J.V. Bakcell

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Bakcell was awarded a 20-year license to operate national TACS & GSM systems in Azerbaijan at the beginning of 1994. The company was created as a joint venture between the Ministry of Communications (51%), and GTIB of Israel (49%). The latter partner is a company owned by Motorola (50%), and Israeli companies (50%). The TACS network has been operational since February 1994, and covers most of Azerbaijan. The GSM network was launched in April 1998, and was expected to cover all of Azerbaijan by the end of 1998. The company refuses to disclose information on the license fee, but the project cost was estimated at US$40 million. In December 2003 the privatization of Bakcell was completed, as the The Azerbaijani Economic Development Ministry sold its stake in the company to GTIB for some $10 million. The main competitor of Bakcell was AzerCell, with a 15-year GSM system concession which started its commercial operations by late 1996. As of December 31, 2005, Bakcell had over 300,000 subscribers, which was about 15% of all mobile telecommunications users in Azerbaijan. Over $100 million had been invested in Bakcell since the company was founded. 2009 & 2010 Capex from company press release - US$ 200 million invested in 2009-2010. 2011 Capex - N/A 2012 Capex - N/A 2013 capacity figure - estimate from Wireless Intelligence 2013 Capex - N/A

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