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Private equity firm Nordic Investors acquires CDMA provider from parent Air Telecom.
Czech telco U:fon is poised to launch LTE, which according to its parent Air Telecom, makes it an ideal time to sell it.
U:fon operates a fixed voice service and a CDMA network that it claims covers 90% of the Czech Republic. When it goes live, its LTE network will operate in the 400 MHz band.
On Tuesday, U:fon announced that it has been sold to private equity firm Nordic Investors for an undisclosed sum.
"It’s a logical outcome," said Air Telecom chairman Martin Hes, who leads the group of shareholders that are selling the telco.
"We invested primarily in a technological shift in society. Today the project is completed, for which we thank all the people who worked on the project together," he said, adding that the transition to LTE cost "hundreds of millions of crowns."
When the LTE network launches, customers can expect to get speeds of around 30 Mbps or more, U:fon said.
"In the past three years we have worked intensely on how to prepare the CDMA network for transition to LTE and obtain the necessary permits to operate the network on new technology," said Roman Fura, director of development and strategy at Air Telecom. "Thus, we have created the necessary conditions for the deployment of LTE networks and putting it into operation."
