Incumbent operator Telekom Austria this week launched a start-up initiative under its domestic A1 brand. The idea is to select highly skilled individuals with entrepreneurial spirit and leadership potential, who are in the process of starting up a business, and give them the necessary network infrastructure, technical equipment and specialist support to market their business.

Every year, a selected young entrepreneur will be offered the opportunity to use the office facilities, network infrastructure and technical equipment of the Vienna-based A1 office building and will benefit from specialist knowledge in sales and marketing, IT, legal matters and controlling.

The operator began the initial selection process in 2011, and the first entrepreneur to win A1 support is Domagoj Dolinsek with his start-up company DefectRadar, which aims to offer a tablet app for the construction industry.

DefectRadar is designed to support architects and engineers in dealing with the description of defects and faults on construction sites via text, audio or video via one single interface.

Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group, said: “Based on this cooperation model with young and talented entrepreneurs, we hope to instill an innovative spirit also across our company. It is particularly important for telecoms operators, who play a pioneering role, to promote future-proof ideas and leading-edge initiatives.