Under a more than USD 350 million frame agreement with major Russian operator MegaFon, Nokia is supplying GSM/GPRS equipment for the expansion of MegaFon’s GSM network, enabling advanced mobile data services. Deliveries have already begun and the expansion will enable MegaFon to cope with rapidly increasing subscriber growth.
“We are happy to continue to work closely with such a leading vendor as Nokia which time and again has proved its abilities to deliver and implement and care for state-of-the-art technologies, services and solutions, enabling us to offer our customers the best mobile services,” says Sergey Soldatenkov, General Director, MegaFon.
“The Russian market is extremely important for Nokia and we are pleased to extend our strategical cooperation with MegaFon, one of the leading players in this rapidly growing mobile arena,” says Jonathan Sparrow, General Director, Networks, Nokia, Russia.
“A further demonstration of our commitment to the Russian market is the increased service support capabilities in the regions where we work with MegaFon,” he adds.
Under the agreement Nokia is supplying GSM/GPRS core and radio equipment. The frame includes also Nokia NetActä Operating Support System (OSS), which provides operational efficiencies and OPEX savings while operating and maintaining MegaFon’s GSM, GPRS and Cellular Transmission networks. The very same OSS platform also provides support for the future technologies and services like EDGE and WCDMA. Under the agreement Nokia is also supplying a range of services including Project Management, installation and relocation services for fast ramp up of the solution and Care Services, including Emergency Service, Software Maintenance and training services to keep the solution running at peak performance.
OAO MegaFon is the first Russian nationwide mobile communication operator of GSM 900/1800 standard. Founded in May 2002, as a result of renaming and changing of organizational and legal status of ZAO North-Western GSM and uniting of regional operators of ZAO Sonic Duo (Moscow), ZAO Mobicom-Kavkaz, ZAO Mobicom-Center, ZAO Mobicom-Novosibirsk, ZAO Mobicom-Khabarovsk, ZAO Mobicom-Kirov, OAO MSS-Povolzhye, ZAO Volzhsky GSM and ZAO Uralsky GSM. The Company’s major shareholders are OAO Telecominvest, OOO CT-Mobile, Sonera (Finland) and Telia (Sweden). The license area of OAO MegFon covers 100% of the territory of Russia – 89 regions of the Russian Federation with the population of 147 million. Currently the total number of the Company’s customers is exceeding 8.6 million.
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia is dedicated to enhancing people’s lives and productivity by providing easy-to-use and secure products like mobile phones, and solutions for imaging, games, media, mobile network operators and businesses. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on five major exchanges.