The largest Bulgarian mobile phone operator M-Tel, controlled by Telekom Austria, reported a 9.3% fall in revenues to EUR 358.3 M for the first nine months on an annual basis in line with the industry trend.

The company's earnings before interests, taxes and amortizations declined by 19.3% to EUR 164.5 M year-upon-year.

The deteriorating figures come on the back of a cut in interconnection charges by between 50% and 70% as of July 1, 2012, according to a statement by Telekom Austria.

Furthermore, the unfavorable economic environment led to a lower consumption of communication services and strong competition exerted downward pressure on prices, it points out.

Cost saving measures could therefore not fully compensate for the negative effects of market pressure on revenues.

Despite this tense economic environment, M-Tel has succeeded in increasing both mobile subscribers and fixed net access lines by 4.6% to over 5.5 million and by 30.4% to over 142,800 respectively.

Bulgaria's second-biggest mobile operator Globul reported earlier this month a sharp decline in revenues in a worrying sign about the future of its planned sale.

The revenues of telecoms operator Globul have dropped 20.9% in the third quarter of the year on an annual basis to EUR 85.9 M, data shows.

OTE, the biggest telecoms operator in southeastern Europe, announced in mid-June it plans to sell its Bulgarian units to help refinance EUR 3.4 B debt maturing in the next two years.

Greek telecoms group OTE will seek to sell its Bulgarian businesses - a mobile phone company and an electronic appliance retail chain Germanos - for no less than EUR 800 M, according to reports.

Deutsche Telekom, which controls a 40% stake in OTE, Turkish Turkcell, British Vodafone and Orange, owned by France Telekom, have been listed as potential buyers.

Globul is the trademark under which Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile EAD offers mobile telecommunications services in Bulgaria.

The company is 100% owned by Cosmote, OTE's mobile phone arm.