Sonic Duo (merged with MegaFon)

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Sonic Duo was awarded a license to provide mobile services in Moscow city and the surrounding region in May 2000. The company paid US$ 283.1 million for its license, awarded after negotiations with the government (there was no competition for the license, which has led to protests that the awarding process was not clear). Sonic Duo was established in December 1999 as a joint-venture with a 35% owned by Sonera holding (a daughter company of Sonera Corporation, Finland) and the partially state-owned company Svyazinvest (65%), later known as CT-Mobile, a subsidiary of Central Telegraph. The GSM 900/1800 license was awarded for a 10-year period. In August 2000, Ericsson was awarded the equipment supplier contract. By the end of 2001 Sonic Duo already had about 260 base stations with a 15 base stations being installed per week until June next year. Number of Sonic Duo's base stations has doubled over the 2002 and reached 600. To set up the network, between 2000-2004, overall investments in the Sonic Duo (later known as Moscow based Megafon) were expected to reach US$ 260 million. As of January 1, 2003, investments already totaled US$160 million including US$138 million attracted in 2002 in the form of a syndicated credit from the EBRD. In May 2002 Sonic Duo was one of 8 regional operators which merged with North-West GSM and became a part of the nationwide GSM operator MegaFon. North-West GSM, the oldest subsidiary of Telecominvest, was the basic company around which consolidation occurred. In spring 2002 North-West GSM bought shares in Sonic Duo (100%), Mobicom-Kavkaz (74.5%), Mobicom-Tsentr (100%), Mobicom-Novosibirsk (51%), Mobicom-Khabarovsk (51%), Mobicom-Kirov (100%), MSS-Povolzhye (100%), Volzhsky GSM (80%) and Uralsky GSM (100%). The name and the legal form of North-West GSM was changed and it was incorporated into the company MegaFon which became the sole owner of Sonic Duo. http://www1.ifc.org/ar2002/pdf/FY2002Commitments.pdf Starting from 2003 See North-West GSM - Megafon. None