Mobile

Levicom / Tele2

Levicom was the largest private media and telecom company in the Baltic region throughout the ’90′s, with mobile licenses, operations and mobile phone retail outlets in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  In addition to this it had CATV operations in Estonia and Lithuania.  Other activities included printing and publishing a TV Guide, being a leading internet service provider. Skype was initially developed in its offices.

In 2000 a partial exit was made to Tele2 with a full exit in 2004 being completed.

MobiFon / TIW

Mobifon Romania was formed to operate GSM cellular services in Romania, holding one of two national GSM licences in the country. During the period of GMT’s investment, Mobifon was the market leader with five million subscribers, operating under the brand name Connex, and its objective was to maintain and expand its edge both in terms of revenue and market share. In September 2004, GMT rolled up its stake in Mobifon into TIW, the listed Central and Eastern European Mobile operator. Mobifon distinguished itself by achieving the fastest-ever launch of a greenfield GSM service, and was particularly strong at penetrating a country with underdeveloped fixed-line communications infrastructure. The initial investment was made in July 1998, TIW was sold to Vodafone in July 2005.

BCEE initially invested in the MobiFon operations only, the leading GSM operator in Romania in 1999.  It later converted its shares into the publicly quoted TIW Group.

In 2004 TIW had two operating subsidiaries, MobiFon A.S. in Romania and Oskar Mobil a.s. in the Czech Republic, with 6.7 million subscribers. In February 2005 Oskar Mobil a.s. acquired a UMTS (also known as 3G) licence.  In April 2005, TIW sold its two remaining subsidiaries to Vodafone Group. Vodafone / via AirTouch had already been a minority shareholder, since its launch and was on the Board of MobiFon together with BCEE.

MSI / Celtel

Originally known as “MSI Cellular Investments”, the company began operating in 1998. In January 2004, the company name was changed to “Celtel International”. In April 2005 the company was acquired by and became a subsidiary of the Mobile Telecommunications Company. Celtel now spans over 15 countries in Africa with over $750 million in investments. In 2010 the company was purchased by Bharti Airtel and will be rebranded as ‘airtel’.

Dot Mobile

Dot Mobile Limited was a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the UK, founded in 2005, which used the Vodafone network. The business was aimed at students. The business and its customers were acquired by Vodafone in 2008.