Eurotel
Eurotel is the name of a former mobile network, acquired and transformed into a branch of T-Mobile in Slovakia and O2 in the Czech republic.
Eurotel was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between SPT Telecom (51%) and the American joint venture Atlantic West (initially between US WEST International, Inc. and Bell Atlantic International Inc.; later acquired by AT&T Wireless and Verizon). At launch, it received an exclusive five-year licence to operate a public data network and a 20-year licence for the 450 MHz band to operate an analogue NMT mobile phone network and also, automatically, a right to buy a licence to the future GSM network.
The name Eurotel was used for the Czechoslovak network. After the country's division in 1993, the company also separated into a Slovak Eurotel Bratislava and a Czech Eurotel Praha. The Slovak branch was rebranded to Telekom (formerly T-mobile) in 2005, the Czech branch to O2 in 2006.
O2 also operates in Slovakia and T-Mobile in the Czech republic, but they are unrelated to either Eurotel Bratislava or Eurotel Praha, respectively. Telefónica O2 Slovakia is a brand new network and T-Mobile Czech Republic evolved from the Paegas network.
In March 2000, EuroTel successfully closed a Euro 175 million high yield bond offering, and became one of the first companies in Central Europe to access the public capital markets and become an S.E.C registrant.