[Effendi]

VimpelCom CEO says to invest $500 mln in Ukraine

KIEV, April 11 (Prime-Tass) -- Ukrainian Radiosystems (URS) mobile operator, a subsidiary of Russia?s second largest mobile operator VimpelCom, plans to invest U.S. $500 million in its Ukrainian operations in 2-2.5 years, VimpelCom's CEO Alexander Izosimov told a news conference Tuesday.

VimpelCom plans to increase its subscriber base in Ukraine to between 5 million and 6 million people in the period, Izosimov said, adding that subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) would amount to $100.

URS? subscriber base amounted to 278,000 people, or less than 1% of the market, as of March 31, according to Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M).

Sergei Mironov, general director of URS, said that the company plans to cover over 80% of Ukraine?s territory by the end of the year. It is not clear what territory URS covers at the moment.

URS has a GSM 900 license that covers the entire territory of Ukraine, which has a population of approximately 47.6 million people. URS also has a GSM 1800 license that covers 23 of Ukraine's 27 regions (excluding Kiev, the Kiev Region, the Dnipropetrovsk Region and the Odessa Region).

VimpelCom's consolidated subscriber base totaled 48.053 million people as of March 31.