Lucic: Expansion to Germany Telekom Srbija's biggest undertaking yet

BELGRADE - Telekom Srbija CEO Vladimir Lucic said on Tuesday the company's expansion to Germany was its "biggest undertaking yet."

Telekom Srbija launched its services in Germany on Monday.

Telekom Srbija now covers a combined market of around 100 mln customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lucic told Tanjug, adding that the company had ambitious plans when it comes to expansions and operations in the diaspora.

"Four years ago, we launched Mtel Austria to great success. We have over 150,000 subscribers and we have realised we have the right model for our subscribers in the diaspora," he said.

After becoming Serbia's largest telecommunications operator across all services, Telekom Srbija began to invest more significantly in content ranging from sports to movies, as well as in digital services, Lucic said.

"We have become distributors of all (television) channels for the diaspora, not only from Serbia but also from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, so we can say we have the best offer for people who are from this region but live and work primarily in Western Europe, America and Canada," Lucic said.

After Austria, Telekom Srbija expanded its mobile telephony and television service operations to Switzerland and, following the expansion to Germany, it plans to start operations in Turkey in October.

"Several million people who know our language and are interested in our channels live there. An expansion to America and Canada will be our objective next year," Lucic said.

Telekom Srbija's going global is the final stage of a project to create a large global telecommunications company that combines the strategy of a standard telecommunications company with a strategy used by major digital companies such as Amazon and Google, Lucic said.