Bulgarian Telecommunications Company

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Bulgarian Telecommunications Company

Type	joint stock company
Founded	1992
Headquarters	Sofia, Bulgaria
Key people	Martin Staub, CEO
Industry	telecommunications
Products	fixed line telephony, Internet services, mobile telephony (as Vivatel)
Revenue	▲ €515.7 million (2006)[1]
Employees	9,370 [2]
Website	http://www.btc.bg

The Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (Bulgarian: Българска телекомуникационна компания, Balgarska telekomunikatsionna kompaniya, abbreviated as БТК, BTC) is the largest telecommunications company in Bulgaria and a former state-owned monopoly. Founded as a joint stock company in the end of 1992 as part of the separation of Bulgaria's post and telecommunication services into separate companies, it serves a total of 2.6 million fixed phone lines and employs about 10,000 people.

In June 2004 65% of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company were sold to Viva Ventures, owned by Advent International, for €280 million. As part of the deal, BTC was provided a GSM operator license and launched Vivatel, Bulgaria's third GSM operator, in 2005. An UMTS license was additionally purchased in May 2005. In May 2007 the company was sold again. AIG purchased both the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company and the third Bulgarian mobile operator, Vivatel for total price of €1,661 million.[3]

Besides serving the vast majority of fixed telephone lines in the country, BTC is also the biggest Bulgarian ADSL Internet service provider with 100,000 customers.