Russia's long-distance operator Rostelecom, and mobile phone operators Mobile TeleSystems, MegaFon and VimpelCom have signed an agreement to share WiMAX operator Scartel's infrastructure, with which it will build a fourth-generation network, Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev said on Thursday.
Under the deal, signed in the presence of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the firms will buy traffic from Scartel and lease its facilities to cater for fast-growing demand for data transmission at high speed, he said.
The four companies will also get an option to buy 20% each in Scartel in 2014, by which time the government hopes to introduce long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in the country.
Telconet Capital fund, which will sell all its shares, currently holds 74.9% of Scartel. The rest is owned by state-run hi-tech conglomerate Russian Technologies. Russian Technologies will also have to sell part of its stake so that each company will hold 20% in Scartel.
VTB Capital praised the agreement as a joint solution to developing the costly network.
"And although the price of the deal is not yet known, we think that with such a solution the Big Three operators will be able to create a platform to construct a cost-efficient wireless data network. This might reduce the potential capex while keeping the OIBDA margin for data services at a reasonable level," VTB Capital said in a research note.
MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti)
