Eurotel was the trade name of the first mobile phone network in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. Given the possibility of a forthcoming of split of Czechoslovakia into two separate countries, Eurotel was formed as two separate legal entities: Eurotel Praha and Eurotel Bratislava. Both Eurotel companies were founded in 1990 as joint ventures between SPT Telecom (51%) and the American joint venture company, Atlantic West, B.V. (49% split evenly between US WEST International, Inc. and Bell Atlantic International Inc.). Each Eurotel company initially was assigned the rights to deploy packet data networks and mobile phone services using the NMT450 technology. The first calls on each network were made in 1991. The packet data network elements did not grow as rapidly as hoped for and was later ceded back to the 51% Czech and Slovak landline operators. The mobile business grew briskly and both Eurotel companies were later granted GSM licenses for both the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. The USWest interests were assigned first to

MediaOne Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerly MediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created by US West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which US ...

and later to

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

. Ultimately, Český Telecom purchased the Eurotel Prague and

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

purchased Eurotel Bratislava. The Czech and Slovak businesses continued till the present as represented by O2 in the Czech Republic and

in Slovakia. Both companies were initially financed by the first EBRD financing in either the Czech Republic or Slovakia. In March 2000, EuroTel Bratislava successfully closed a Euro 175 million high yield bond offering, and became one of the first companies in Central Europe to access the public capital markets. This financing was one of many sequential financings that funded extraordinarily rapid growth in a capital intensive industry. In July 2000, Deutsche Telekom purchased a 51% stake in Slovak Telecom. It was later rebranded to T-Mobile Slovakia in May 2005. In 2005, Český Telecom was acquired by the Spanish company

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

. On March 1, 2006 it was announced that Český Telecom and Eurotel would merge their operations into one company, Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, which was to take place in mid-2006.

References

See also