Nokia and the Telecominvest Operator Group of the Russian Federation have signed an agreement for the supply of Telecominvest's MegaFon GSM 900/1800 network in the amalgamated North Caucasus region, one of Russia's eight license regions. MegaFon represents a new customer for Nokia.
Nokia will be the sole supplier of MegaFon's GSM 900/1800 network, including core-network infrastructure and a radio-access network with the Nokia UltraSite base station solution. The Nokia UltraSite answers the increasing demand for higher voice and data traffic in today's mobile networks and evolution to the Mobile Internet era. An industry-leading product, the Nokia UltraSite can support GSM, High Speed Data, GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA for 3G.
Deliveries will start immediately, with the first phase of MegaFon's North Caucasus network targeted for commercial launch in the second half 2001.
"In today's marketplace, mobile operators must carefully consider all the benefits of a network vendor's offering. For example, delivery schedules play a critical role in our choice of vendor," says Andrei Klimov, the Marketing and PR Director of Telecominvest. "Nokia has more than satisfied our expectations with both its products and its efficient and flexible approach to deliveries and network rollout."
"We are extremely pleased to welcome MegaFon as a new Nokia customer, and to continue our long-standing cooperation with MegaFon's parent company Telecominvest," says Matti Mäki, Region Manager Russia, Nokia Networks. "By choosing Nokia, MegaFon has demonstrated its confidence that we have the proven experience and capability to work effectively with our customers. With quick deliveries of equipment and other arrangements, Nokia will help MegaFon to carry out a successful and timely network launch."
The MegaFon network is owned by Mobilcom-Caucas, a private joint-stock company that is part of the Telecominvest Operator Group. MegaFon is a Russian trademark created by Telecominvest in order to unite affiliate GSM mobile radio network operators. MegaFon networks are already operating in the Saratov area, the Republic of Mordovia and Kirov area. At the moment, Telecominvest affiliates hold licenses to provide GSM cellular network services in 59 Russian Federation administrative districts with a combined population of 84 million. Since 1994, Nokia has been a supplier to North-West GSM, a part of Telecominvest.
Telecominvest Operator Group was established in 1994 by the Public Joint-Stock Company "St. Petersburg Telephone Network' (Peterburgskaya Telefonnaya Set´) and the Public Joint-Stock Company "St. Petersburg Long-Distance and International Telephone' (Sankt-Peterburgskij Mezhdugorodnyj Mezhdunarodnyj Telefon). In 1996, the German bank, Commerzbank, entered a relationship with Telecominvest. In 2000, the Swedish telecommunications company Telia became a strategic partner of Telecominvest. Today Telecominvest unites more than 30 companies, which provide mobile and fixed network services and produce telecommunications equipment and information and billing systems.
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.
Further information:
Communications Department, Nokia Networks
Tel. + 358 (0) 7180 38193
Email nokia.networks@nokia.com
www.nokia.com
Aleksei Yonov, Press Secretary
Telecominvest Operator Group
Tel.: +7 812 325 8636
Nokia selected by MegaFon as sole supplier for its GSM network in the North Caucasus region
| Source: Nokia Oyj