Kazakhstan-GSM 2004 Phone Users +82% On Year To 1.7 Mln

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Dow Jones)--Kazakhstan's largest mobile operator GSM-Kazakhstan said Wednesday that customer numbers jumped 82% on year to 1.7 million in 2004.

GSM-Kazakhstan a joint venture between Scandinavia's TeliaSonera AB (TLSN), Turkey's Turkcell (TKC) and Kazakhstan's state-owned Kazakhtelecom (KZTK.KZ).

GSM-Kazakhstan, which operates under the brands K-Cell and Active, said that, to achieve growth, it doubled the amount of transmitters in 2004 and extended coverage to 83 cities.

It also launched new services such as Multimedia Messaging, and Enhanced Data GSM Environment, or EDGE, which enables some third-generation services.

Kazakhstan-GSM's main competitor, Kar-Tel, 100%-owned by Russia's OAO Vimpel Communications (VIP) had 860,000 users at the end of 2004.

Company Web site: http://www.kcell.kz

-By Zaure Kistauova, Dow Jones Newswires; 7 095 974 8055.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 19th January 2005