SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian mobile operator MTS said it wants to invest $40m over the next year in setting up 3G mobile services in Turkmenistan. MTS is one of the biggest mobile operators in Central Asia and, as reported, has also recently patched up its differences with Uzbekistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has given a green light for Russian mobile operator MTS to re-start work in the country after it withdrew following a row in 2012, various local media reported quoting security forces. Media said that MTS would resume operations in Uzbekistan by the end of 2012.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – MTS, the Russian mobile operator, is planning a return to Uzbekistan, two years after it quit the country after a major row with the authorities.
Vladimir Evtushenkov, the Russian billionaire whose company Sistema owns the majority state in MTS, told reporters at the St Petersburg Economic Forum that the company may re-enter Uzbekistan as early as this year.
Given MTS’s acrimonious exit from Uzbekistan, after a row over unpaid tax, Mr Evtushenkov’s statement took people by surprise.
Through its local subsidiary, MTS had been the biggest mobile provider in Uzbekistan. Its abrupt exit in 2012 had cost it 9m subscribers and losses of $1b.
But it’s a positive surprise that MTS is seriously considering a return to Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is the single biggest market in Central Asia, with a population of 30m, and should be a natural country of operations for a Russian mobile company.
Of course, though, as with everything in Uzbekistan, MTS’s re-entry is possibly layered with extra meaning. It may not be a coincidence that it is considering a return to Uzbekistan just as Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, appears to have suffered a serious setback to her power and influence.
When MTS did clash with the Uzbek authorities in 2012, the rumour mill was full of stories that the company had fallen out with Ms Karimova. That problem may now have been solved, allowing MTS to patch up its differences with the Uzbek authorities.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A bribery investigation at Swedish- Finnish telecoms company TeliaSonera appeared to widen from Uzbekistan, its initial focus, to other companies it owns in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after it said some other business deals may have been illegal. TeliaSonera owns Kcell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile provider.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan plans to invest about $500m into its broadband infrastructure over the next few years, media reported quoting the Azerbaijani minister for communications Ali Abbasov. It remains to be seen if Azerbaijan will follow through on this proclamation.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — UzMobile, the new mobile operator in Uzbekistan run by Uzbektelecom, will be exempt from paying licence fees for five years, local media reported quoting the government. The Uzbek government is keen to set up its own mobile company after foreign companies working in the sector ran into various regulatory problems.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is fast becoming a pariah state for businesses.
The US authorities opened corruption investigations into business conducted by Russia’s Vimpelom and Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera in Uzbekistan, shortly after Swiss authorities announced they were looking into money laundering allegations against Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Isam Karimov.
It’s not a pretty picture. Vimpelcom and TeliaSonera also have registered offices in the Netherlands, where the authorities have also launched investigations.
The trigger for these problems was a $330m deal that TeliaSonera struck with Gibraltar-registered Takilant to buy a 3G licence in 2007. Takilant was officially owned by Gayane Avakyan, an associate of Ms Karimova.
A Swedish investigation has been looking into whether this payment was actually a bribe to the Karimov family. Mr Karimov and his family have run Uzbekistan as their personal fiefdom since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They may also have had personal stakes in Uzbekistan’s big businesses.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Almaty ruled in favour of Kazakhstan’s anti-monopoly commission by upholding an $88m fine against Kcell, majority owned by Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera, for abusing its dominant market position. Kcell introduced an SMS system to alert customers of missed calls. The anti-monopoly commission said this was unfair.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Beeline Uzbekistan, Vimpelcom’s subsidiary, saw its revenue grow by 11% in 2013 to $175m, it said during its annual results presentation.
The company also boosted its customer numbers by 3% in 2013 to 10.5m partly because MTS’s subsidiary, Uzdunrobita, had been chased out of Uzbekistan in 2012. This is a smaller jump than you may have imagined but most of the switch over of customers from Uzdunrobita to Beeline happened in Q4 2012.
Most importantly from the presentation was the statistic that data usage rose significantly in Uzbekistan last year.
Beeline reported a 61% jump in mobile data revenue. This is mainly internet surfing on mobile phones. What this means is that the Uzbek mobile consumer is becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Beeline is one of two mobile providers in Uzbekistan. Ucell, owned by Swedish-Finnish mobile operator TeliaSonera, has a similar number of customers.
Both Beeline and Ucell will have watched the MTS saga apprehensively. For now, though, Uzbekistan is a good market.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
FEB. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Financial police in Georgia opened a tax investigation into Geocell, its largest mobile phone provider. The authorities said they were searching for alleged large-scale tax evasion. Geocell, which is part of Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera, denied the allegations.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)