Russia's MegaFon to Launch Services in 3 Regions by Year-end

MOSCOW, July 18 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia?s third largest mobile operator MegaFon plans to launch its services in three more Russian regions by the end of the year, the operator said in a press release Tuesday.

Megafon's network in the Altai Region and the constituent republic of Khakasia is expected to be launched sometime before October, while the company's network in the Omsk Region is expected to be launched sometime in October-December, MegaFon said.

MegaFon plans to launch over 100 base stations in each region at the start of operations, the company said, adding that each region would have its own switchboard. MegaFon plans to use Chinese company Huawei?s equipment for the networks.

MegaFon said that it planned to increase the number of base stations in the Siberian Federal District to over 800 by the end of the year from over 600 as of now, and to increase the number of switchboards to nine from six.

MegaFon, along with its subsidiaries, is the only mobile phone operator licensed to provide services across the whole of Russia.

MegaFon?s total subscriber base in Russia amounted to 25.928 million users as of June 31, according to Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M).

End"

Posted to the site on 19th July 2006