Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Oct. 25 /Trend D.Azizov/
Uzbekistan's State Committee of Communication, Informatization and Telecommunication Technologies has issued an official statement saying that the information on the suspension of the activity of Unitel LLC does not correspond to reality.
On October 25 the subscribers of Unitel, the Uzbek subsidiary of the Russian VimpleCom Ltd. which owns the Beeline trademark, received a communication reporting the suspension of Unitel's licence and temporary cessation of the operator's activity.
'Due to this, the State Committee of Communication, Informatization and Telecommunication Technologies of Uzbekistan officially states that the information on the suspension of the Unitel's licence on the basis of the corresponding decree dos not correspond to reality', the statement said.
Beeline also disproved of the spam mail message and claimed the company continues to work normally mode. At the moment the operator's legal service is preparing an application to the Prosecutor General's Office of Uzbekistan with regard to fraudsters' activities.
After cessation of Uzdunrobita's (a subsidiary of the Mobile TeleSystems in Uzbekistan) activity, two mobile communication operators working on the GSM standard remained in Uzbekistan, namely Beeline and Ucell.
Apart from these two operators, there are also Rubicon Wireless Communications (ТМ Perfectum Mobile) and Uzbektelekom Mobile (subsidiary of Uzbektelecom) in Uzbekistan's mobile communication services market. These mobile communication operators operate on a CDMA standard.
As of January 1, 2013, the market shares of participants on the volume of rendered services are as follows: Beeline - 54 per cent, Ucell - 41 per cent, Perfectum Mobile - three per cent and Uzmobile - one per cent.
In 2006 VimpleCom Ltd made a deal on the purchase of Unitel which is the second largest mobile communication operator in Uzbekistan, from the international consortium headed by the Greek Germanos S.A. The company also acquired Uzbek GSM operator Buztel, resulting in their networks being merged.
In March 2009, the united Unitel and the operator of the fixed network Buzton (subsidiary of Golden Telecom) started rendering services under the single brand name of Beeline.
Over the second quarter of 2013, Beeline's subscriber base increased by 45 per cent totaling 10.202 million, according to the operator's press service.
According to the company, in 2006 Beeline invested nearly $1 billion in the development of Uzbekistan's mobile operator communication.