Lucic: Pristina violates its own laws; Telekom Serbia in diplomatic offensive

The Director of Telekom Serbia, Vladimir Lucic, is in Pristina today for meetings with Western European ambassadors to inform them about the challenges his company is facing in its operations in Kosovo.

"The reason for our visit to Pristina today is meetings at the US Embassy and other Western European embassies, to explain the problems and our experiences over the past year in dealing with the Pristina administration to secure our company's rights. It is very important to explain to the embassies, which are in communication with the Pristina administration, all the problems and how the Pristina administration is violating its own laws and discriminating against our company," Lucic said.

As he emphasized, after last year's announcements about shutting down Telekom Serbia in Kosovo, the company has launched a diplomatic offensive this year and is expecting to obtain a third license to provide services across the entire territory of Kosovo.

"We have come a long way, from facing shutdown last year to now being on the offensive, trying to find a solution to finally obtain the third license to provide services across all of Kosovo and Metohija. This would improve mobile services in areas where Serbs live because a lot has changed. The demand for services has greatly increased, but we still have the same number of stations as 12 years ago. Also, we would expand across the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija, which means new jobs," Lucic added.

According to him, the Pristina regulator has initiated an effort to allocate 5G frequencies. Convinced that the Pristina administration intended to allocate these frequencies to local operators, Lucic announced that Telekom Serbia will fight to secure its share of the 5G frequencies.

"The Pristina regulator decided to distribute 5G frequencies, and we are sure they wanted to allocate these frequencies to two Pristina-based operators, which would close the door to a third operator. However, since we have also applied and launched a diplomatic offensive, the process has been delayed. I am confident that we will come out of this process victorious and secure a third of that spectrum," Lucic said.

If Telekom Serbia faces discrimination, Lucic warns of legal action.

"Common sense should prevail. If they go through with such an arrangement, it would be a criminal act. In that case, we won’t just seek damages from the Pristina administration but also from the two operators involved. We hope they will be wise enough not to engage in such actions. My experience with the operator administration has been positive. Whenever we pointed out that the Pristina administration was violating its own laws to discriminate against our company solely because it’s Serbian, they supported us. I expect the same now," Lucic added.

As he emphasized, they are used to Pristina’s provocations, but as the largest Serbian company in Kosovo, serving 30,000 users, they will continue the fight.

"Telekom Serbia is the largest Serbian company here, with 250 employees and 30,000 users. We won’t give up. There is nervousness in Pristina. They continuously try to provoke us. For example, they suddenly discovered that one of our garages in Mitrovica didn’t have a permit, and demolition is expected in the coming days. This is a minor issue, but it is an attempt to provoke a reaction from us. Over the past year, we have shown that we can handle all provocations. I am convinced we will win. It will be a major victory, as we will have our network across all of Kosovo and Metohija, and they will see that a large part of the Albanian population will use our network," Lucic said.

Regarding his recent visit to Washington, Lucic stated that Telekom Serbia has significant support.

"Kosovo and Metohija was one of the main reasons for the visit. I encountered great understanding. Telekom Serbia has strong support from European and American institutions in building a 5G network. Telekom Serbia is the only company in the Western Balkans capable of building a 5G network, and I believe we will have substantial support. In any case, we will win because it is in the interest of the people," Lucic concluded.