telekom control - telecommunications report 1998-1999 / Regulatory environment and telecommunications institutions / Chronological development of market liberalisation in Austria: 1993 - 1997 / Further development of the European regulatory framework and the Telecommunications Act 1997 (TKG)

II.2.4 Additional restructuring measures of PTA
A few months after spinning off the post and telecom sectors from public control and establishing PTA, in October 1996 the provision of mobile telephony services was transferred to the newly founded company Mobilkom retroactively per 01.05.1996, which was a prerequisite for selling a 25% share of Mobilkom to Telecom Italia Mobile in autumn 1997. Directly upon entry into force of the new Telecommunications Act, on the basis of the new legal situation, PTA was granted the corresponding licences for the provision of fixed network public voice telephony service and leased line service. In a similar way as with Mobilkom, in May 1998 the regulatory authority granted a request by PTA according to which the telecommunications sector (including Mobilkom) of the company was transferred to its 100% subsidiary, Telekom Austria, retroactively per 01.01.1998. Since then, there has been structural separation of the telecommunications sector and the "yellow post", which was an important			prerequisite for the sale of a 25% share to a strategic partner that was already planned at that time. The final decision was eventually taken in October 1998 by selling 25% plus one share to Stet International Netherlands (Telecom Italia). II.2.5 Mobile telephony, the first area of greater liberalisation In the public mobile telephony sector in which the PTT had a monopoly until 1996 with its three networks¹ an additional GSM 900 MHz licence was awarded to the international consortium Ö-Call (now max.mobil.) at the beginning of 1996, thus creating a "duopoly" situation. Test operation of the network started on 01.07.1996 and commercial operation in autumn of the same year. At the end of August 1997, another licence for the provision of mobile telephony in the GSM 1800 MHz range was awarded to the international consortium Connect (section III.1.3.2).
1) The three mobile networks of the PTT were the analogue NMT 450 MHz network (in operation from 1984 till 1997), the analogue E-TACS 900 MHz network (in operation since November 1990) and the digital GSM 900 network (in operation since 1994).