Mobile TeleSystems purchases communications provider in Altai region

The Mobile TeleSystems communications provider (MTS) purchased a 100-percent block of shares in the Mobilcom-Barnaul communications provider for $2.4m. As the MTS press service reported, the stocks were bought from five companies each of them having a 20-percent stake.

Mobilcom-Barnaul is a GSM 900 cellular communications provider. It has a license for rendering services in the Altai region. The population of this region is 2.7 million people. The Mobilcom-Barnaul network currently consists of four base stations. The company also provides roaming services.

By the end of 2002, it is planned to install a switchboard for 100,000 subscribers and 40 base stations, which will enable the company to provide communications in Barnaul, the capital of the region, its suburbs and Biysk, the second largest city. Communications will be provided along the highway to the border with the Novosibirsk region and the Barnaul-Belokurikha highway where a most popular resort site of the Mountain Altai is situated. The Mobilcom-Barnaul network will operate under the MTS brand.

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