This report profiles Serbia’s telecom sector and market trends through 2013. It also provides company information for leading market players including Telecom Srbija, Telenor, and Vip Mobile.

Revenues from telecommunication services in Serbia increased to RSD 174bn in 2012 from RSD 163bn in 2011. However, in euro terms, revenues went down by about 4% to EUR 1.54bn in 2012. The revenues were equal to 5.5% of Serbia’s GDP.
Revenues in the fixed-line market dropped in both local currency and euro terms in 2012. Two companies were registered in 2012 as new public fixed-telephone service providers. One of them, the leading cable TV provider SBB, began offering services in October 2012. However, fixed number portability was delayed until April 2014, and fixed telephony declined by 12.8% y/y in H1 2013.

Mobile market revenues were virtually flat in euro terms in 2012. Notably, SBB received regulatory approval in September 2013 to become Serbia’s first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Mobile telephony rose by 25.5% y/y in H1 2013. Both the Internet and media content distribution markets posted solid revenue growth in 2012.

Key Points:

• This report provides details on the market position and financial information of the leading firms Telekom Srbija, Norway’s Telenor, and Vip mobile (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Austria’s Mobilkom).

• Over the past year, there were two private equity deals involving Serbian telecom sector companies, namely SBB and major ISP BeotelNet.

• Other M&A activity included the acquisition of local Internet provider ECPWireless.net by Serbian company Orion Telekom, which is also the country’s second fixed telephony operator. In addition, Belgium's KBC Group sold its bank in Serbia, KBC Banka, to Societe Generale Srbija and Telenor Serbia.