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A1 Telekom Austria Group

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Telekom Austria AG
Company typePublicly traded subsidiary (Aktiengesellschaft)
WBAGTKA
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1998; 26 years ago (1998)
Headquarters,
Austria
Area served
  • Austria
  • Belarus
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • North Macedonia
  • Serbia
  • Slovenia
Key people
Products
RevenueIncrease4.74 billion (2021)[1]
Increase€753.4 million (2021)[1]
Increase€455 million (2021)[1]
Total assetsIncrease€8.572 billion (2021)[1]
Total equityIncrease€3.115 billion (2021)[1]
OwnerAmérica Móvil (51%)
ÖBAG (28.42%)
Number of employees
17,856 (2021)[1]
ParentAmérica Móvil (51%) (2014–present)
Subsidiaries
Websitewww.a1.group

A1 Telekom Austria Group is a provider of fixed-line, broadband Internet, multimedia services, data, and IT systems, wholesale as well as mobile payment services. It is a subsidiary of Mexican telecommunications conglomerate América Móvil since 2014. Its headquarters are in Vienna.[2] The company operates subsidiaries in seven European countries: Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Its largest subsidiary is the Austrian telecommunications provider A1 Telekom Austria.[3]

History[change | change source]

Previous logo (2013–2018)

The state-owned PTT agency K.K Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung (PTV), was formed in 1887. All telephone and mail services in Austria-Hungary were taken over by the state. After World War I, the Austrian portion of the company became Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung.

In 1996 under the Post Restructuring Act, PTV was restructured as a public corporation, Post-und Telekom Austria AG (PTA AG). Two years later, the telecommunications sector was fully deregulated. PTA was split, with the telecom side becoming Telekom Austria. The company was fully privatised in 2000 and was listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (it delisted from New York in 2007).

In June 2000, the company invested about 15 million euros to rebrand itself as Jet2Web. Jet2Web did not ucceed in the market, because it was perceived as unreliable. The use of the name was discontinued in 2002.The company name Telekom Austria was revived as the brand name with a new logo.[4]

In June 2006, the company was split into the holding company Telekom Austria Group, with the public switched telephone network becoming Telekom Austria FixNet AG, which was later renamed Telekom Austria TA AG. Telekom Austria FixNet AG became a sister company of affiliate Mobilkom Austria AG.

They merged in 2010 to form A1 Telekom Austria.[5] Foreign subsidiaries of Mobilkom Austria were transferred to the holding company, so that A1 Telekom Austria would only deal with the Austrian market.

In 2011, misdemeanours by company directors between 2004 and 2006 became public. The scandal was known as the Telekom-Affäre.

At the end of 2016, Telekom Austria Group had 18,203 employees and generated about €4.2 billion in revenues.[6]

In 2020, all shares of Telecom Liechtenstein were sold to the Principality.

Stakeholders[change | change source]

On 23 April 2014 Carlos Slim, owner of America Movil, took control of Telekom Austria. He formed a syndicate agreement between ÖIAG and America Movil, spending $2 billion to buy out minority shareholders and investing up to 1 billion euros ($1.38 billion) into the company. America Movil sees Telekom Austria as a "platform for expansion into Central and Eastern Europe". Labour representatives boycotted the decision on the syndicate agreement at the ÖIAG supervisory board meeting for 12 hours because of the lack of explicit job guarantees.[7]

Subsidiaries[change | change source]

A1 Telekom Austria Group operates the following subsidiaries:

Controversy[change | change source]

A1 Telekom reduced mobile Internet bandwidth in Minsk during 2020 Belarusian protests at the request of Belarusian officials.[8]

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "A1 Telekom Austria Group's Combined Annual Report for 2021" (PDF). www.a1.group. 9 February 2022.[permanent dead link]
  2. Address Headquarter Archived 8 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Ownership structure - Telekom Austria. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  4. "Neue Dachmarke - Jet2Web war "nie glaubhaft"". Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  5. m.b.H., STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft. "Fusion von Telekom und Mobilkom im Firmenbuch".
  6. "Annual Report 2016". telekomaustria.com. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  7. Georgina Prodhan; Angelika Gruber (24 April 2014). "Slim seeks to build Telekom Austria into European player". Reuters. Retrieved 24 April 2014. "There came a point where we felt there was just not very much more to be done in terms of expansion in the Americas," Garcia Moreno told a news conference in Vienna
  8. "Belarus: Internet Disruptions, Online Censorship". Human Rights Watch. 28 August 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.

Other websites[change | change source]