Communications in Slovakia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Fixed lines

As in most post-communist Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

an countries, the fixed line market in Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

was liberalised only recently. Slovak Telecom Inc. (former Slovenské Telekomunikácie, a.s.) was privatised on July 18, 2000. The 51% package of shares was purchased by the German Deutsche Telecom AG

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....

for 1 bln. EUR (more than 44 bln. SKK at that time). The outstanding 49% of the shares are still owned by the Slovak government

Government of Slovakia

The Government of the Slovak Republic is the executive branch of government in Slovakia.It is led by a prime minister , who is nominated by the president, and is usually a leader of majority party or of a majority coalition after an election to the National Council of the Slovak Republic...

through the Department of Transport, Construction and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic (34%) and the National Property Fund (15%). As part of the privatisation contract, Deutsche Telecom agreed to provide full digitalisation of the fixed line network by the end of December 2004. Slovak Telecom was rebranded to T-Com in the year 2003. The legal regulation for liberalisation of the Slovak fixed line market was passed in 2002 and became valid by 1 January 2003, finally allowing competition in the sector of fixed lines.

Currently, there are more than 100 companies licenced to provide public telephone service in the form of fixed lines, although many of these do not offer commercial service to the wider public. The most notable country-wide providers are T-Com, Orange, Dial Telecom, SWAN and UPC. Several regional providers also operate in the market. Many of these offer triple-play services

Triple play (telecommunications)

In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...

consisting of a fixed line service, broadband internet access and access to television programmes. The number of triple-play customers has doubled since the service was introduced and currently peaks at 78,049 subscribers.Figure is as of 30 June 2010, as opposed to 41,734 subscribers by 20 June 2008.

Key figures of the fixed lines sector:As of 30 June 2010

Total Number of Main Telephone Lines (MTLs): 994 421
Density of MTLs: 18,31 per 100 inhabitants
Percent of MTLs connected to digital exchanges: 100%
Percent of households with MTLs: 38.97%

Due to strong penetration of the Slovak market by mobile phones, the fixed lines sector has decreased dramatically in recent years. While there were 1,655,380 fixed lines in use by 1999, their number decreased to the current 994,421.

Mobile cellular

Mobile communication in Slovakia became first available in the early 90's with the first NMT network

Nordic Mobile Telephone

NMT is the first fully automatic cellular phone system...

operator being EuroTel Bratislava, a.s., a subsidiary of the then state owned Slovenské Telekomunikácie a.s. EuroTel introduced the first GSM service to public in 1997. EuroTel was privatised together with its mother company and was rebranded to T-Mobile on May 3, 2005. It is now fully integrated in the international T-Mobile

T-Mobile

T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

brand. The second GSM network operator started its operation on January the 15th 1997 under the name GlobTel a.s. It was acquired by France Telecom (through Atlas Services Belgium, 100% shares) and rebranded to Orange Slovakia

Orange Slovensko

Orange Slovensko is a member of the global communications group Orange. The Orange Group operates in 19 countries of the world and currently serves almost 172 million customers....

on March 27, 2002. Telefónica O2, the third mobile operator in Slovakia, entered the market in February 2007 under the O2 brand.

Recently virtual providers became active in the Slovak market, the most notable of them being Tesco Mobile (associated with Tesco Stores) and FunFón (a virtual operator associated with a popular FM radio station).

Key figures of the mobile cellular sector:

Total number of active mobile subscribers: 5,707,534The total number of active mobile subscribers includes industrial applications such as Alarm systems for example that use a SIM card for GSM based communication.
Density of mobile subscribers: 105.12 per 100 inhabitants
Coverage of land - GSM: 95.9%
Coverage of population - GSM: 99.6%

Telephone system

International:
- country code - +421
- There are three international exchanges, one in Bratislava
  Bratislava
  Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
  
  and two in Banská Bystrica
  Banská Bystrica
  Banská Bystrica is a key city in central Slovakia located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mountains. With 81,281 inhabitants, Banská Bystrica is the sixth most populous municipality in Slovakia...

Emergency calls:
- 112 - EU standard integrated emergency service (one nation-wide callcentre directly connected to police, EMS, firefighters, Mountain Rescue Service and others)
- 158 - direct callcentre - Police
- 155 - direct callcentre - EMS
  Emergency medical services
  Emergency medical services are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency...
  
  (features doctors available for consultations online)
- 150 - direct callcentre - Firefighters
- 18300 - direct callcentre - Mountain Rescue Service

Radio

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 15, FM 78, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:

3.12 million (1997)

ТV

Television broadcast stations:

6 national broadcasting, 7 regional, 67 local (2004)

Televisions:

2.62 million (1997)

Internet

Slovakia currently has a large number of full-area ISP's that offer wired broadband internet connections. Most notable of them include T-Com, T-Mobile

T-Mobile

, Orange Slovensko

Orange Slovensko

Orange Slovensko is a member of the global communications group Orange. The Orange Group operates in 19 countries of the world and currently serves almost 172 million customers....

and UPC

UPC Broadband

UPC Broadband is a Pan-European Communications company owned by Liberty Global and is active in several European countries providing bundled cable television, internet and telephone services....

. They offer a range of connections, from ADSL / ADSL2+ to "Fibernet". ADSL or ADSL2+ is available in almost every town in Slovakia