Croatian Telecom guarantees minimum internet speeds of 20 Mbps.
Croatian Telecom (HT) will provide all its users with a minimum internet speed of 20 Mbit per second in the next year, announced the largest Croatian telecommunications operator today. This is the first time that a telecom has promised a minimum internet speed, and HT can provide this thanks to continuous investments, reports Novac.hr on September 7, 2018.
In the first six months of 2017, HT increased its investments by 17.6 percent compared to the previous year, and in the first six months of this year, the telecom increased its capital investments by an additional 8.3 percent, totaling 822 million kuna.
“Croatian Telecom invests 25 percent of its revenue each year in the latest technology and infrastructure modernisation, which is above the industry average at the European level. We are investing in a new mobile network of the future, developing innovative products and increasing the quality of service,” said Croatian Telecom CEO Davor Tomašković.
Since much of the investments are aimed at improving network infrastructure, at the beginning of this year the company launched the largest project of a new mobile network in the region. This includes a threefold increase in network capacity and the establishment of prerequisites for further implementation of 5G technology. The project will last for two years and will cover more than 2,000 locations. The total investment will reach one billion kuna.
The investments continue despite the fact that Croatia has the most expensive radio-frequency spectrum in Europe, which slows further big investments, Tomašković explained. Additionally, Croatian Telecom is the only telecom in Croatia forced to pay a compensation for the right-of-way for using electronic communication infrastructure. Hence, the HT’s management, after many years of discussing this issue with the government and ministries, has decided that, if the fee is not abolished or at least reduced, it would stop investing in the Croatian communications infrastructure. Almost half of the amount of capital investment in the telecommunications sector, around 1.03 billion kuna a year, goes to parafiscal charges, of which the right-of-way is a large part, said director of the Zagreb Institute of Economics Maruška Vizek.
This was confirmed by a study conducted by the Institute, which showed that the Croatian model of the right-of-way compensation significantly deviates from the European practices and that the amount of compensation is disproportionate to the value of the land through which the electronic communications infrastructure passes.
“Croatia needs to harmonize the regulation of the right-of-way compensation with the best practices of the most developed EU members. Reducing the fee by 75 percent and directing these funds into the electronic communications infrastructure would generate over 15,000 jobs in the next ten years and achieve a one percent growth in GDP,” concluded Vizek, adding that the lost revenue due to the reduction in the compensation would be returned to local government units through increased tax revenues due to increased investments in new electronic communications infrastructure.
Translated from Novac.hr (reported by Lea Balenović).
