Lucic at Transatlantic Cooperation Conference: Telekom Serbia the Fastest Growing Operator in Southeast Europe

Lucic emphasized that he has always valued the importance of cooperation and trust in partnerships, especially with the United States.

"Sixty-four years ago, in 1961, the Atlantic Council was founded by a group of influential American and European leaders. Finally, statesmen, diplomats, and academics believed that closer cooperation between North America and Europe was critical during the Cold War. The goal was to support the Atlantic alliance and promote dialogue on shared political, economic, and security interests. My esteemed colleagues and distinguished guests, it is an honor and a privilege to be here with you today in Washington today, as we discuss the important topic of enhanced transatlantic cooperation – especially now, when we are navigating major global shifts and changes that started this year," Lucic said at the beginning of his address.

He added that cooperation with the U.S. helps Telekom Serbia transform, learn, and grow.

"This is a story of how a small company from Serbian, Telekom Srbija, became a big company with 13 million subscribers. We operate in 12 countries, with more than 600 million citizens, using those partnerships that we established with EU and European institutions.”

He added that he wishes to share some recent experiences and demonstrate how partnerships support Telekom’s business by attracting investments, fostering innovation, and building enduring cross-border ties.

"Last October was really important for our company. Not only for our company, but I can tell you, for our country and for Western Balkans, because we were the first company to issue corporate bonds on the EU capital market. Really the first company in the history of the West Balkans. It is important to mention that we are still a governmental company, so we successfully issued 900 million dollars in bonds. Together with our partners, it was a one-year project, and some of the most important banks from the US and Europe helped us – Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, UniCredit. Interestingly enough, this effort was very similar to the international alliance that were forged, encouraging the creation of the Atlantic Council," Lucic stated.

According to him, the bond issuance not only boosted international investors’ confidence in Telekom Serbia but also freed up capital for future investments, accelerating digital transformation.

It also supported expansion plans in Europe and the U.S. while enhancing international relations.

"We are proud that we have the network with the same quality and with the same availability as other new countries. Last investigation made by the United Nations, some e-government survey report noted remarkable progress in Serbia's telecommunication infrastructure, with an IGES score of 0.92, which is among the highest in Southeast Europe," Lucic noted.

Accelerated 5G Rollout

Telekom Serbia is also preparing for a rapid deployment of 5G mobile networks in the region, with support from the U.S. EXIM Bank and the European Investment Bank.

"Also, we are partners with Ericsson and Nokia, and we are a strategic partner with Vodafone for digital services. Partnership with Vodafone is also important for us because it increases transparency for our company. We are using Vodafone as a partner in procurement, so we are now using Vodafone procurement prices. In that way, as a small company, we now have a lot of power when we negotiate with all our suppliers,” said the Telekom CEO.

Universal access is essential – just like content quality, he emphasized.

"From the content side, we established really big and important partnerships with many American brands like Bloomberg, Disney+, Amazon, HBO, Newsmax, and we implemented all that content in the Western Balkans.

We believe the future of media and its societal benefits lies in high-quality content that both entertains and educates. With this in mind, we have established transatlantic partnerships with globally recognized U.S. brands like Bloomberg, Disney+, Amazon, HBO, and Newsmax to offer our users high-quality, independent international content and news. We are extremely proud of these valuable transatlantic partnerships, built on trust and a shared vision of strengthening the ties between our regions," he said.

"In the last five years, we invested more than $150 million in our content production, and we have more than 100 original titles. W have international distribution, and we are actually offering our content in more than 30 countries. You have our content also on Amazon, Disney+, and all those platforms.” Lucic stated.

"We Embraced AI Instead of Fearing It"

He added that innovation has great potential to accelerate and expand our capacity for communication, knowledge exchange, culture, and experience across borders.

"Innovation is also important in our strategy, and artificial intelligence will change our life. It will change our business. We believe, for example, that in the future, production of movies, TV series, and sport broadcasting will use artificial intelligence in a way that we cannot even imagine today," said Lucic.

He noted that Telekom Serbia has started integrating AI into its contact centers.

"Internally, we started implementing artificial intelligence in the contact centers because, from the research made in the U. S., what we see is that customer satisfaction improves by 67% if the first line of support is made by artificial intelligence. Also, we are now starting to implement artificial intelligence to optimize our network and data management system. To support this, we are hiring 50 experts this year in artificial intelligence. We plan to grow and to hire, actually, in four years, 500 experts who will only do artificial intelligence projects,” Lucic emphasized.

He added that Telekom’s operations also support innovative startups in Serbia through TS Ventures, the company’s venture capital fund.

"Right now, we are financing and we are connected to 20 startups. Nine of them are based on artificial intelligence services, and six of them, all the national prediction is that six of them, they have the potential to be the first Serbian unicorn,” he said.

Launch of a New Service in the U.S.

Finally, Lucic said, all this progress has enabled Telekom to intensify the implementation of its strategic plans for growth and transatlantic cooperation.

"And last, but not least, all that progress that was made thanks to those partnerships, has been used to expand our network, to expand our operations, and I'm really excited to announce that we will open our mobile network also in the U.S. So, as part of our vision to grow beyond our borders, we want to reach our region of diaspora in America. To achieve this, we will offer mobile telephony services, media content, digital services, developing cooperation with our very partners and world leader, Vodafone, and using AT&T network.," Lucic said.

He expressed hope that Telekom’s entry into the American market will create new and valuable opportunities for further collaboration and partnership between Serbia and American organizations and companies.

"On behalf of Telekom Serbia, I'm honored to share how cooperation and partnership have benefited our business and improved our transatlantic relations, and we're also looking forward to sharing a bright future where we will all enjoy and benefit from increased cooperation, innovation, and transatlantic unity," concluded Vladimir Lucic.

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