According to the 2020 Judges it was “the impressive rollout of over 5,000km of dark fibre through nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe” that amazed the panel the most. Praising the 18-month, multiple country rollout as a “great success” to the business “which has one of the strongest portfolios in the region”.
Shortly after its win, A1 achieve Tier 1 status for its IPX services as rated by the Rocco IPX customer survey, a marker of reliability and quality of service.
December then saw the company ink a partnership with Ultra 4K Extreme LLC delivering the broadcast of extreme sports, adventure and entertainment programs on Eutelsat’s 16A satellite.
The start of 2021 saw the company acquire a majority stake in Invenium, a digital mobility analysis company. With the takeover of Invenium, A1 confirmed it is expanding into the area of data analysis and, with A1 Mobility Insights, is offering a commercial product based on the technical supervisory association (TUEV)-tested and data protection compliant platform.
In February, The World Teleport Association (WTA) awarded A1 Telekom Tier 4 certification for its Aflenz Earth Station in Austria under WTA’s Teleport Certification Program.
That same month, the company published its Q4 and FY2020 results, with mobile subscriber numbers increasing 5.1 across all its markets. In addition, Group EBITDA before restructuring increased by 2.8% as a result of operational efficiencies. Its 2021 outlook is predicted for an increase of 1% in Group total revenue, amounting to approximately €800 million.
By March, A1 Telekom became a founding member of European Green Digital Coalition, an alliance committed to establishing science-based targets for reducing Greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and to become climate neutral or net-zero no later than 2040.
That same month, the company launched an IoT Detection Tool that helps mobile operators monetize IoT roaming traffic by using in-depth analytics to dentify IoT related inbound roaming traffic and start charging those IoT devices with low or no traffic, respectively.
More recently, the company closed a raise of a €2.5 million Series A round led by Day One Capital with participation from Fazole Ventures and business angels for its start-up company Whalebone for its DNS-based cybersecurity tech.
As for 5G, April saw A1 Slovenia acquire 5G spectrum in several bands: 2x 10MHz in 700MHz, 1x 40MHz in 1.4GHz, 2x 15MHz in 2.1GHz, 1x 100MHz in 3.6GHz and 1x 400MHz in 26GHz for approximately €42.4 million.
While A1 Bulgaria won the main 5G license in the 3.6GHz spectrum in a tender organised by the Communications Regulation Commission for an initial payment of €2.4 million. Hinting at a further expansion of its 3.8 million people customers in Austria already receiving 5G mobile service, soon on the horizon.
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