History
The company was initially known as SPT Telecom (Státní telekomunikační podnik, state-owned telecommunications company), and used to have a monopoly for providing fixed-line services. It was reorganized and renamed Český Telecom (Czech Telecom), after the Velvet Divorce saw Czechoslovakia separate into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
Its mobile subsidiary, Eurotel, was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between SPT (51%) and the American joint venture Atlantic West (between US WEST International, Inc. and Bell Atlantic International Inc.). On launch it received an exclusive five-year licence to operate a public data network, and a 20-year licence for the 450 MHz band to operate an analogue NMT mobile phone network, and automatically also a right to buy a licence to the future GSM network.
In 2001, it won a license to the third-generation UTMS network. It paid 1 billion korunas immediately, and promised to pay an additional 2.5 billion korunas annually. It also agreed to launch the service commercially, at least in Prague, by 1 January 2005. In 2003, it received a one-year extension in exchange for faster payments. In 2005 it was granted another year-long extension due to the granting of a third licence to Vodafone. In the event, UMTS services launched on 1 November 2005. On 1 May 2006, the company launched HSDPA services on top of UMTS services.
In 2004 it launched CDMA/1xEV-DO broadband wireless service (data-only) at 450 MHz, leveraging its legacy NMT network.
| Type of service | Number of customers (in thousands) at the end of the year | |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2009 | |
| Fixed lines | 1 669 | 1 771 |
| ADSL | 806 | 725 |
| Pay TV – O2 TV | 129 | 138 |
| Active mobile users in the Czech Republic | 4 839 | 4 945 |
| – postpaid | 2 864 | 2 814 |
| – prepaid | 1 975 | 2 130 |
| Active mobile users in the Slovakia | 880 | 553 |
Read more about this topic: O2 (Czech Republic)
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