The mobile phone provider which operates the troubled Wellcom brand, Ukrainian Radio Systems, is nearing its goal to provide network access throughout Ukraine.
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URS, which previously provided GSM 900 standard network access in Kyiv only, recently launched network access in Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa. Both cities have populations exceeding 1 million.
“We hope to have all major cities in Ukraine covered by our network in the near future,” URS chairman Motti Korf told the Post on July 13.
URS officials have been tight-lipped about the recent expansion, saying only that the company will not launch a major advertising and marketing campaign until most big cities are covered.
The company announced more than a year ago that it would expand coverage to all major Ukrainian cities by the end of 2003. URS’ $100 million expansion plan stalled, however, after government officials threatened to repeal URS’s GSM 900 license on a technicality. More than one year later, expansion plans are just beginning.
URS officials alleged the attempt to revoke its license was lobbied for by Digital Cellular Communications, a competitor owned by Donetsk-based tycoon Rinat Akhmetov.
URS’ Korf said his company is co-owned by shareholders in Dnipropetrovsk-based Privatbank and Optima Telecom.
An investment memorandum obtained by the Post identifies Ukrainian business moguls Igor Kolomojsky and Gennady Bogolubov as co-owners of a controlling stake in Privatbank. Korf said both were beneficiary shareholders in URS through other companies.
URS uses GSM standard technology provided by China’s Huawei Technologies, which offers equipment at bargain prices compared to European producers like Ericsson and Siemens.
Huawei could not be reached for comment.
