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VimpelCom Calls Vietnam
VimpelCom disclosed the details of its project in Vietnam yesterday. It has struck a deal with Global Telecommunications Corp., or Gtel, controlled by the Vietnamese Security Ministry, to launch Gtel-Mobile’s network in the summer of 2009 and have a subscriber base of 15-20 million within five years. VimpelCom will receive 40 percent of Gtel-Mobile. Gtel will have 51 percent, and a subsidiary will have 9 percent. VimpelCom general director Alexander Isozimov said that VimpelCom may raise its share to 49 percent in the future. So far, foreigners are not allowed to own a large package in the company.
The American company Millennium Global Solutions Group was supposed to participate in the project as well, but the Vietnamese ministry insisted that only two countries be involved. VimpelCom and Gtel will both have three representatives on the Gtel-Mobile board of directors. The general director of Gtel-Mobile will be Alexey Blyumin.
There are three Vietnamese cellular operators on the GSM standard (VinaPhone, MobiFone and Viettel) and three operators on the CDMA standard (S-Fone, E-Mobil and Hanoi Telecom). According to Business Monitor International, there were 35.8 million cellular subscribers in Vietnam at the end of last year. That is 41-percent penetration. Business Monitor International predicts that the country will reach 100-percent penetration in 2011 and have a subscriber base of 110 million people.
Gtel-Mobil expects to receive permission within two or three months to build a GSM-900/1800 standard network that will be launched next year. The partners will jointly invest $1.8 billion (although previously they had planned on $1 billion). The board of directors of VimpelCom recently approved the purchase of 90 percent of the Cambodian cellular operator Sotelco from Altimo, the manager of the cellular assets of Alfa Group and owner of 44 percent of VimpelCom. Isozimov has also stated that Laos and Burma are also markets of interest to VimpelCom.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 09, 2008
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