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Hofer to enter Austrian mobile market

Austrian discount supermarket Hofer, the Austrian arm of German giant Aldi Süd, will start offering mobile telecoms services early next year, according to a report in Der Standard newspaper.

Published: 23 September 2014 11:49 CEST
Hofer to enter Austrian mobile market
Hofer shopping trolleys. File photo: APA

Hofer will use T-Mobile Austria's network, Der Standard said on its website, citing a company insider.

A Hofer spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

T-Mobile Austria, part of Deutsche Telekom, said this month that it expected new entrants on the mobile market to emerge in January.

Hutchison Whampoa unit Drei Austria has to offer wholesale access to its network to up to 16 mobile virtual network operators – which use another company's network to offer telecoms services – as a regulatory condition in its acquisition of Orange Austria last year.

Renting out infrastructure to newcomers in the mobile telecoms market enhances competition but can also bring in additional income for existing providers. Der Standard writes that the authorities in Brussels are keen to stimulate competition and keep prices low for consumers, but that so far this hasn’t worked – with Austrians complaining of rising tarifs and fees.

Internet provider UPC, owned by Liberty Global, also plans to offer mobile phone services using Drei's infrastructure.

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BUSINESS

Where are Austria’s big international companies located?

Austria's most prominent international companies are involved in banking, insurance, and construction projects worldwide, many but are they all found in Vienna?

Published: 1 December 2023 11:33 CET
Where are Austria's big international companies located?

Here’s where each of the ten largest companies in Austria, by revenue generated last year, are located, both within Vienna and outside of the capital.

One of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest insurance firms, the Vienna Insurance Group is headquartered in the capital. Their main offices are directly north of the Innere Stadt on Schottenring, close to the Rossau district.

A fellow insurance firm, the Uniqa Group, is located close by. Owning over fifteen significant insurance providers across Europe, they are market leaders alongside Vienna Insurance Group. Their headquarters can be found in the eponymous Uniqa Tower, on Ferdinandstraße close to the Karmeliterviertel.

Erste Group, one of the continent’s biggest providers of financial services, was founded just over two hundred years ago in Leopoldstadt, a suburb adjoining Vienna’s centre to the east. Today, the group is headquartered in the Erste Campus, less than a five-minute walk from Vienna’s central train station.

Founded in the fifties, OMV is the country’s largest oil and gas company. The company owns three European refineries, including one at Schwechat in Lower Austria, near the capital. The company is based in the Hoch Zwei building in the Second District, near the banks of the Danube.

Construction company Strabag, responsible for massive infrastructure projects across Europe and South East Asia, is located across the Danube from OMW, near the Austria Centre and the expansive Donaupark.

Banking giant Raiffeisen International is headquartered in the Weissgerberviertel, north of Vienna’s city centre. Other divisions, including their software development teams, are based throughout the city centre.

Construction company Porr Group, which has many subsidiaries in Austria and involvement in significant railway building projects throughout Europe, has headquarters in Vienna’s south, five kilometres away, in the Favoriten district.

Verbund AG, Austria’s largest energy provider, can also be found outside Vienna’s centre. It is based to the south-west, close to the Mariahilf district and the city’s Westbahnhof, or western train station.

Steel and technology group Voestalpine is located away from Vienna in Linz, Upper Austria, roughly equidistant between Salzburg and Vienna. The company’s headquarters can be found between the Spallerhof district and the Industriegebeit, or industrial area.

Finally, international metals and technology firm Andritz AG is also based outside Vienna, in Graz in Styria. Their headquarters is some distance from the city centre, in the district which gave the company its name: Graz-Andritz.

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