Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May / corr. Trend S. Babayeva/ The telecommunication market of Azerbaijan is the most attractive amongst that of the CIS countries where Vimpelkom mobile operator is not yet represented, said Alexander Izosimov, the secretary general of the large Russian company.
As of 2007end, the company had 63.34mln subscribers in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Armenia.
"We would like to enter this market [Azerbaijani market]," Izosimov said in an internet forum organized by the Expert Online.
In spite of the positive assessment of the Azerbaijani market by Vimpelkom, the Company does not plan yet to operate in Azerbaijan.
"Right now there are no concrete opportunities for the access, but they can appear unexpectedly," Izosimov said.
Vimpel-Kommunikasiya (VimpelKom) is one of the large mobile operators in CIS, offering services under Beeline brand. The largest shareholders are the Norwegian Telenor (26.6% of ordinary shares) and Altimo, which controls telecommunication assets of Alfa-Group (42.2%). The market capitalization as of 12 April 2007 was $19.54bln.
The number of subscribers of GSM standard in Azerbaijan makes up 4.4mln, which account for Azercell Telecom, Bakcell and Azerfon.
According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, telecommunication services worth AZN274mln have been offered in Azerbaijan from January to April 2008- 71% of the income accounts to the mobile communication services.
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