Eurotel To Close Analog NMT Voice Services In July

PRAGUE -(Dow Jones)- Czech cellular operator Eurotel Praha SRO , Monday said it will close its analog voice services that use Nordic Mobile Telephone technology, or NMT, in July.

Eurotel is a unit of Cesky Telecom which, in turn, is majority-owned by Spain's Telefonica.

Eurotel's customers who use the NMT-based services will be migrated to the company's digital services, using Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, and the third generation UMTS networks, with their existing number and tariffs, Eurotel said.

"It is increasingly difficult and very costly to maintain the outdated NMT analog technology in operation and this is why we decided now to terminate NMT operations. To our knowledge we are the last operator in Europe to close NMT-based voice services - we kept it operating out of a recognition of a social need to service remaining customers," Eurotel's Chief Commercial Officer Andrei Torriani said.

Eurotel had 4.7 million clients at the end of the first quarter, including about 32,000 users of its NMT voice services.

Company Web site: http://www.eurotel.cz

-By Leos Rousek; Dow Jones Newswires; +420 221 085 273; leos.rousek@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 15th May 2006