MTN Cyprus

Company Overview

MTN Cyprus is one of the largest mobile networks operating in Cyprus.  MTN launched its commercial operations in Cyprus in July 2004, after having successfully won the auction for the second mobile license. Its license covers the use of both GSM and UMTS radio frequencies for the provision of integrated mobile services. MTN became the new brand name of the company in September 2007, following the acquisition of its mother company Investcom LLC by MTN Group.

In October 2008 Amaracos Holding (a company owned by Shacolas Group and Panos Germanos) acquired 49% of MTN Cyprus’ share capital. Through this acquisition MTN Cyprus obtained 100% of Infotel Ltd (Germanos retail chain), and 100% of Otenet Telecommunications, a fixed telephony and internet service provider in Cyprus. Amaracos Holding’s share capital was later increased to 50%, a percentage owned by Amaracos Holding until 2013.

In February 2013, MTN Group announced the agreement with Amaracos Holding for acquiring Amaracos Holding’s 50% share capital, resulting in MTN Group holding 100% of the company's share capital.

MTN Group offloaded its Cypriot business unit to Monaco Telecom in September 2018 as part of a geographical consolidation strategy. It was announced MTN branding would remain until 2021.

MTN provides 2G GSM services over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, and launched 3G UMTS services over B1 (2100 MHz) in March 2008. 4G LTE was launched over B3 (1800 MHz) in March 2015. A government spectrum auction in June 2016 saw MTN secure paired 20 MHz of B7 (2600 MHz), paired 10 MHz of B20 (800 MHz), and 15 MHz of B38 (2600 MHz) TDD spectrum.

MTN Cyprus announced it had since deployed 4.5G LTE-A in a November 2018 press conference, with two additional LTE bands B7 (2600 MHz) and B20 (800 MHz), supporting all 2C aggregation permutations.

MTN Cyprus 5G

In February 2019 the company announced that it would begin developing its 5G in collaboration with Huawei. MTN Cyprus was awarded a 5G testing licence by the Cypriot Department of Electronic Communications in April 2019, which permitted the company to test networks over the 3400 to 3800 MHz band (n78) until November 2019.