Translated material
Me, Zimin and Telenor
Joe Lunder spoke about his rights and responsibilities
“VimpelCom General Director Dmitry Zimin will now mainly focus on our development in the regions, on external relations, for example with the government. I will be in charge of the company's business. Therefore, now, if we don’t make a profit, you will know who is to blame for this,” said the president of VimpelCom (Bee Line trademark), Norwegian Joe Lunder, who was appointed to this position at the end of September and yesterday introduced himself for the first time Russian press.Lunder joined the company in September 1999 and until recently served as Director of Operations. Before that, he worked in a subsidiary of the Norwegian operator Telenor, which owns a 25% stake in VimpelCom.
According to Lunder, the changes in management were necessary in order to give him more freedom of action. And rumors that the Norwegian was promoted because of Telenor’s dissatisfaction with Russian management are untrue. “The company is run by one team, which includes me, Zimin and Telenor.”
Now one of the main tasks of VimpelCom is the balance between the company's growth and its profitability; the task of catching up and overtaking Mobile Telesystems (MTS) in terms of the number of subscribers is relegating to the background. Despite this, the president of the company believes that in the next six months they will be able to increase their customer base by 120-150 thousand people monthly.
The second goal is to develop a regional network. First of all, the areas closest to Moscow will be covered, and then other subjects of the federation. Most likely, to develop this line of business, they will create a separate company, part of which will be owned by VimpelCom, part by a strategic investor. Lunder noted that the investor could not be Telenor, but some other company that offered better conditions. With this scheme, “the risks become minimal.”
On the Moscow market, the situation with frequencies in the 900 MHz range still remains unclear. Let us recall that first Gossvyaznadzor sent a letter to MTS and VimpelCom demanding the release of a share of the frequency range, then the Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman sent out letters ordering the suspension of the previous decree. Exercises by officials in the epistolary genre almost halved the value of company shares.
"We still have not received a letter that would definitively cancel the order to withdraw the frequencies, but we hope that we will be able to resolve all the problems," Lunder said yesterday. Otherwise, VimpelCom will have to redesign the existing network. The restructuring may take about six months, during which it will be necessary to build new stations in the 1800 MHz range. “If the company is allowed to redesign the network before the frequency withdrawal decision comes into force, it will not have any impact on limiting the number of subscribers and will not create traffic problems.”
VimpelCom does not intend to make any special investments in its second network - the DAMPS standard - since "the future of the whole world belongs to GSM." But they won’t completely forget about her. Next week the company will celebrate one year since the launch of the Bee Plus box for $49. And in connection with the anniversary, the Nokia 5120 handset will be sold for the same price during the week.