Russian Court: Regulator Must Mull VimpelCom's Frequency Application

MOSCOW, Sep 19 (Prime-Tass) -- The Moscow Arbitration Court ruled Tuesday that Russia's State Radio Frequency Commission has to consider an application filed by the country's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom to get frequencies for the Far Eastern Federal District.

The court upheld the operator's case against the commission and the IT and Telecommunications Ministry. The court ruled that the commission has to consider VimpelCom's application within 14 days after the ruling.

VimpelCom filed a lawsuit in July following the commission's failure to consider the company's application to get a license for frequencies in Russia's Far Eastern Federal District. VimpelCom filed the application in September 2005.

VimpelCom has sought to expand its operations to all 13 regions of the Far Eastern Federal District. Currently, the company is only present in four regions of the federal district, which has a population of about 6 million people.

VimpelCom's key rivals, mobile operators MTS and MegaFon, have licenses to operate in all regions of the district.

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Posted to the site on 19th September 2006