GLOBUL

Infobox_Company
company_name = GLOBUL (Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile)
company_
company_type = limited liability company
foundation = 2001
location = Sofia, Bulgaria
key_people = Thanassis Katsiroubas, CEO
num_employees = 1,100 (June, 2007)
revenue = profit €412.1 million (2007) [http://www.cosmote.gr/cosmote/cosmote.portal?locale=en_US&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=press_releases&path=%2FSCSDevRepository%2Fcontent%2Fen%2Fsections%2Fpressoffice%2Fpressrelease%2F190308_eng.xml&breadcrumbTitle=COSMOTE+GROUP+FULL+YEAR+2007++FINANCIAL+RESULTS#4]
net_income = profit €53.2 million (2007) [http://www.cosmote.gr/cosmote/cosmote.portal?locale=en_US&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=press_releases&path=%2FSCSDevRepository%2Fcontent%2Fen%2Fsections%2Fpressoffice%2Fpressrelease%2F190308_eng.xml&breadcrumbTitle=COSMOTE+GROUP+FULL+YEAR+2007++FINANCIAL+RESULTS#4]
industry = mobile telecommunications
products = mobile telephony
homepage = [http://www.globul.bg/ www.globul.bg]

GLOBUL (network code 284-05) is the second-largest Bulgarian GSM/UMTS operator. The company was founded in 2001 and is 100% owned by Greek telecommunications corporation Cosmote, which is active in five Balkan countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia and Albania.

As of end of 2007, GLOBUL has 3.9 million subscribers, some 40% of them contract subscribers and 60% pre-paid users.

The company is among the biggest green field investment in Bulgaria with over BGN 1.4 billion (some €700 million) invested by in the development of GLOBUL’s network and services.GLOBUL's network covers 99,95%% of Bulgaria’s population and 98,68% of the country’s territory. The company has roaming agreements with over 330 operators in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide.

In 2005, GLOBUL received a license for developing and implementing 3G UMTS mobile telecommunications network as well as a fixed telephony license.

GLOBUL changed their logo in June 2006 to unify it with the Cosmote logo.

In 2006, GLOBUL launched i-mode in Bulgaria. GLOBUL is the first European operator to develop the platform infrastructure and launch i-mode in the record time of less than six months, while being one of the few to offer the service upon launch to all its customers, both contract and prepaid. GLOBUL was the first operator world-wide to introduce Nokia i-mode handsets in September 2007.

In 2007 GLOBUL launched BlackBerry® (trade mark of RIM) - mobile solution for reliable and permanent on-line access to your office and personal e-mail addresses directly from the mobile phone. The service is accessible from the network of GLOBUL as well as from the roaming partners of GLOBUL.

GLOBUL launched 3G/HSDPA on September 25, 2006, and the company said its 3G network is to cover the capital city Sofia, seven other large cities in the country and most of the country's Black Sea and skiing resorts by the end of April 2007. As of end of 2008, GLOBUL UMTS network covers over 35 Bulgarian cities and 3/4 of Bulgaria's population.

The mobile operator was the first in Bulgaria to propose an integrated solution for fixed and mobile telephony, the so called Office Zone which allows users to have mobile and fixed-line number in one mobile handset and use both numbers in a user-defined physical area, i.e a company office. Outside the Office Zone, users may use only the mobile number.

In 2007 GLOBUL received a license for WiMAX point-to-multipoint network in the 26GHz band.

External links

* [http://www.globul.bg/bg/ Official website] (in Bulgarian)
* [http://www.globul.bg/eng/ Official website] (in English)
* [http://www.i-mode.bg/ GLOBUL's official I-Mode website] (only in Bulgarian)