site.btaMinisters Deny Plans for Starting State-owned Telecom Company

Ministers Thursday firmly denied media stories that there were plans to set up a state-owned telecom company. The team which worked on digital connectivity in Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan talked to the CEOs of operators A1, Vivacom and Yettel about the objectives and financial parameters of that policy field, the Transport Ministry said.

Transport and Communications Minister Nikolay Sabev and e-Government Minister Bozhidar Bozhanov said no one had ever suggested starting a state-owned telecom operator. 

The new government changed the focus of the Plan's key policies, and now the Ministries of Transport and Communications and of e-Government have committed to provide gigabyte connectivity to 350,000 people in remote and sparsely populated areas (up from 100,000 people in an earlier version), and to strengthen and build on the Single Electronic Communications Network.

Sabev assured the operators that the aim is to create a good synergy between the large telecom companies and the State. From now on, the government and the telecom industry will seek opportunities for partnership in implementing projects included in the National Recovery Plan, above all in developing the network of the e-Government Ministry and providing connectivity to sparsely populated areas.

The financing allocated for digital connectivity is over 600 million leva.