MOSCOW—Russian company Accord-Tel announced plans to create the fifth pan-Russian wireless network with the use of cdma2000 technology based on the International Mobile Telecommunications-Multi Carrier (IMT-MC) standard.
Four pan-Russian GSM networks are being created by Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Vimpelcom (BeeLine), Megafon and MCT Corporation (Indigo).
Accord-Tel holds stakes in 39 out of 62 Russian NMT 450 MHz carriers united in the Sotel association. The company announced its ambitious plans after it became known that cdma2000 is close to receiving federal status in Russia, which would allow the technology to be introduced in the whole of the country on the same terms as GSM.
Currently, Moscow Cellular Communications (MCC) is building a commercial IMT-MC network, while another NMT 450 MHz carrier, the St. Petersburg-based Delta Telecom, is creating a trial network. Two other operators in the south of the country and in the Urals said they are also eyeing the technology.
The Vedomosti daily newspaper said Accord-Tel was “a major contender” for the purchase of MCC and Delta Telecom stakes. Earlier Russian media speculated that the buyer was the U.K.-based Inquam, a consortium of Qualcomm and Omnia, but later a Delta Telecom shareholder said it is selling its stake to unknown Telco Overseas offshore.
Accord-Tel shareholders include St. Petersburg-based Accord-TL (54.6 percent), Accord-TM (29.4 percent) and the New Moving Company from Moscow (16 percent). The Vedomosti report said the companies are owned by private individuals, including such leading figures in the telecom industry as current and former communications ministers Leonid Reiman and Alexander Krupnov and Svyazinvest current and former chiefs Valery Yashin and Oleg Belov. Besides NMT 450 MHz carriers, Accord-Tel also holds 49 percent in four regional GSM operators of the Megafon project.
Accord-Tel Director for regional management Georgy Sviridov said the company plans to transfer the interests in NMT 450 MHz carriers to its 100-percent MC-Direct subsidiary by the third quarter of 2002. The carriers with licenses covering most of the country, excluding the northwest and the Urals, will then be united into a single national operator. Accord-Tel plans to hold a controlling stake in the unified carrier.
Sviridov said the new carrier is likely to receive an IMT-MC license by the end of the third quarter of 2002. He refused to disclose the amount of planned investments.
“Accord-Tel has ambitions pan-Russian plans and will have considerable coverage. However, when it enters the market it may find little room for development and encounter strong GSM competition,” said Anton Pogrebinsky from J’Son & Partners telecom consultancy in Moscow.
Sotel said its member carriers will complete the transfer to the IMT-MC standard by 2008. “Most likely, we shall continue joint work without Accord-Tel,” said Sotel representative Dmitry Perepelov.
