SOFIA (WiMAX Day). Mobitel has announced that it is deploying WiMAX in the Bulgarian cities of Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv. This is a surprising move for Mobitel, the largest GSM provider in Bulgaria, and part of the Mobilkom Austria Group, the wireless segment of Telekom Austria. Last year Mobitel began to operate a UMTS service in Bulgaria, and in March 2006 they introduced 3G services using mobile data access over HSDPA. Mobitel perhaps fears competition from other companies in Bulgaria that are planning WiMAX deployments. The most likely competitor for Mobitel is Max Telecom, which has stated that they plan to roll out a national network in 2007 based on the mobile 802.16e standard.