Beeline Goes To Ukraine

[Effendi]

Russia's VimpelCom to launch Beeline brand in Ukraine next year

LONDON, Dec 6 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia?s second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to offer mobile services under the Beeline brand in Ukraine hrough its local subsidiary in five to six months, VimpelCom's CEO Alexander Izosimov told Prime-Tass Tuesday.

VimpelCom entered the Ukrainian market on November 11 by purchasing Ukrainian Radiosystems mobile operator (URS), which operates under the WellCOM and MOBI brand names, for a total of U.S. $231.3 million.

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).

URS? subscriber base amounted to 160,204 people, or less than 1% of the market, as of October 1.

VimpelCom is a leading international provider of telecommunications services, operating under the Beeline brand in Russia and Kazakhstan.

VimpelCom's consolidated subscriber base totaled 41.429 million people as of October 31, according to Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M).

It's quite incredible to read that WellCom has just 160k customers, that's really little, how could they survive? In fact Vimpelcom bought that operator. Anyway Ukrainian GSM market seems to be very strange, they have 5 operators and 8 brands, but only Kyivstar and UMC (MTS group) seem to have a great success, the others have really few customers.

[0700700]

slightly off-topic...


sorry


http://www.alttelecom.ru/tariffs.jsp?pge=1

Every single Carrier in RUSSIA and the Old soviet Republics and their current talk plans

[Effendi]

VimpelCom URS Unit Launches Beeline Brand In Ukraine

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russia's second-largest mobile phone operator Vimpel Communications (VIP) said Tuesday that its URS unit has launched its Beeline brand in Ukraine.

URS is the fourth-largest operator in Ukraine with a market share significantly smaller than that of leaders Telenor-owned Kyivstar, a unit of Mobile TeleSystems UMC and Turkcell, owned by Astelit.

The launch of the brand, coupled with a limited offer of lower prices, is intended to quickly increase the company's share of this growing market.

VimpelCom acquired URS in the middle of last year for $231 million despite opposition from Norway's Telenor, holder of 27% in VimpelCom, which saw it as too expensive.

Telenor is currently disputing the legality of the acquisition.

Meanwhile, Telenor and Russia's Alfa Group, which owns 33% in VimpelCom, started talks on an alternative way for VimpelCom to enter the Ukraine by buying Kyivstar. They are currently discussing terms and the price, which is likely to be around $5 billion in cash or a cash and equity deal.

Telenor owns 56% in Kyivstar, while Alfa holds 44%.

Commenting on the launch of the Beeline brand in the Ukraine, Telenor's Executive Vice President and Head of Central and Eastern Europe Jan Edvard Thygesen said the company was "surprised that VimpelCom is spending so much money and effort on this launch when there are serious discussions going on between the major shareholders and the company regarding this proposal, as well as litigation seeking to undo the transaction involving URS."

"Telenor believes it would be most beneficial to launch (the brand) in Ukraine... through the acquisition of Kyivstar," he said, adding that he hopes that the Beeline brand will not suffer as a result of its launch on the URS network, which is inferior to Kyivstar's nationwide network.

VimpelCom's Chief Executive Officer Alexander Izosimov has reportedly told the Norwegian press he is taking Telenor's concerns very seriously.

Company Web site: http://www.vimpelcom.com

-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires;

[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.

[Effendi]

to Asick: is the tariff "Простые вещи" prepaid? It looks like a pay as you go, but postpaid, but my knowledge of Russian is always quite limited.
Anyway Mobi and Privat:mobile are 2 prepaid offers on the now Beeline network, so I think that maybe by now they are not offering a Beeline branded prepaid offer.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Effendi

to Asick: is the tariff "Простые вещи" prepaid? It looks like a pay as you go, but postpaid, but my knowledge of Russian is always quite limited.

It's interesting that there's no Ukrainian version of the site. However the coverage map
(Карта покрытия) is in Ukrainian only

[Effendi]

The coverage map is the same which was present in the old WellCom site, that's probably why it's still in Ukrainian! That's true, I noticed to that there is no Ukrainian version, and it's quite strange, or at least uncorrect... no doubts about which is the target for Beeline future users...