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 Все новости от 28 мая 2001 г.
MTS spends $50 million to enter mobile market in Northwest Russia
Mobile TeleSystems has announced that it has acquired 100 percent of shares
of Telecom XXI, a St. Petersburg-based GSM-900/1800 operator. The deal is
valued at $50 million. Telecom XXI will now be responsible for the
development of a dual-mode cellular network in St. Petersburg, its region,
regional centers of the Northwest region, and along automobile roads, and it
will eventually be offering mobile telephony services under the MTS
trademark. By the end of this year, Telecom XXI will install in St.
Petersburg and its suburbs 120 base stations and connect them to a new
switch for 100,000 lines. Another 20-40 base stations are to be installed in
other large cities of the region. The new MTS subsidiary will also be
involved in the creation of radio relay and wire lines, which will
interconnect the base stations. MTS has not chosen a hardware supplier for
Telecom XXI yet. Such a supplier is expected to be announced early in June.
The new network should be put into commercial operation late this year. MTS
plans also call for the creation in St. Petersburg of the same service
infrastructure as it has in Moscow, including a call center and a customer
care center. To implement the above-mentioned plans MTS intends to invest
about $80 million.
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