MOSCOW-Russia’ second-biggest carrier Vimpelcom (BeeLine) will finally launch in St. Petersburg next week and plans to borrow close to US$100 million in the domestic market for further regional expansion.
Vimpelcom is the last among the “big troika” of national carriers to launch a commercial GSM network in the second-biggest Russian city. Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and Megafon are already occupying more than 60 percent of the local wireless market. According to ACM-Consulting, the penetration level in the region is 38 percent with a total number of clients at 2.38 million people.
Vimpelcom has to work hard to catch up with its major competitors. “We are planning to offer some truly interesting and unexpected surprises in St. Petersburg,” spokesman Mikhail Umarov said, but did not elaborate. He said the carrier plans to have 200,000 subscribers in the area by the end of the year.
The carrier will start with 100 base stations and a switchboard with a capacity of 300,000 clients. The initial investment was close to US$50 million. The network will start operating in the 1800 MHz band, and the 900 MHz technology will be added later.
To finance further regional expansion, Vimpelcom decided to borrow for the first time in the domestic market. It is to place three-year ruble-nominated bonds worth 3 billion Russian rubles (US$95.9 million) in the second quarter of the year. US$50 million is expected to go to St. Petersburg, while the rest is to be invested in the Urals and another 40 regional projects. The issue is underwritten by Raiffeisenbank Austria.
