General Director Sergei Soldatenkov leaves Megafon. What key events in the fate of the mobile operator marked his reign?

Megafon is leaving General Director Sergei Soldatenkov . He worked in this position for over 8 years - several times longer than any other CEO of Megafon’s competitors in the “Big Three” Russian mobile operators. What happened to Megafon during Soldatenkov’s reign and how is it remembered?

Spring 2003 : Soldatenkov becomes general director

When Soldatenkov took over the company, Megafon was called Megafon for only about a year (before the rebranding, the company was cumbersomely called North-West GSM). The operator closed the “big three”, having less than 5 million subscribers.

July 2004 : establishment of a monopoly in Chechnya

Since 2003, Megafon has provided cellular communications in Chechnya to several hundred military personnel and heads of special services. In the summer of 2004, the Russian government allowed civilians to use mobile phones. For several years, this turned Megafon’s subsidiary, the Mobicom-Kavkaz company, into an absolute monopolist in the republic: competitors will not be able to obtain the permits necessary to deploy networks for several years.

Providing services in Chechnya was not an easy task. For example, Megafon towers were attacked by terrorists several times. In 2006, the company almost quarreled with the leadership of Chechnya in the person of the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. The latter was sure that Megafon served local residents at inflated rates. As a result, prices were halved. Megafon emphasized several times that working in Chechnya is not as profitable for it as in the rest of Russia.

December 2007 : End of shareholder conflict

In 2003, Alfa Group bought a 25.1% stake in Megafon from Leonid Rozhetskin’s LV Finance company. The IPOC fund, owned by Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond and owning 8% of Megafon, began to challenge the deal. Representatives of IPOC claimed that the fund had an option to buy out the operator’s blocking stake from Rozhetskin.

During lengthy legal disputes, a scandal broke out: Alfa called the Minister of Communications of the Russian Federation Leonid Reiman the true owner of IPOC. Reiman denied these accusations, however, in the spring of 2006, the Zurich Arbitration Tribunal indicated as the final beneficiary of IPOC a certain “witness No. 7” - a high-ranking official with authority to regulate the Russian telecommunications services market.

At the end of 2007, IPOC and Alpha agreed to withdraw all claims against each other. A year later, IPOC was finally liquidated, and its assets went to billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Throughout the conflict, Soldatenkov tried to maintain an independent position. Despite his good acquaintance with Reiman, he managed to convince the remaining shareholders of his independence, and he retained his position as general director.

October 2007 : launch of Russia's first 3G network

At the beginning of October 2007, Megafon began providing 3G cellular communication services in St. Petersburg. For the first time, the Russian population has access to fairly fast mobile Internet: 3G speed is approximately ten times faster than previous technologies.

In 2010, Megafon's income from the sale of Internet access amounted to 20 billion rubles: this is approximately 40% of the total Internet revenue of all Russian cellular operators.

November 2008 : Failed overseas expansion

In 2008, Megafon International was created, which was to be responsible for the operator’s expansion into foreign markets. The main target was Iran, where Megafon intended to spend about $3 billion on business development. In the end, however, Megafon refused to participate in the tender for the purchase of a local operator, considering the conditions unacceptable. Megafon International was reorganized into a department.

As a result, Megafon is currently represented abroad only in Tajikistan, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Compared to its competitors, Megafon's achievements look pale: Vimpelcom ranks seventh in the world in terms of the number of subscribers, and MTS is represented in most CIS countries.

April 2010 : Megafon surpassed VimpelCom in terms of the number of subscribers

In the spring of 2010, it became known that Megafon, for the first time in history, ceased to be the third operator in Russia: its subscriber base reached 52 million people, while VimpelCom had 1 million less. At the end of the third quarter of the same year, Megafon was ahead of its competitor not only in the number of SIM cards, but also in revenue.

July 2010 : purchase of Synterra

Megafon pays $745 million for the Synterra group of companies and becomes the last of the Big Three to enter the fixed-line market. Two years earlier, VimpelCom acquired Golden Telecom, and MTS closed the deal to purchase Comstar.

January 2012 : Soldatenkov's departure

Soldatenkov announced that he will not renew his contract, which expires in June 2012. His successor as CEO will be Chairman of the Board of Directors of the UTV media holding Ivan Tavrin. Soldatenkov, according to some rumors, may become Minister of Communications. However, he himself denies this information.

7 main turns in the fate of Megafon