T-Post, Bulgaria's first private postal operator, has opened its first customer center half a year after securing a licence to provide a universal postal service.

The business launch was slightly delayed because the telecom regulator approved the T-Post price tariffs only a month ago, said Lachezar Kaparashev, board chairman of express delivery company Tip Top Courier which owns the T-Post trademark.

T-Post invested 0.5 mln levs in the new office which opened in Sofia's Mladost residential district.
Another postal station will open in the capital's Nadezhda borough within the next two months.
Some 20 rollouts are planned for 2007 with locations in Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad and Sliven.

Kaparashev said the first phase of the company's development should conclude in late 2008 when it should have a network of offices in 48 population centers.
T-Post handles mail and parcel shipments of up to 2 kg, catalogues and money wires.

The newly minted postal operators like T-Post are allowed to handle mail consignments weighing less than 51 g but are unable to offer prices cheaper than 1.37 levs per letter. That will happen after the state-owned Bulgarian Posts loses its monopoly in January 2009.(Dnevnik)