Type LLC Revenue 130.6 million EUR (2013) Number of employees 978 | Industry Telecommunication CEO Goran Vasić (1 Jul 2015–) Owner KKR & Co. L.P. Founded 2002 | |
Native name Српске кабловске мреже / Srpske kablovske mreže Key people Dragan Šolak (President)Victoriya Boklag (CEO) Products Cable televisionBroadband internetFixed telephony Profiles | ||
Serbia Broadband (branded as SBB; full legal name: Serbia Broadband - Srpske kablovske mreže d.o.o.) is a cable television and broadband internet service provider in Serbia. A limited liability company, it is registered under the register code 17280554 in the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR).
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In 2006, SBB launched TotalTV, its DTH satellite television platform.
With more than 700,000 customers and with more than 60% of network coverage, it is the dominant provider of broadband internet and cable television in Serbia.
Ownership
In 2007 Serbia Broadband was acquired by Mid Europa Partners, which simultaneously purchased Telemach Slovenia followed by acquiring Telemach Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly afterwards, cable television and broadband internet providers in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, respectively. Mid Europa then created United Group, a subsidiary to control its three new acquisitions in former Yugoslavia, with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) holding a minority stake in the newly created subsidiary. In the case of Serbia Broadband, the owners legally controlled it via the Amsterdam-based Adria Cable B.V.
In October 2013 American private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) purchased the majority stake in United Group from Mid Europa Partners for US$1.3 billion. thus gaining control of Serbia Broadband. Once the new owners took over, they began legally controlling Serbia Broadband through the Amsterdam-based Adria Serbia Holdco B.V.
Criticism
During the majority of its presence on the market SBB has been criticized for lack of service reliability and inadequate customer relationship management practices. A notable example was when on 29 March 2015 a serious system outage occurred at around 11:30 AM CET, leaving most users without the Internet, landline and certain digital television services for hours afterwards. The call centre was immediately clogged with large amount of calls, and the company gave no public information in the following hours. It was not until 4:52 PM that the first official statement was announced on SBB's official Facebook page, and soon afterwards on Twitter. At that time most of the related issues had been fixed. The company did not give an apology for or further explanation of the incident.