Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 25
By Demir Azizov - Trend:
Unitel LLC, (a subsidiary of the Russian VimpelCom Ltd. in Uzbekistan, owns the Beeline trademark,) will commission 900 base stations till late 2013, head of Unitel Public Relations Department, Oraz Abdurazakov told journalists on Dec. 24.
This will allow significantly expanding the network's capacity and improve the communication quality, according to him.
Abdurazakov said over half of the new stations have already been commissioned, and some of them were built back in 2012.
Earlier it was reported that Uzbek subsidiary of Russian VimpelCom faces great difficulties in network expansion, as well as in commercial commissioning of base stations and increasing number capacity. So, by November none of the 500 base stations and 600 antennas, built in 2013, was commissioned.
Unitel said $159 million were invested since early 2013 for development of network in Uzbekistan. Since early 2013 the number of the operator's customers increased by 29 percent and stood at 10.328 at the end of the year.
In 2006, VimpelCom acquired Unitel, the second largest mobile communication operator in Uzbekistan, from the international consortium headed by Germanos S.A.
VimpelCom also acquired Uzbek GSM operator Buztel, and then merged Unitel's and Buztel's networks.
In March 2009, the unified Unitel and the fixed network operator Buzton (Golden Telecom's subsidiary) started rendering commercial services under a unified brand of Beeline.
Translated by E.A.