A1 Bulgaria
[2] In 2001, M-Tel (the brand then) launched its prepayment sim cards, which allowed customers to purchase credits prior to calling friends.Since 2005, the company also organizes the strong annual M-Tel Masters chess tournament, which is attended by six of the world's best International Grandmasters.Despite the difficult economic environment affecting the entire IT and Telco industry in Bulgaria, Mobiltel's performance remains stable with a customer base of 5.3 million.In 2011 Mtel created pre-paid service for cheap telephone calls, SMS and mobile Internet Bob, which is available in Austria and Slovenia too.On 15 September 2016, Mtel became the official sponsor of the most successful Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia.As of 2016[update] depending on a viewer's location A1 can offer to IPTV (marketed as interactive television), CATV (former blizoo), HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and fiber internet (up to 1 Gbit/s).After many unsuccessful tries with mobile IPTV, A1 finally made a breakthrough with its latest new service called A1 Xplore TV.