Over 500,000 subscriber numbers from Bulgaria's national telephone numbering plan have been assigned to telecom start-ups, says the annual report of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC). Half of the new numbers were assigned to subscribers of the new telecoms living in Sofia. Mobile telecom carriers are chipping away at the fixed-line business of BTC, Bulgaria's former telecom monopoly, with the number of landline subscribers of the incumbent falling from 2.85 mln in 2003 to 2.74 mln last year, says the report. Greek-owned wireless telecom carrier Globul is gaining on MobilTel, Bulgaria's dominant wireless telecom operator, while NMT carrier Mobikom is haemorrhaging clients. MobilTel services 3 mln of Bulgaria's 4.6 mln mobile service subscribers for a market share of 64% by end-2004; GloBul has 1.5 mln subscribers for a share of 34%; Mobikom is down to 100,000 clients, says the report. BTC Mobile, the wireless unit of BTC, was licensed to operate as a GSM carrier earlier this year and has 12 months to begin operation. The telecom start-ups licensed to provide fixed-line telephone services are yet to make any real inroads into BTC's fixed-line market dominance. The alternative operators control only 3-4% of the fixed-line market, says the report. Despite a high-profile advertising campaign, BTC had lured only 10,000 ADSL subscribers by end-April. Bulgaria's ADSL market is estimated at 200,000 potential subscribers, says the report.