Gibtelecom

The first telephones were introduced to Gibraltar in 1886 by a private company which was later taken over by the colonial authorities. Since 1926, the telephone service was operated by the City Council. Upon the approval of the 1969 Constitution and the dissolution of the City Council, the telephone service was transferred to the newly formed Government of Gibraltar. Until 1990, all telephone services were operated by the Gibraltar Government Telephone Department. International circuits were provided by Cable & Wireless, which had been founded as the Falmouth, Malta, Gibraltar Telegraph Company in 1869. This later operated as the Eastern Telegraph Company from Mount Pleasant in Gibraltar. However, Cable & Wireless left Gibraltar in 1987. On 1 January 1988, British Telecom (BT) and the Government of Gibraltar formed a joint venture company called Gibraltar Telecommunications International Ltd (known by its commercial brand Gibtel) to operate Gibraltar's international telecommunications services. Gibtel was subsequently granted a licence to offer mobile telephony introducing a GSM900 network.

In 1990, the Government decided to privatise its Telephone Department and therefore entered into a joint venture with Nynex of the United States. Gibraltar Nynex Communications Ltd (GNC) became responsible for fixed-line telephony. GNC was the first acquisition of Nynex outside the Americas. In 1997, GNC, through its wholly owned subsidiary, GNC Networks, commenced Internet services. GNC Networks was later renamed GibConnect. ADSL services were introduced in 2002.

In 2001, BT sold its 50% stake in Gibtel to GNC. Both companies subsequently merged to form Gibtelecom, a joint venture between the Government of Gibraltar and Nynex's successor company, Verizon. The name Gibtelecom begun to be used in July 2002, and as of 1 October 2003 this name was formally adopted by the company (which up until then was still Gibraltar Nynex Communications). In April 2007, Verizon sold its shares to Telekom Slovenije which is the incumbent part-state owned telecommunications operator in Slovenia and is quoted on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. Telekom Slovenije paid €36.7m for Verizon's 50 per cent stake in Gibtelecom.

In 2009, the Government of Gibraltar announced it may sell its stake in Gibtelecom. However, as of August 2020, no decision has been made.

In 2015, the 50 per cent share of Gibtelecom owned by Telecom Slovenia Was bought by Gibraltar Savings Bank, which now owns 100 per cent of the shares in the company.

GibTelecom Provides the following services from the following networks as of 2020 January.

VDSL2 Network

GibTelecom uses the existing copper network to provide broadband services up to 100 Mbps/30 Mbps speeds.

FTTP Network