Eurotel
Encyclopedia : E : EU : EUR : Eurotel
Eurotel (official name Eurotel Praha, spol. s r.o.) is a mobile phone operator in the Czech Republic, it utilizes the NMT, GSM and CDMA and UMTS. It is entirely owned by Český Telecom (Telefónica).
It was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between SPT Telecom (now Český Telecom) (51%) and the American joint venture Atlantic West (between US WEST International, Inc. and Bell Atlantic International Inc.). On launch it received an exclusive 5-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 (then-unused) GSM network.
Since 2001 it owns a license to the third-generation network UTMS. It paid 1 billion Czech Koruny immediately, and promised to pay yearly payments amounting to an additional 2.5 billion Korunas. It also agreed to lauch the service commercially at least in Prague by the 1st of 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 grant of a third licence to Vodafone.
In 2004 it launched CDMA/1xEV-DO broadband wireless service (data-only) at 450 MHz, leveraging its legacy NMT network.
In 2005 it launched UMTS services. (November 1st)
In 2006 it launched HSDPA services on top of UMTS services. (May 1st)
It was announced in 1st March 2006 that Český Telecom and Eurotel will merge their operations into a single company, Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, expected to become effective by mid-2006.
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