MOSCOW-Russian Communications Minister Leonid Reiman promised to grant nationwide GSM licenses to three major carriers-Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Vimpelcom (BeeLine) and MegaFon.
The news is important for the first two carriers, which have not received any regional licenses since 1998 and have expanded to provinces by purchasing local operators. In contrast to MTS and BeeLine, MegaFon is already a de-jure nationwide carrier, as it holds licenses for all 89 Russian regions. However, it is not operating in many territories so far.
“These three carriers currently have a set of licenses close to a 100-percent coverage of the Russian territory. In principle, there are no restrictions on expanding the set to 100 percent. They can apply (for lacking licenses). We are ready to support all the three companies,” Reiman said.
MTS, which is the biggest Russian carrier, lacks licenses in the Volga area, some southern regions, Siberia and the Far East. Second-biggest carrier Vimpelcom needs licenses for the northwest of the country, the Far East and most of the Urals.
Reiman believes one to two nationwide carriers may join the current “troika” in the future. “That is a question of mergers and acquisitions, a complicated, but very important question,” as competition helps decrease prices and raise the quality of services, he said. “We welcome that,” the minister added.
So far, Accord-Tel Company announced plans to launch a nationwide cdma2000 network. Swedish operator Tele2 also nourishes pan-Russian plans.
