Ericsson Nikola Tesla (ETK) and the major Croatian Internet Service Provider and a new concessionary in fixed telephony, Vodatel, signed a technical and business cooperation agreement on 10th May 2005. The agreement to the value of 22.5 million HRK was signed by Gordana Kovačević, the president of ETK and Sebastian Popović, the chairman of Vodatel. The subject matter of the agreement is the delivery of the most recent total communication solutions and equipment that shall enable Vodatel to enter rapidly the fixed telephony market in our country.

With the recent deregulation of the telecom market in Croatia the prerequisites were fulfilled for the start of operations of alternative service providers in fixed telephony. Vodatel has already been recognized in the Croatian market for its innovative solutions for business and residential users but also for their aggressive price policy. A similar approach to users is expected from Vodatel in the fixed telephony market.

Certainly, Vodatel's services will first become available to business users who already use Vodatel's Internet access services; in autumn already Vodatel will enable attractive services in fixed network but also significant changes in the offered permanent links to the Internet.

As the first in Croatia Vodatel recently presented to residential users a solution to provide eTV Internet television and eTV Video on request so that it is quite realistic to expect that these services will be included in the Vodatel package in fixed telephony as well. Such packages already represent technologically and commercially most attractive solutions in developed countries and consequently they may arouse great interest among residential users.

«The technology developed until today offers to fixed network users considerably more advanced solutions than those currently used so that alternative providers are expected to offer to their users much more convenience at a lower price. The cooperation with Ericsson Nikola Tesla, which is very flexible, will enable Vodatel to offer their users unique services based on the technology Ericsson delivers to leading global operators,» said Sebastian Popović, the chairman of Vodatel.

On this occasion Gordana Kovačević, the president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, stated: «This agreement confirms Ericsson's all-round presence in the Croatian telecommunication market. Ericsson Nikola Tesla proved that with high quality and flexibility related to customer's needs they can meet the requirements of new telecom operators. After two years of intensive cooperation now a very solid foundation has been laid for further business relations and partnership between Vodatel and Ericsson Nikola Tesla.»

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.

Ericsson Nikola Tesla, as an integral part of the Ericsson Group and the global telecommunications, supports the modern ways of communicating. The company’s activities include the research and development, the design of the total communications solutions as well as the services in the multi-service and the mobile networks area, including the mobile Internet.

Communication Ericsson Nikola Tesla

Vodatel is a company that provides telecommunication services based primarily on the Internet technology. Until now Vodatel has built a user data base with more than 30.000 active Internet users and among them are over 350 leading Croatian companies and for all of them Vodatel secures permanent access to the Internet. The growing number of users and also the strong growth in financial performance over the last three years confirm Vodatel's capability to provide various telecommunication solutions that now also include the fixed telephony services for business and residential users.