| The Swedes want to compete in St. Petersburg with MTS and Megafon In St. Petersburg, plans were announced to build a third GSM network this year. The investor will be the Swedish holding Tele2 AB, the owner of St. Petersburg Telecom, which provides cellular services in the analog AMPS/NAMPS standard to 43 thousand subscribers under the FORA Communications brand. It is this company, according to its owner, that should become the third GSM operator in the northern capital and get ahead of VimpelCom in this race, which also expects to receive a third GSM license for St. Petersburg.
The FORA company, founded 10 years ago, has been talking about the rapid “digitalization” of the network for at least the last five years. Discussions reached a new level after FORA, along with other Russian cellular assets of Millicom International Cellular, was acquired by Tele2 in the fall of 2001. Lately there have been persistent rumors that FORA will be sold to VimpelCom.
These rumors were recently denied by Tele2 AB's executive vice president for the Baltic countries, Russia and Eastern Europe, Jonni Svedberg. According to him, “FORA Communications is one of the main Russian assets of Tele2,” and there is no talk of selling it to VimpelCom or anyone else. “We consider this company one of the most important investments and are not going to sell it - on the contrary, we intend to develop it by creating a third GSM network in St. Petersburg on this basis,” said Mr. Svedberg.
Now in St. Petersburg, two GSM operators account for about 1.1 million people. North-West GSM, which is part of the all-Russian Megafon project and has remained a monopolist of the digital standard for seven years, serves 880 thousand subscribers. MTS, which began building the network three months ago, has a little more than 200 thousand subscribers. Delta Telecom is preparing to compete with them - this analog operator plans to begin commercial operation of a third-generation digital network by the end of the year. However, according to analysts' calculations, there are approximately 2 million potential cellular customers in St. Petersburg, so Tele2 needs to hurry to compete for the remaining million people.
As Yulia Musatova, FORA's marketing director, told a Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent, in the summer of 2001 the company submitted documents to the Ministry of Communications to obtain a license to provide communication services in the GSM-1800 standard. She recalled that the memorandum, which was signed last year between the Ministry of Communications and the 800 Association, which unites Russian operators of the AMPS standard, assumes that all AMPS operators in Russia will receive such licenses. And the president of the Tele2 representative office in Russia, Yuri Dombrovsky, expects that the GSM-1800 license will be issued to FORA Communications within the next two months.
As Ms. Musatova explained, it is too early to talk about network parameters and investment volumes - these figures will be approved by the company's board of directors after receiving a license. The interlocutor expressed hope that construction of the network will most likely begin this year. Jonny Svedberg limited himself to a statement that Tele2 AB is ready for large-scale investments in FORA Communications immediately after it receives a GSM-1800 license.
Meanwhile, preparations for the construction of the third GSM network in St. Petersburg have already begun. Tele2 must have no doubts about obtaining a license - otherwise the Swedish holding would not have held a tender for the supply of equipment for St. Petersburg. Its results will be announced in the coming months, most likely immediately after obtaining a license. Mr. Svedberg promised: “Over time, all our Russian subsidiaries, including FORA Communications, will operate under the single Tele2 brand.” Victor MATVEEV, St. Petersburg |
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