The third Slovenian mobile operator Tušmobil, owned by retail magnate Mirko Tuš, will begin operations in Slovenia on Wednesday. The newest Slovenian mobile operator currently has 50 transmitters and can serve 39.2 percent of the population.
Tušmobil has acquired the frequencies from the American operator Western Wireless International, which withdrew from the Slovenian market last year after less than five years of operation. Tušmobil was established in 2006 and plans to invest a total of 200 million euros over three years to establish its own wireless communication network. So far, it has invested around 30 million euros in infrastructure. The new mobile operator is a branch of Tuš Telekom and, together with the third largest retail chain in Slovenia, Engrotuš, forms the Tuš group. In 2000, the Tuš group established its Croatian branch in Rijeka and two years later opened a large retail center.
The newest Slovenian mobile operator currently has 50 transmitters and can serve 39.2 percent of the population, and is expected to cover the Slovenian territory more broadly by 2009. Tušmobil expects to have several thousand clients by the end of the year, and by the end of 2008, they should already number in the tens of thousands. The company hopes to achieve a market share of 20 to 25 percent in the Slovenian market. For comparison, the Slovenian branch of the Austrian Mobilkom, Si.mobil, had 463 thousand clients and a market share of 26 percent in the first half of 2007. The leading mobile operator, Mobitel, a branch of Telekom Slovenije, has 1.27 million clients and a market share of 69 percent. (H)
