VimpelCom to Invest $150 Mln in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, Sep 12 (Prime-Tass) -- Uzbekistan's Unitel, a subsidiary of Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom, has launched the Beeline brand and plans to invest up to US$150 million in network development in 2006-2008, Unitel's General Director Yevgeny Ruban told reporters Tuesday.

Unitel has already invested $30 million this year in the creation of a technology platform for the Beeline brand, Ruban said. Unitel plans to increase the number of base stations to 700 by the end of the year from 519 as of now, he added.

Ruban said that Finnish telecommunications equipment producer Nokia started to supply equipment to Unitel this month. He did not elaborate. Chinese telecom equipment producer Huawei is the other equipment supplier to Unitel.

Unitel also plans to increase its user base to 800,000 by the end of the year and to 2 million by the end of 2007 from about 450,000 as of July 1, Ruban said.

VimpelCom bought 100% in Unitel in January. Unitel is the second largest mobile operator in Uzbekistan with a 26.7% market share as of July 1. Also in January, VimpelCom bought 100% in Uzbekistan's fourth largest mobile operator Buztel, merging the two acquired companies in July.

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Posted to the site on 12th September 2006