A1 Telekom Austria (A¹, ''A eins'') is the leading fixed and

mobile network operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sel ...

in Austria, with 5.4 million mobile and 2.3 million fixed-line customers. A1 Telekom Austria traces its origins to Austria's first GSM mobile phone network which began testing in 1992 and commercial operations in 1994, under the name Mobilkom Austria, then part of the Austrian state-owned PTT agency '' Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung'' ( de; PTV) until it was split off into its own company in 1996. After Mobilkom's merger with

A1 Telekom Austria Group A1 Telekom Austria Group is a provider of a range of fixed-line, broadband Internet, multimedia services, data, and IT systems, wholesale as well as mobile payment services. It is a subsidiary of Mexican telecommunications conglomerate América M ...

in July 2010 it operates under the new name of A1 Telekom Austria. A1 Telekom Austria is a 100% subsidiary of A1 Telekom Austria Group. A1 Telekom Austria offers fixed–mobile convergence. The product portfolio includes Fixed line and

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the l ...

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

IT services Information technology service management (ITSM) is the activities that are performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control information technology (IT) services offered to customers. Differing from more technology-or ...

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...

, wholesale services as well as mobile payment services. It offers products under the brands ''A¹'' (complete services offer), ''Bob'' and ''Yesss!'' ( No frills-mobile telephony) as well as ''Red Bull MOBILE'' (co-operation with

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwide, inclu ...

). A1 Telekom Austria Group currently has over 24 million users in 8 countries. It created more than 4 billion EUR and has over 17.500 employees. The group is the European unit of the company América Móvil, the 3rd biggest provider of wireless services in the world.

also operates in the following markets: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.

History

The company launched

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Ins ...

in 2000. Three years later A1 introduced 3G

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...

which was upgraded first to HSDPA in 2007 and afterwards to

HSPA+ Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...

in March 2009; followed by 4G LTE in September 2010, DC-HSPA+ in December 2010, LTE-A in 2014, LTE-A Pro in December 2018 and 5G NR in January 2020. In October 2013 A1 Telekom Austria AG acquired 2 x 70 MHz in mobile frequencies in the Austrian multiband auction. The total expenses amounted to EUR 1.03 billion. As a consequence of the acquisition of

Orange Austria Orange Austria was an Austrian mobile network operator. It started its business on 26 October 1998 as owner of the third GSM license of the country, and the first provider operating in the GSM 1800 band. Since 2004, Orange (previously known as ''O ...

by Hutchison Drei, A1 acquired the discount brand Yesss! from Orange for €390 million. In December 2021, A1 had a market share of 49.2% in broadband and 38.6% in voice mobile. The company had around 5 million mobile and 3 million fixed line subscribers at year end 2021. A1 Austria debuted its newly refreshed logo on 24 May 2018 after Telekom Austria's Bulgarian subsidiary was rebranded ''A1 Bulgaria''.

Sponsorship

A1 was the title sponsor of the A1-Ring racetrack from 1996 to 2003 and is a team sponsor of the Austrian Ski Federation (ÖSV) since 1997.

References

External links

Mobile phone companies of Austria Austrian brands {{Austria-company-stub