Lucic: This year’s focus on developing the 5G network and expanding operations in the US

Telekom Serbia CEO Vladimir Lucic said today that the previous year saw a consolidation of the telecommunications market, and that the company’s focus in 2026 will be on the development of the 5G network and the expansion of its operations in the United States, RTV reported.

Lucic emphasized that the past year brought record revenues in Serbia’s telecommunications market, with Telekom Serbia standing out in particular.

“The past year will be remembered for major successes. First, for the consolidation of the telecommunications market in Serbia and record revenue of more than 2.2 billion euros and operating profit of more than 1.2 billion euros, with Telekom Serbia standing out in particular in that revenue growth. It is very rare worldwide to see a telecommunications operator with such strong organic revenue growth as we have,” Lucic told TV Prva.

According to him, Telekom Serbia will continue working on the further development of the 5G network in 2026, adding that the plan is for the entire country to be covered by the 5G network by the end of the year.

“After obtaining the license, we launched 5G. We now have more than a thousand 5G base station repeaters and have achieved good coverage in the four largest cities – Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, and Nis – but the goal this year is to cover all cities and major roads. We will particularly position ourselves in Belgrade due to Expo, so we will be ready to welcome Expo with a 5G network of excellent quality, a technologically advanced version, the so-called standalone 5G,” Lucic emphasized, adding that around 1.1 million people in Serbia are already using the 5G network.

He stressed that the second project on which Telekom Serbia will focus in 2026 is expansion into the US.

“The second project is our expansion into America, and our expansion as a virtual operator will also be used to strengthen Telekom Serbia’s position with financial institutions, major digital platforms, and various artificial intelligence centers. That means the project of expanding into America is important not only to gain some users from the diaspora and thus increase the company’s revenue, but also to strengthen the position of our parent company in Serbia,” Lucic explained.

As he said, a good example of Telekom Serbia’s cooperation with foreign companies is the partnership project with Newsmax, a strong American company that operates a news channel ranked third in viewership in the US.

“We became their partner for Europe. We started with the Balkans, and now we are moving into Eastern Europe. Poland is scheduled to launch in April, followed by Romania. At the same time, we have arranged launches in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. We are expanding the Newsmax brand in Europe, with headquarters in Belgrade, which I believe is important for Serbia as well,” the Telekom CEO said.

Lucic also emphasized that Telekom’s goal is to be a good partner to American companies in the development of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

He said he believes that some of the startups financed by Telekom Serbia will become so-called unicorn startups.

“I am fully convinced that one of these startups we are currently financing and in which we have taken ownership stakes, across various fields from IT technologies to applications in medicine, will become a unicorn. We will work with American funds to try to help some startups with phenomenal ideas in the field of artificial intelligence applications reach a valuation of over one billion, which would grant them unicorn status,” Lucic explained.