Croatian Telecom (HT) complains about high costs of using state-owned land.
In the next four years, Croatian Telecom (HT) plans to invest as much as two billion kuna in building the fiber-optics infrastructure in Croatia. Davor Tomašković, the CEO of HT, presented the company’s plans in Zagreb at a conference organized by ETIS, organization which brings together global telecom professionals, reports Poslovni.hr on October 15, 2016.
“Croatia is currently at the bottom of the European Union with regards to the penetration of fiber to the home technology (FTTH) and lags behind in the digital agenda, which provides for everyone in Croatia to have minimum internet speed of 30 Mbps by 2020. Also, at least half of the population should have access speeds of up to 100 Mbps,” said Tomašković. He added that Croatian Telecom has been the single largest private investor in Croatia for the last five years, with total investments worth as much as 5.7 billion kuna.
He said that the investments had strengthened the company’s position as the technology leader in the market. “We were one of the first telecoms in Europe which launched a 4G network, we were among the first to introduce IP telephony, we are the first within DT group to have G.fast technology, and in the Croatian market we have the broadest portfolio of IT services and we offer the fastest internet. However, there are obstacles for our investments”, said Tomašković.
He complained that the procedures for obtaining permits for construction of fiber-optical networks were too complex and too time consuming, and that the cost of the infrastructure which they have to pay was very large. “Croatian Telecom pays a huge amount of money for using the state and local land through which our infrastructure passes. The total cost amounts to as much as 10 percent of the value of the overall telecom market in the country”, concluded Tomašković.
