Slovenia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Slovenia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Slovenia’s telcos consider closure of 3G networks

Slovenia’s mobile market enjoys effective competition from four MNOs and several MVNOs and resellers. In common with other countries in Europe, Slovenia’s MNOs are migrating from legacy networks to 5G and upgraded LTE infrastructure.

Telekom Slovenije planned to shut down its 3G services by September 2022, and to refarm spectrum and physical assets for LTE/5G to support growing mobile data traffic. About 99% of subscribers’ mobile data is carried via LTE and 5G, and given that most subscribers already use LTE-enabled smartphones the termination of 3G services will be of limited inconvenience. Those few subscribers with older phones will be switched to GSM in the short term. GSM will be retained for a few years yet, since it also supports low-data applications including M2M and smart meters.

The adoption of 5G by Telekom Slovenije will also make the company more attractive to international investors. According to 2001 legislation, the company was to privatised within a year, though this plan was dropped following the economic fallout of the dotcom bubble.

Renewed privatisation efforts in mid-2005 resulted in only a 10% state equity in the telco being sold, while a proposal to sell an additional 25% stake in 2007 was put on hold before being rekindled in May 2013 when the government announced that it would privatise the telco along with 14 other companies in a bid to reduce debt and so avoid a European Union bailout. This was again scuppered following elections held in July 2014.

However, the government has recently again returned to the idea of selling part or all of its remaining 62.5% interest in Telekom Slovenije. Including those stakes held by state-owned investment funds and by the Treasury, about 73.3% of the company’s shares are directly or indirectly held by the state.