Bosnia & Herzegovina

Geographic Region (ITU/UN)

ISO 3166 Code

BA

M49 Code

070

MCC

218

ITU Member

Yes

ITU-R Region

Overview

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina (BiH) / Боснa и Херцеговина (БиХ), is a country in Southeastern Europe located on the Balkan Peninsula. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city. Bordered by Croatia to the north, and west; Serbia to the east; Montenegro to the southeast; and the Adriatic Sea to the south.

Regulation of the telecommunications market in Bosnia and Herzegovina falls within the competence of the Communications Regulatory Agency and is based on the Law on Communications (Official Gazette of BiH. No. 31/03, 75/06, 32/10 and 98/12), Telecommunications Sector Policy and the by-laws. The existing BiH regulatory framework is based on the EU regulatory framework, and characterised by a constant monitoring and analysis of the telecommunications market, as well as by passing of the required regulatory acts, with the aim of its permanent development, both in terms of the services number increase and marketing and technical innovations.

The telecommunications market in BiH was liberalised in the early 2006 and, at the end of 2014, in this market there were operating:

  • Three significant market power operators (SMP). According to the List of the operators (“Official Gazette of BiH“, no. 73/12) Mtel a.d. Banja Luka, BH Telekom d.d. Sarajevo and HT d.o.o. Mostar have been declared the significant market power operators in the fixed and mobile telephony and leased lines market respectively;
  • 13 holders of the license for providing public fixed telephone services;
  • 85 holders of the license for performing the activities of the public electronic communication networks operator;
  • 71 holders of the license for providing the Internet access.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, three operators hold the License for GSM Services: Telekom Srpske a.d. Banja Luka, BH Telecom d.d. Sarajevo, and Hrvatske telekomunikacije d.d. Mostar.

The operators, registered as providers of mobile public telephony services, which provide mobile telephony services on the basis of commercial agreements with holders of Licenses for GSM and UMTS services are: Izi Mobil d.o.o. Sarajevo (on 15/11/2016 ceased the provision of mobile services in BiH), Blic.Net d.o.o. Banja Luka, Logosoft d.o.o. Sarajevo, ELTAKABEL d.o.o. Doboj and TELRAD NET d.o.o. Bijeljina.

While 3G UMTS coverage is almost complete in terms of population, mobile broadband penetration is below the European and global average. This can be explained by a relatively low level of competition within each respective regional market as well as relatively high prices for mobile broadband services. According to latest ITU data (June 2017) 3G mobile coverage reaches 96% of the population, however no 4G LTE services are available.

Bosnia & Herzegovina is a member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and as such follows radio frequency harmonisation principles according to ITU-R Region-1. The regulatory body governing communications policy is the Ministry of Communications and Transport, and the Communications Regulatory Agency (RAK) is charged with regulating the country's radio frequency spectrum activities such as planning, allocations, and licencing.