M-Tel

Mobiltel

Industry	mobile telecommunications
Founded	1994 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Headquarters	1 Kukush Str., Sofia, Bulgaria
Key people	Aleksandar Dimitrov, CEO Dejan Kastelic, CTO
Brands	loop, bob
Services	Satellite television, IPTV, Fixed/Mobile telephony, Internet service provider
Revenue	€364.7 mil.  (2015)
Operating income	€42.1 mil.  (2015)
Number of employees	3,607  (2016)
Parent	Telekom Austria Group
Website	www.mtel.bg

Mtel ("Мобилтел" or "Мтел" in Bulgarian /network code 284-01/), also known as "Mobiltel", is the first and largest GSM mobile phone operator in Bulgaria. It has more than 4.2 million customers. Company was founded in March 1994 but was not launched commercially until September 1995 (as Citron).

In 2001 M-Tel (the brand then) launched its prepayment sim cards which allow customers to purchase credits prior to calling friends, this was a great success and saw the amount of customers using their network increase dramatically.

The company had a market share of about 58% and 3,000,000 clients in September 2004. On 14 September 2006 M-Tel reached 4,000,000 clients. As of May 2006 the company has 4,400,000 subscribers and its market share fell to 51,1%. Its contract customers increased to 1,7 mln, while the profit per customer dropped to 9,9 euro for Q1 2007.

The operator has been owned by Telekom Austria Group since July 2005, when it was acquired for up to €1.6 billion in one of Central and Eastern Europe's largest deals and one of the largest foreign investments in Austria. Mobiltel was the first Bulgarian operator to offer EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSPA+ and second to offer LTE services to its clients, with video telephony services being available since 6 March 2006 in the capital Sofia and since mid-July 2006 throughout the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts.

The company was the official sponsor of Bulgarian football club PFC Levski Sofia. Since 2005, the company also organizes the strong annual M-Tel Masters chess tournament, which is attended by six of the world's best International Grandmasters.