Russian CDMA Operator Sky Link Ups Capital For Investment

MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russian telecommunications operator ZAO Sky Link said late Wednesday it's in the process of issuing new shares in order to raise additional capital for investment.

Sky Link will sell 972 million rubles ($1=RUB28.11) worth of newly issued shares to its existing shareholders, OAO Telecominvest (TCIV.YY) and AFK Sistema (AFK.YY), and use the money to extend its network.

Sky Link operates using the digital mobile technology known as Code Division Multiple Access-450, or CDMA.

Unlike operators who use Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, a leading cellular wireless standard, Sky Link has underperformed its own growth forecasts in 2004 as shareholders preferred to invest in their own GSM assets.

GSM systems are currently more popular with ordinary Russians.

Company Web site: http://www.skylink.ru

-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; 007 095 974 8055; anna.galitsina@dowjones.com

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Posted to the site on 20th January 2005