MAP > Internet Providers in Macedonia

Macedonia’s telecom regulator continues to promote the mobile market competition with the MVNOs. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has been part of the European Union since the year 2005. As part of the European Union pre-accession process, this country has been able to build closer economic ties with Union that account for 60% of the Macedonia exports and about 50% of the imports. Much closer regulatory as well as the administrative ties with the European Commission institutions have been able to do much with the aim of developing this telecom sector and also prepare the market for a competitive environment that is encouraged in the European Union.

Accession to European Union, have stalled as a result of the opposition from Greece, it could proceed if both of the countries accept the mid-2018 proposal to be able to rename country as the Republic of Severna Macedonia. Being part of the EU integration legislation has been able to implement principles of European Union integration legislation has been able to implement principles of European Union regulatory framework for the communications, getting to establish the independent regulator as well as set out several provisions to offer for the competitive telecom market, and this includes the wholesale access to incumbent’s fixed-line network.

Despite the fixed telephony market being liberalized, incumbent MakTel continues to be the dominant firm in this sector. Broadband services have widely been available with the effective competition between the DSL as well as the cable platforms complemented by the wireless broadband as well as developing fiber sector. A number of the DSL subscribers has been on the fall in recent years as the customers continue to migrate to the new fiber networks. Macedonia’s mobile network has been served by two mobile network operators. This is mainly MakTel as well as One.VIP, with the latter being formed by the merger of local business units of the Telekom Slovenije and the Telekom Austria. In May 2016, One.VIP also got to merge with the sister company by the name Blizoo and has been able to offer a full suite of the converged services. The Mobile data services have been increasingly very important, and this is following the investments in the LTE network rollouts as well as the upgrades to the LTE-A technology.

Some of the key developments include:
- Macedonia, as well as Bulgaria, were able to sign a deal that was aimed to end the mobile roaming tariffs.
- The regulator develops the market conditions to promote More MVNOs.
- MakTel gets to sign the managed services agreement with the vendor partner Ericsson.