Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'VimpelCom'

Megafon totals subscriber base to 42.32Mn, adds maximum subscribers in Oct (Russia)

  • November 20th, 2008
  • 10:52 am

Megafon continues to grow in the Russian mobile market in the month of October by adding 960,894 new subscribers. Megafon, country’s third largest operator, is competing closely with Vimpelcom, which stood at 45.88 million, 31.7% of total net addition. Megafon’s net additions counts to 38.7% share of Russia’s total net additions and totalled its subscriber base to 42.32 million. MTS lagged behind its rivals in terms of new additions, claiming just 19.4% with a subscriber base of 62.36 million in October, causing a threat to its number one position. Russia ended October with just over 182 million mobile subscribers, up from 179.54 million at the end of September.
   

AIRCOM signs up to GTEL-Mobile launch in Vietnam

  • November 18th, 2008
  • 6:04 am

GTEL-Mobile, Vietnam’s newest GSM operator, backed by Russia’s VimpelCom, has signed a deal with independent network planning and optimisation consultancy AIRCOM International, that allows GTEL-Mobile to meet its ambitious rollout plans.
GTEL-Mobile has awarded the contract to AIRCOM after a competitive tender. It will see AIRCOM provide network management services for the Phase 1 of GSM network rollout, including technical support for site acquisition activities, radio network planning and modeling, and associated training services.
Commenting on the news Alexey Blyumin, Chief Executive Officer at GTEL-Mobile, said, “As the newest operator in this highly competitive market, we need to focus all our efforts on a rapid and efficient rollout to ensure we build strong customer relationships from the first day of commercial service. We will leverage AIRCOM’s worldwide expertise in mobile networks planning and the organisation’s experience.”
“Vietnam is an incredibly vibrant market and we are delighted to be working closely with GTEL-Mobile to help achieve their business objectives,” said Nick Brown, Managing Director, Asia Pacific at AIRCOM International. “Our range of services is designed to help mobile operators make the most efficient use of both their capital and operational expenditure. Working with GTEL-Mobile from the beginning of their network design is a terrific opportunity to ensure the new network is designed to maximise return on investment from day one.”
GTEL-Mobile is scheduled to launch commercial GSM services at 1800 Mhz in the first half of next year.

About AIRCOM International

AIRCOM is an independent provider of network and data management tools and services. The company specialises in end-to-end network planning, sharing, outsourcing and OSS optimisation for IP and cellular networks.
Headquartered in the UK with offices in 18 countries, AIRCOM has more than 10 years’ experience across 131 countries for over half the world’s mobile operators, including more than 3.5 million man hours working on 3G networks alone. Every day 19 out of the 20 top global operators depend upon AIRCOM’s tools and consultants to improve the coverage and customer experience for more than 1.1 billion subscribers.
AIRCOM continues to grow its customer base each year, offering advice, training and support services, backed by high performance tools designed to deliver real benefits for both subscribers and operators.
www.aircominternational.com

About GTEL-Mobile
GTEL-Mobile Vietnam will offer mobile services in Vietnam on GSM 1800 Mhz. GTEL-Mobile is a joint venture between VimpelCom of Russia and two Vietnamese State owned companies GTEL and GTEL TSC.

About GTEL
GTEL is a state-owned Global Telecommunications Corporation. GTEL has plans to provide different telecommunication and IT solutions in Vietnam such as : fixed and mobile phone, value-added services, broadband Internet, information and network security services, software, etc.

About VimpelCom
The VimpelCom Group consists of telecommunications operators providing voice and data services through a range of wireless, fixed and broadband technologies. The Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia, in territories with a total population of about 340 million. The Group companies provide services under the “Beeline” brand. In July 2008 VimpelComsigned a joint venture agreement to launch a GSM network in Vietnam and acquired a 90% stake in Sotelco, a company holding aGSM license for Cambodia.
www.vimpelcom.com

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.
www.wirelessfederation.com

Russia’s mobile penetration reaches 123.7%

  • October 20th, 2008
  • 5:11 am

Russia’s mobile subscriber base reaches to 179.54m SIM cards in September, a rise of 1.26% since August. The subscriber base of the leading Russian mobile operator reached 91.731m SIM cards, experiencing a rise of 0.38%, whereas Vimpelcom totalled it’s base to 57.732m, an expansion of 2.04%, followed by MegaFon with 41.549m SIM cards, a rise of 1.95%.
The Russian mobile penetration reached 123.7% as on September-end.

