Rostov Cellular Communications (merged with Tele2 Russia)

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Rostov Cellular Communications (RCC) services the City of Rostov-on-Don and major cities in Rostov region with a population of 4.5 million. It was established in June 1996 as a joint venture between Millicom International (75%) and Rostovskaya Sotovaya Svyaz (ROSS). ROSS was established in 1993 by several defense industry enterprises. ROSS The company received its license (No.1663) on November 14, 1994. The two year license is exclusive for the 824-828 MHz bandwidth covering the territory of Rostov region with a population of 4 million. The company has three competitors that operate GSM, NMT and CDMA technologies. The company, which paid $560 for the license, started its commercial operations in June 1996. Its services covered Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Azov, Bataisk, Aksai and Starocherkassk by 1997. The equipment supplier was Ericcson. Rostov Cellular Communications had a franchise agreement with Vympelcom, and operated under the Bee-Line trademark. In 1999, RCC has signed a contract with Ericsson Corporation for delivery of new Mobile Switch Centre (MSC). The DAMPS standard was replaced with TDMA in 1999. Millicom provided its services in Russia under the brand name FORA Telecom and held controlling stakes in 12 operators covering a population of 48 million. The regions covered by the FORA group were: Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Belgorod, Izhevsk (Republic of Udmurtiya), Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Smolensk, Rostov-on-Don, Chelyabinsk. The holding's Russian cellular operators had a total base of 165 thousand subscribers in various parts of Russia in 2001. Since entering the market, Millicom invested over US $100 million into Russian economy. In December 2001 the shares of Millicom in 12 Russian companies were acquired by Tele2 AB which, along with Millicom, is part of the Kinnevik group. The assets included 11 AMPS carriers and the Moscow Cellular Communications NMT 450 MHz carrier. Tele2 AB paid $80 million for the assets and promised another $30 million after the AMPS carriers, which had to abandon their spectrum according to an agreement with the Communications Ministry, received GSM 1800 MHz licenses. After the acquisition, all of Tele2 subsidiaries switched to Tele2 brand. Tele2 planned to invest up to US$80 million in GSM communications in Russia in 2003. Rostov Cellular Communications received GSM-1800 license in July 2001 for 10 years. Tele2 launched GSM-1800 mobile network in Rostov in March 2003. In September 2003 Tele2 increased it’s ownership in RCC to 87.5% remaining stake held by the Space Cellular Telecom (Moscow). Brand name FORA Telecom (until 2001), Tele2 (after November 2001). Starting from 2001 subscribers base is available only for FORA Telecom as a total and there is limited info about individual companies. US$80 million investment (to be invested in Tele2 holdings - 11 companies in Russia in 2003) was added to the project: Sankt-Peterburg Telecom and Oblcom