Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has acquired Wireless Information Technologies (BIT), which holds GSM-900 licenses in four remote regions of Russia: Sakhalin Oblast, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and the republics of Tuva and Kalmykia. The parties to the deal do not hide the fact that BIT was initially a "paper" company created for subsequent resale to a strong operator.

A symbolic sum of $900,000 was paid for BIT by MTS standards. The seller was the offshore Popat Holdings Limited, behind which stands a certain Moscow company, Modern Telecommunications. Its CEO, Sergei Solomasov, confirmed that this company was the 100% owner of BIT. BIT was founded in 2000. Having received a GSM-900 license for Kalmykia, a year later, in August 2001, the company added three more cellular licenses: for Sakhalin, Tuva, and Chukotka. BIT declared the start of providing services in Kalmykia in the fourth quarter of 2001, and in the other regions - in the first and second quarters of 2002. However, it is no secret that BIT was initially created for the purpose of subsequent resale. According to MTS press secretary Eva Prokofieva, BIT has not built networks in any of these regions and has not even selected equipment suppliers.

The story with the BIT company is as similar as two peas in a pod to the story with OOO "Traffic". This structure, created by the Moscow consulting firm "Svyaz-Consult", applied for GSM-1800 frequencies in Moscow and the Moscow region, after which in July 2002 60% of "Traffic" were sold to the Samara mobile operator SMARTS. The Samara residents were not even embarrassed by the fact that "Traffic" had already received a refusal from the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) in March 2002 to allocate frequencies in the 1800 MHz range in Moscow and the Moscow region. Specialists from the Main Radio Frequency Center (GRFC) explained the refusal by the fact that all available frequency resources had already been allocated. Now "Traffic" and the shareholders of SMARTS are trying to prove in court the right to become the fourth Moscow GSM operator.

BIT is the same "paper" structure. According to the director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Main Radio Frequency Center" (GRChTs) Andrey Beskorovayny, in 2001 BIT received positive conclusions on the availability of frequencies in the 900 MHz range in four regions and did not even register the licenses obtained on the basis of this conclusion with GRChTs. However, BIT, unlike "Traffic", has GSM licenses.

MTS has reached the outskirts