Gibtelecom is the largest

telecommunications provider A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...

in the

British overseas territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. Its headquarters is located on

John Mackintosh Square John Mackintosh Square (colloquially The Piazza) is a main square in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It has been the centre of city life since the 14th century and takes its name from John Mackintosh, a local philanthropist. Notabl ...

History

The first telephones were introduced to Gibraltar in 1886 by a private company which was later taken over by the colonial authorities. Since 1926, the telephone service was operated by the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

. Upon the approval of the 1969 Constitution and the dissolution of the City Council, the telephone service was transferred to the newly formed

Government of Gibraltar His Majesty's Government of Gibraltar is the democratically elected government of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The head of state is King Charles III who is represented by the Governor. Elections in Gibraltar are held every four ...

. Until 1990, all telephone services were operated by the

Gibraltar Government Telephone Department Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territory and city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean (Strait of Gibraltar). It has an area of ...

. International circuits were provided by Cable & Wireless, which had been founded as the Falmouth, Malta, Gibraltar Telegraph Company in 1869. This later operated as the Eastern Telegraph Company from Mount Pleasant in Gibraltar. However, Cable & Wireless left Gibraltar in 1987. On 1 January 1988,

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

(BT) and the Government of Gibraltar formed a joint venture company called Gibraltar Telecommunications International Ltd (known by its commercial brand Gibtel) to operate Gibraltar's international telecommunications services. Gibtel was subsequently granted a licence to offer mobile telephony introducing a GSM900 network. In 1990, the Government decided to

privatise Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation wh ...

its Telephone Department and therefore entered into a joint venture with

Nynex NYNEX Corporation was an American telephone company that served five states of New England (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) as well as most of the state of New York from January 1, 1984 to August 14, 1997. Histo ...

of the United States. Gibraltar Nynex Communications Ltd (GNC) became responsible for

fixed-line telephony A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

. GNC was the first acquisition of Nynex outside the Americas.Interview with Mr. Tim Bristow (2005)
In 1997, GNC, through its wholly owned subsidiary, GNC Networks, commenced Internet services. GNC Networks was later renamed

GibConnect Gibtelecom is the largest telecommunications provider in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Its headquarters is located on John Mackintosh Square. History The first telephones were introduced to Gibraltar in 1886 by a private company ...

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

services were introduced in 2002. In 2001, BT sold its 50% stake in Gibtel to GNC. Both companies subsequently merged to form Gibtelecom, a joint venture between the Government of Gibraltar and Nynex's successor company,

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

. The name Gibtelecom begun to be used in July 2002, and as of 1 October 2003 this name was formally adopted by the company (which up until then was still Gibraltar Nynex Communications).Abridged Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2008
/ref> In April 2007, Verizon sold its shares to

Telekom Slovenije Telekom Slovenije d.d. (, "Telecom of Slovenia") is a telecommunications company based in Slovenia, with its headquarters in Ljubljana. History In 1994 PTT Slovenija separated postal and telecommunication activities and transferred all telecommun ...

which is the incumbent part-

state owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to a ...

telecommunications operator in

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

and is quoted on the

Ljubljana Stock Exchange Ljubljana Stock Exchange or LJSE ( ) is a stock exchange located in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is Slovenia's only stock exchange. The exchange trades shares of Slovenian companies, as well as bonds and commercial papers. The only stockholder of the ...

. Telekom Slovenije paid €36.7m for Verizon's 50 per cent stake in Gibtelecom. In 2009, the Government of Gibraltar announced it may sell its stake in Gibtelecom. However, as of August 2020, no decision has been made. In 2015, the 50 per cent share of Gibtelecom owned by Telecom Slovenia Was bought by Gibraltar Savings Bank, which now owns 100 per cent of the shares in the company.

Board

Gibtelecom's board of directors is made up of six directors, whereas the owners (the Government of Gibraltar and Telekom Slovenije) nominate three each. The current chairman is

Fabian Picardo Fabian Raymond Picardo (born 18 February 1972) is a Gibraltarian politician and barrister, serving as Chief Minister of Gibraltar and Leader of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party since 2011. At the 2015 and 2019 Gibraltar general elections, ...

, Chief Minister. However, in October 2010, the Government of Gibraltar announced that EU Communications Directives had to be enforced so that a same Minister cannot "exercise powers under the Directives and also be involved in ownership and control functions of a telecommunications company in Gibraltar". Therefore, competences over Telecommunications were transferred to the Minister of Housing, retaining Holliday as Chairman of Gibtelecom.Vinet becomes new Minister for Telecoms
''

Gibraltar Chronicle The ''Gibraltar Chronicle'' is a national newspaper published in Gibraltar since 1801. It became a daily in 1821. It is Gibraltar's oldest established daily newspaper and the world's second-oldest English language newspaper to have been in pri ...

'', 29 October 2010 Tim Bristow was the first CEO, a post had held since the company's foundation in 2001, before he stepped down at the end of 2018. Previously, he was the Financial Secretary of Gibraltar, a post he held for several years.

Services

GibTelecom Provides the following services from the following networks as of 2020 January. VDSL2 Network GibTelecom uses the existing copper network to provide broadband services up to 100 Mbps/30 Mbps speeds. FTTP Network The company provides Telephone and Broadband services to Residential, Public Manufacturing and Business Sector customers using this network. Max capable speeds of 1 Gbps synchronous. GSM 4G/5G Wireless Network The company provides Mobile Phone and Mobile Broadband services to Residential, Public Manufacturing and Business Sector customers using this network. IT, Data and Network Services The company provides Web Hosting, Cloud Storage, Private Branch Exchange and Network Solutions to Public and Business Sector customers using its Data Centers and Backhaul Ethernet Network. Pay TV GibTelecom Partnered with Netgem TV in France in 2018 to provide a IPTV OTT platform to provide Pay TV services to Residential customers using a Netgem IPTV/OTT and DVB-T Set Top Box with 65 TV channels 7 Day Catch Up TV on Selected channels with a UPnP Media Player and OTT services such as Netflix, Rakuten TV, Amazon Prime Video, Deezer, Eros Now and Hopster TV. The Set Top Box can be connected to a VHF/UHF Antenna to receive Free to Air Spanish and Moroccan TV channels accessible in Gibraltar.

International connectivity

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 ...

of Spain, Cable & Wireless and

Interoute Interoute Communications Ltd was a privately held telecommunications company that operated large cloud service platforms in Europe. On 23 February 2018, Interoute was acquired by GTT Communications for $2.3bn (€1.9bn); and the acquisition clo ...

of the United Kingdom provide international connectivity to Gibtelecom. Gibtelecom is also a partner in the

Europe India Gateway Europe India Gateway (EIG) is a submarine communications cable system that connects the U.K., Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and India. Organization and owners The EIG is ...

cable system, which has a landing point in Gibraltar.

Sponsorship

Gibtelecom is the official sponsor of the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival annually held in Gibraltar since 2003. On 13 December 2016 Gibtelecom became a sponsor of the

Rock Cup The Rock Cup is Gibraltar's premier cup football competition, and is organized annually by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA). From 1894/95 Gibraltar's Cup Competition was known as "The Senior Merchant's Cup". In 1935 a new trophy was prese ...

References