Court Postpones Regulator's Appeal of VimpelCom Far East License

MOSCOW, Oct 30 (Prime-Tass) -- The Moscow Arbitration Court of Appeals postponed Monday until November 7 an appeal filed by the Federal Service for Communications Oversight against an earlier court ruling forcing the regulator to issue a mobile services license for Russia's Far East to the country's second largest operator VimpelCom.

On August 14, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled that the regulator must issue the license to VimpelCom within 10 days.

VimpelCom has sought to expand its operations to all 13 regions of the Far East Federal District. Currently, the company operates in only 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 the regions of the district. MegaFon is the only operator that has a license covering Russia's entire territory.

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Posted to the site on 30th October 2006