BUSINESS tycoon Nicos Shacolas has set his sights on the telecoms market, with a view to creating a behemoth rivaling CyTA, press reports said.
The move comes just as CyTA has announced innovative technologies for next year that will merge fixed and mobile telephony.
According to reports, confirmed to the Mail yesterday, the Shacolas group is in negotiations with mobile company MTN and internet services provider OTENet.
“Talks are ongoing, but it’s a sensitive issue so no announcements will be made for now. Assuming it pans out, we’re looking at the first quarter of 2008 for a deal,” an industry source said.
The omnipresent Shacolas Group holds a stake in the Hermes consortium running Larnaca and Paphos airports, and has import activities ranging from fashion franchises and breakfast cereals to heavy machinery.
Yesterday the group submitted a 159.44 million euro public offer for the listed share capital of Cyprus Trading Corporation.
Shacolas already owns about 10 per cent of OTENet, and reportedly aims to increase its stake to 70 per cent, replacing OTENet Greece as the majority shareholder.
The group would have a controlling interest in the joint venture with MTN and OTENet, with OTENet Greece staying on board with a token share.
If it materializes, the new player would be able to take on CyTA, currently the only corporation offering mobile and fixed telephony, internet and pay-TV services.
Initially, the Shacolas-controlled venture would offer joint mobile and landline phone services, for example giving subscribers a common voicebox. Customers will also be able to send SMS messages using their landline phone device.
Subsequently, the group would look into IPTV (Internet Protocol Television).
IPTV is a system where a digital television service is delivered by using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. Broadly speaking, IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks.
For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be bundled with internet services such as web access and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
With more companies vying for the same pie, it is hoped competition will drive down prices for triple-play and broadband internet, services that are still expensive in Cyprus compared to most European countries.
Telecoms providers opt for diversified packages, as television services on their own are frequently a loss-making business.
Only this week, CyTA said its MiVision service was in the red despite its 25,000 subscribers.
