Telecom

On the third day of the Internet Freedom Meet in Belgrade, BIRN presented its months-long research report titled "Hidden in Plain Sight: Telco Accountability Research Using Ranking Digital Rights Methodology".

The research showed that the customers of telecom companies in five Balkan countries and Moldova face challenges in making sure their rights to privacy are respected.

Applying methodology developed by Ranking Digital Rights, an independent research programme at the Washington-based New America policy think-tank, BIRN analysed the practices of the two biggest telecom companies in each country: Albtelecom and Vodafone Albania in Albania; BH Telecom and Telekom Srpske in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ipko and Vala in Kosovo; A1 and T-Mobile in North Macedonia; Moldce

Turkey's telecom giant Türk Telekom and Garanti BBVA, one of the country's largest private banks, have said they came under a cyberattack on Oct. 27.

Belgrade-based daily Politika writes this on Thursday.

Namely, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said two days ago that while Serbian companies are "welcome to Albania" - this is not true when it comes to "a strategic sector like telecommunications."

Deutsche Telekom has exercised its right of first refusal and will pay 284.05 million euros ($348.87 million) to acquire a 5 percent stake in Greece's biggest telecom operator OTE, the Greek privatization agency (HRADF) said on Wednesday.

 Greece's privatisations agency HRADF said on Tuesday it launched an international tender to sell a 5.0 percent stake in OTE Telecom, corresponding to 24.5 million shares.

"The tender process will be conducted in one phase and interested investors are requested to submit their binding offers ... no later than 15 March 2018," HRADF said.

The three largest creditors of Otaş, a company that was set up by Oger Telecom to acquire a 55 percent stake in Türk Telekom in 2005, have reached an agreement with the Turkish Transport Ministry to acquire a majority stake in the company as they cannot charge their loan receivables, sources have told daily Hürriyet, adding that the lenders and authorities were now working on the legal aspects

Turkey’s banking regulator has assured creditors of Oger Telecom, which is the main shareholder in Türk Telekom, that a $4.75 billion syndicated loan will not go to default and they don’t have to re-classify it as “non-performing,” its head told Reuters on Nov. 16. The move will likely help Oger Telecom avoid costly write-downs.

Mtel will have a new name, at the request of its owner, Telekom Austria Group. The company announces that it is changing its brand strategy and will introduce a unified policy for all the markets it is in.

This was announced in an official press release of the Austrian telecom.

As Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, struggles to trawl the servers of Macedonian Telecom/Makedonski Telekom in search of evidence of unlawful wiretapping, Deutsche Telecom - its parent company - told Deutsche Welle in Bonn that allegations of non-cooperation with the search are untrue.