MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Sitronics, a technology arm of Russia's AFK Sistema, Monday said it plans a joint project with Motorola on setting up networks for mobile phone operators.
Sitronics and Motorola are working on an agreement under which the two companies will jointly design, construct and service mobile phone networks in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Sergei Filipov, spokesman for the financial-industrial group Sistema.
The agreement may be signed in September, Sitronics Deputy Chief Executive Elena Sanarova said.
Filipov said that if the agreement is signed, the joint project may start later this year.
He added that no details of possible investments have yet been discussed by the two companies.
The joint project may allow Motorola access to service contracts which Sistema's telecommunications units Mobile TeleSystems, Comstar United TeleSystems and Sky Link, usually award to Sitronics, he added.
Filipov said Sitronics and Motorola decided to cooperate following last week's announcement by Nokia and Siemens that they were forming a joint venture made up of Nokia's networks business group and the carrier-related operations of Siemens.
That announcement "changes the market environment and gives a new meaning to cooperation between global and local producers," he said.
Company Web site: http://www.sitronics.ru
-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 974 80 55; anna.galitsina@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 26th June 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/17984.php