5G network in Serbia to be functional from December – Telekom receives US loan for financing, tender for additional stations to follow

Telekom Srbija CEO Vladimir Lucic said that he expected to sign an arrangement with the US Exim Bank for financing the 5G network in Serbia by the end of November and that the loan would have more favorable terms than they would have gotten from commercial banks.

He stated during a guest appearance on RTS that this would be the first agreement that a European telecommunications operator signed with that American financial institution, and the second in the world.

– This means direct support from the US state, American institutions for the development of the 5G network, and we use a lot of American products in our system, from IBM to Microsoft. Exim Bank will actually provide extremely favorable loans, much more favorable than commercial loans – said Lucic.

According to him, both European and American financial institutions are ready to help Telekom in the development of the 5G network, and their goal is for it to become functional in December.

The company’s CEO said that the foundation of the infrastructure had been laid that would allow users to immediately see 5G in large cities and that, as soon as the license was obtained, people would see 5G on their phones.

– We are now announcing a tender for additional stations that we will deploy. In the first two years, we will cover a significant part of Serbia with a 5G network. The goal is to fully cover the whole of Serbia by the end of 2027 – said Lucic.

Speaking about Telekom’s operations in Kosovo, Lucic added that the company had launched an initiative to obtain a third mobile telephony license, for which it expected great support from the US.

– Although we had excellent relations with the previous administration, two years ago the key contributions of the US ambassador in Pristina and Belgrade were to prevent (Kosovo Prime Minister Albin) Kurti from disconnecting MTS. We explained in a fairly argumentative way why that point of the Brussels Agreement should be fulfilled and MTS should be given a third license – said Lucic.

He also added that the branch there covered 30,000 households with internet, landline, mobile telephony and television.

– We pointed out to the American administration that before Kurti’s administration we had had no problems, that previous administrations had even had understanding for our company. I hope that in the formation of the new government, Kurti’s administration will not be so strong anymore, because it obviously has no understanding, nor does it want to approach the Serbian people. Its goal is to deport the Serbian people. It seems to me that, especially in the American administration, information about the harmfulness of Kurti’s actions is becoming clearer – said Lucic.

Telekom Srbija a.d. Beograd

Telekom Srbija

Exim bank USA

Vladimir Lučić

5G network

US loan

third license in KiM