeed, once the
country reaches market saturation
on voice and data, the country
should be in a good position to
offer fixed-mobile convergence
and bring the next generation of
services to a hungry market.
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