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practice how technology can improve parking, traffic
management, lighting and even garbage collection. We
believe that cooperation between business, entrepreneurs
and institutions is the engine of creating a world of
connected devices where machines will communicate with
each other to make people’s lives better.
My expectations for this year are for us to get out of the
test phase of Smart City services and move on to their
tangible commercial offering and wider deployment in
companies and municipalities. From our work to date with
local administrations, it is clear that Bulgarian cities are
not lagging behind the global trends and are ready to use
new technologies in order to improve the environment and
lives of their citizens and guests.
In VIVACOMwe also apply these technologies in our own
processes. The company is currently digitizing its internal
systems and processes. We are changing our way of work
too, so that everything for our customers becomes faster
and easier. For example, we launched the My VIVACOM
application, which allows our subscribers to manage
their services themselves. We laid the foundations for a
complete transformation of the company, and I believe
that in 2019 consumers will feel the real benefits of this for
themselves.
Most noticeably this change is felt by the young people
who are currently studying or starting to work. They grow
into a world dominated by technology, and the inability
to use its potential means they are facing a failure. The
key to their successful realization is education that meets
modern labour market requirements and is based on new
technologies.
As a company, we believe that we have responsibility for
the growth of young people in the country and see our
contribution in the introduction of technology in school.
Thus, learning will be more interesting, useful and, most
importantly, effective, by preparing modern children
with real knowledge and skills to enter their active life
stage. With a number of partners involved with the topic
of education, we launched the ‘Education 4.0’ initiative,
which aims to help the digitization of Bulgarian secondary
education. At the same time, we constantly train ours
about 5,000 employees to be informed and professionally
prepared in this dynamically developing field.
The changes we are already witnessing will happen even
more rapidly in the coming years. Practice shows that
every next technology – 2G, 3G, 4G – took less time to be
massively adopted than the previous one. We expect 5G
to become a reality in Bulgaria in 2020-2021. This is the
network that will transform our lives as did the mobile
phones appearance some 20 years ago.
VIVACOM is ready for this new, exciting world. Howwe
have done so far, what are our goals for the coming years
and what we will offer our customers in the high-tech
future can be read on the following pages.
Yours faithfully,
Dear readers,
In front of you is VIVACOM’s Integrated Annual Report for
2018. The report reflects all significant achievements of
the company for this period as well as the leading global
trends in technology development. You will find answers
to questions about why analysts talk about the amount
of information measured in zettabites, and where this
information will be stored, how smart systems in cities will
solve the problems of growing urbanization and what new
business models will trigger the digitization of industries.
2018 was the year in which 5G came out of the ‘dream’
stage and became a reality. The first fifth-generation
network became a fact in the US, and the theme of its
building on the Old Continent took an important place in
the European Union’s agenda.
What is 5G and what will it give us? Fifth-generation
networks make it possible to connect many more devices
at a same time. This way they will not only provide more
capacity for smartphone and tablet users, but will also
boost business growth. These networks will allow easier
automation of the production process, and high speeds
and instantaneous data transmission will open up the
possibility of developing entirely new niches such as
autonomous vehicles, use of robots in different spheres,
remote medical procedures, etc. Under the conditions of
total digitization, for people will remain the creative and
highly qualified work, which will mean better pay, higher
satisfaction and, respectively, improvement of socio-
economic status of societies.
In these conditions of dynamic change, Bulgaria is one of
the countries with the best indicators for quality of telecom
services. We have traditionally been at one of the leading
places for speed and coverage on both the fixed broadband
Internet and mobile network.
I can proudly say that our industry is one of the driving
forces of the Bulgarian economy. VIVACOM is a leader in
the development and introduction of modern technologies
with investments of BGN 187 million just for 2018 and over
BGN 1 billion for the last five years.
Thanks to our strategy for long-term and sustainable
development of infrastructure and services we have
succeeded in building the mobile network with the best
coverage of the population in our country as well as the
fastest 4G network . These investments made it possible in
2018 to have the mobile Internet traffic on 4G to surpass
that on 3G. This was the year in which 4G ceased to be
innovation and become a technology that consumers
rely on and use on a daily basis. To offer even more
opportunities to our customers, we also launched 4.5G with
even higher mobile Internet speeds, as well as 4G Voice
service for crystal clear calls through LTE.
True innovations in the past year happened in the field
of the Internet of Things and Smart Cities. After the end
of 2017, when we were the first telecom in Bulgaria to
launch LoRa network, in 2018 we realized a number of
pilot projects with smart solutions for improving the
urban environment. In partnership with other progressive
companies, start-ups and municipalities, we showed in
Atanas Dobrev:
Our industry is one of
the driving forces of the
Bulgarian economy
Atanas Dobrev
Chief Executive Officer of VIVACOM
STATEMENT OF THE CEO
1
The coverage of 4G technology by population was measured by Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) according to their methodology in the period 15.10–15.11.2018.
2
According to Ookla® analysis based on Speedtest Intelligence® data from tests conducted on the territory of Bulgaria in the third quarter of 2018 for average download
speeds in the mobile network. Ookla trademarks are used with permission. More information at
www.vivacom.bg.
ANNUALREPORT
2018
INTEGRATED
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