Russia's MegaFon Launches Roaming in Chechnya

MOSCOW, Mar 9 (Prime-Tass) -- Mobicom-Kavkaz, a subsidiary of Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon, has launched roaming services in the constituent republic of Chechnya, Mobicom-Kavkaz said Friday.

Roaming is available to all MegaFon users in nine regions in the Southern Federal District covered by Mobicom-Kavkaz, the company said.

Previously, MegaFon subscribers coming to Chechnya had to buy a SIM card active only in the constituent republic. However, users from Chechnya did not have to switch SIM cards when they went out of the republic, a spokesperson with MegaFon said.

Mobicom-Kavkaz also said it had launched a high-speed data transfer service based on the EDGE technology in Chechnya. The service allows users to access Internet from their mobile phones and exchange MMS at a speed of up to 384 kilobits per second.

MegaFon is currently the only wireless operator in the politically unstable North Caucasian republic and provides services to about 300,000 subscribers.

Mobicom-Kavkaz provides mobile services to more than 4 million people in the Southern Federal District.

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Posted to the site on 9th March 2007