   

Telenor on the brink of swap deal with Alfa (Norway, Ukraine)

  • October 7th, 2008
  • 1:13 pm

Telenor is very near to an asset swap deal with its Russian investment partner and regular courtroom opponent Alfa Group, which would see Alfa receive a 5% stake in Telenor, media reported. This deal would also involve Alfa handing over its subsidiary Storm’s entire 43.5% stake in Ukraine’s mobile market leader Kyivstar to Telenor, which would in turn transfer around 12% of its 29.9% voting shares in Russian cellco Vimpelcom to Alfa; Kyivstar is currently majority controlled by Telenor, while Alfa is the dominant shareholder in Vimpelcom. 5% stake in telenor woulb be handed  to Alfa’s telecoms arm Altimo by the Norwegian government. Presently it has 54% interest in the multinational fixed line, mobile and broadband operator.

iPhone sales in Russia will start from Oct 3 (Russia)

  • September 29th, 2008
  • 6:28 am

iPhone will home Russia on October 3 and it is anticipated that 150,000 units could be sold by the year end. Nadezhda Senyuk, a PR director at retail chain Tekhnosila, said, all retailers will begin sales of iPhone in Russia at the same time, during the night between October 2 and October 3.

8 gigabytes-22,999 roubles ($923.6)
16 gigabytes - 26,999 roubles ($1,084)

Russian mobile phone operator will charge the same price for the iPhone, without a contract. MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon are now taking advance orders as they have earlier reached a distribution deal with Apple.

GTEL-Mobile receives GSM concession & associated frequencies (Vietnam)

  • September 26th, 2008
  • 5:29 am

Vimpelcom discloses that its 40% owned Vietnamese subsidiary GTEL-Mobile has received a GSM concession and associated frequencies. According to CEO of Vimpelcom,  the registration of GTEL-Mobile and the receipt of the GSM licence and frequencies is the key milestone in the building of our Vietnamese business. With this we have crossed the major hurdle now we can focus all our efforts on the network launch and the preparation of the commercial launch, he added.

Vimpelcom recieves a mobile licence in Vietnam, plans an investment of $1 billion (Vietnam, Russia)

  • September 25th, 2008
  • 5:24 am

Russia’s second largest mobile operator, Vimpelcom, reportedly, recieves a mobile licence in Vietnam. This licence will a be a venture between the Vietnam’s government and Vimpelcom. The Gtel venture, as it is named, will be providing GSM-technology services and will be building telecoms infrastructure. Vimpelcom will invest up to $1 billion in the venture that may become the centre of its Asian operations.
Vietnamese mobile market has a larger number of GSM operators and subscribers as well, in comparison to the CDMA business.

   

Astelit takes over Vimpelcom and MTS with 60% of total subscriber addition in Ukraine (Russia)

  • September 19th, 2008
  • 6:18 am

The mobile subscribers in Russia reaches 177.3 million with the end of August, a rise of 13.6 million from last year and an addition of 1.6 million in the month of August. The penetration has been huge and has crossed 122%, based on the reponse from the major cities. There were 174 SIM cards in use per 100 population in Moscow at the end of last month and 159 in St Petersburg, showing a new trend in penetration.
With all the additions in Moscow, the leading operator MTS posted a negative growth for the month of August, with a falling subscriber base, from 61.86 million to 61.48 million. Though it still retained it’s top position with 34.7% market share.
Megafon had performed strongly in August, with the total market share of 22.4%. Its subscriber base rose to 40.57 million from 39.72 million.
Vimpelcom, claims 43.8% of new additions, taking its subscriber base to 44.26 million and its market share to 24.4%.
The country’s top two operators MTS and Vimpelcom posted slow growth in Ukraine and the number three player, Astelit, took over with 60% of the total subscribers added. It’s subscriber base rose to 10.58 million with the market share of 19%.
Vimpelcom added just over 100,000 subscribers in August, to boost its subscriber base to 2.37 million, but with a market share of 4.2%.
Kyivstar and number two operator MTS added around 10,000 and 2,500 subscribers respectively, with the Ukraine’s total subscriber base moving to 55.72 million from 55.31 million in July. Penetration stood at 120.6%.

   

Vimpelcom to appoint eight banks for arranging a syndicated loan of $1 billion (Russia)

  • September 12th, 2008
  • 10:45 am

Vimpelcom, the Russian mobile phone operator, plans to appoint eight banks to arrange for a three year syndicated loan of $1 billion.
Barclays, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Commerzbank, SMBC, Standard Bank and WestLB are the one’s expected to be appointed as arrangers by next week.The loan, which will be used for general corporate purposes, will launch to syndication later in September.

   

VimpelCom plans no subsidy for the Apple iPhone (Russia)

  • September 9th, 2008
  • 7:02 am

VimpelCom, Russia, has no plans of subsidizing Apple iPhone, which will be sold by the carrier by the end of this year.
“We are in principle considering no subsidies for the time being as Russian law does not allow locking mobile phones,” stated Alexander Izosimov, Vimpelcom’s chief executive officer.
In Russia, this system won’t work, where nearly half a million of people already own an iPhone which right now is being sold in the grey market.
“The earlier we start working with it, the better we will be prepared. It is not technologies that will change, but the business model,” Izosimov said.
“Our research shows that when the iPhone falls into the hands of a customer, the use of data services increases by four to five times,” he added.