More than a year after Kosovo’s declaration of independence, its officials still have Serbian telephone numbers on business cards.
Serbia’s international dialling code, +381, remains for landline calls. Mobile networks have taken another route, bringing two more dialling codes to the territory.
The array of prefixes is a hurdle the new state must overcome to make a successful sale of its prized Post and Telecom of Kosovo (PTK) in the months ahead.
Yet without membership of the United Nations, Kosovo cannot obtain a unique dialling code number from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN body based in Geneva. Only around 60 countries have recognised the Balkan breakaway state, while many others – including key UN Security Council members – back Serbia’s claim to Kosovo. But the fast-expanding telecommunications sector has bigger problems than reliance on the Serbian prefix. Mobile telecom companies – coming on the scene since the withdrawal of Serb forces a decade ago – had to “borrow” dialling codes from foreign operators. Kosovo has become the world’s only telecom territory using three international prefixes, none of them its own.
The PTK’s state-owned mobile operator, Vala, uses Monaco’s prefix, +377, based on a deal reached in 2000 by the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Borrowing the telecom code was the only solution, says Anton Berisha, outgoing head of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, Kosovo’s independent regulator.
“UNMIK had initiated talks with ITU to get Kosovo a temporary international code, but that was blocked by Russia and China,” says Mr Berisha, whose mandate as chair has expired, although no one has replaced him yet.
Serbia – backed by the same two big powers – keeps lobbying to block Kosovo from joining international organisations.
As states sprang up around eastern Europe in the 1990s, they demanded their own codes. Other small countries, which had shared with larger neighbours, suddenly wanted distinct numbers too.
Monaco obtained its +377 code in 1996, and by 2000 was selling usage rights to Kosovo. The fees have fallen, but it still costs the PTK €19m ($27m) per year, or €0.08 per minute of international calls. But increasing competition has helped, Mr Berisha says. In 2006, Mobitel, a Slovenian state-owned firm, took over IPKO, Kosovo’s first internet service provider, for €20m, with an eye on expanding mobile telephony. After winning the licence for €75m, IPKO’s consortium in April 2007 launched Kosovo’s second mobile network. With €200m more invested since then, it has become Kosovo’s biggest foreign investment, and Slovenia’s biggest venture abroad.
Thanks to Slovenian state ties, IPKO pays only €0.01 per minute on international calls with its +386 country code. The resulting saving helped the newcomer lure users while retaining an enormous profit margin.
Akan Ismaili, IPKO’s youthful chief executive, beams with pride about achieving positive earnings just a year after starting. Turnover last year was €41m, he says. Still, that is a pittance compared with the €170m turnover of the PTK, whose net profit of €60m makes it one of Kosovo’s most sought-after assets.
After several false starts, the government hopes to privatise the domestic telecom company this year.
PTK boosted its visibility by winning a tender in April 2009, at the head of a consortium, for the fourth mobile network in Albania. Critics say Kosovo should not invest there while struggling to attract its own foreign investments. PTK’s chief executive, Shyqyri Haxha, responds: “We will not invest money. All we will invest is our expertise.”
Mr Haxha also hesitates to talk about the PTK’s deal with a US-based investor, UNIFI Holdings, for a “virtual” mobile operator. The joint venture, Dardafon, would be run by UNIFI and resell part of PTK’s GSM bandwidth. Another virtual mobile operator, D3, already feeds from the IPKO network, making four licensed mobile operators in all. But the complexities do not end there.
Despite Belgrade’s retreat in 1999, Serbian mobile operators have put their antennae on Kosovo’s soil. State-controlled MTS and Norwegian-owned Telenor Serbia work without licences from the authorities in Pristina. Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority relies on the two services.
In 2006, the UN administration gave permission to Kosovo’s authorities to remove antennas of operators reaching outside the Serb-dominated settlements. Some were removed, but after an attack on Anton Berisha – a rocket-propelled missile was fired at his vehicle – the process stopped (Serbs were not suspected in the attack).
As a consequence, Kosovo’s telecom companies claim they lose 200,000 users to “illegal” operators.
Mr Berisha, recalling his time as chief regulator, says he could never clamp down on the infringement, which stems from “a combination of political and criminal activities”.
