The Bulgarian Telecommunications Company BTC and its subsidiary, the mobile phones operation Vivatel, completed Tuesday the legal process for their merger.

The merger procedure started in September 2008 when the BTC shareholders decided to go ahead with this step in order to improve the efficiency of the company, and to optimize its expenditures.

The merger will allow the new united company to offer new services. The BTC is the primary provider of fixed voice services in Bulgaria with a market share of more than 95%, as it used to be a state-owned monopoly before its privatization in 2004.

Vivatel is Bulgaria's third mobile phones operator. It was started in November 2005, and currently has about one million subscribers, which is a 10% market share.

Bulgaria's largest mobile phones operator Mtel reacted to the news about the merger by stating that it would have a substantial negative impact on the competition on the Bulgarian telecommunications market.

Mtel believes that the merger would allow the BTC-Vivatel to offer new services combining fixed voice services and mobile phones. It points out that BTC's merger with Vivatel would serve to cement its monopoly in the fixed voice services, and would create opportunities for cross-subsidizing between the two companies, which was against competition rules.

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