Belarus
Telekom Austria continued its expansion strategy with the acquisition of MDC (Velcom) in Belarus in October 2007.
Velcom provides mobile communications services for contract customers under the brand name "Velcom" and for prepaid card customers under the brand "Privet".
The company is the second largest provider in Belarus with a market share of approximately 44.8% as of year-end 2008 and almost 3.7 million customers.
The mobile penetration rate rose to 81.1% in 2008. Velcom achieved revenues of EUR 310.3 million in the 2008.