Golden Telecom

Infobox_Company
company_name = Golden Telecom
company_
company_type = Public
foundation =
parent = Vimpelcom (since 2008)
location = USA, Delaware
key_people = Jean-Pierre Vandromme, CEO

Alexander Vinogradov, President
industry = Telecommunications
homepage = [http://www.goldentelecom.ru Golden Telecom Russia]

"Golden Telecom" is a trademark of Russian "EDN Sovintel, LLC" ( _ru. ООО СЦС Cовинтел) company.

In 2008, Sovintel has been acquired by Vimpelcom (Beeline).

Golden Telecom Inc.

Golden Telecom Inc. is an offshore company to support operations of "Golden Telecom".

Golden Telecom

"Golden Telecom" is a brand of EDN Sovintel, LLC.

Golden Telecom is a Russian long-distance operator, which is currently building its own Federal Transit Network (FTN) in Russia. At present, the operator has fibre-optical highways Moscow-St.Petersburg and Moscow-Nizhni Novgorod.

On 17 March 2006 the operator declared that it put into operation the fibre-optical highway Moscow-Nizhni Novgorod. The distance of the line is 485 km. The construction of the optical highway Moscow-Nizhni Novgorod was carried out together with Open Society "VimpelCom". Both companies have invested nine millions dollarsl in the construction.

Since March 2006 Golden Telecom has been building a fibre-optical highway Nizhni Novgorod-Kazan-Ufa, with planned operation start in the end of 2006.

Company is building the largest European Wi-Fi network in Moscow, over 5.000 WAPs, made by Nortel, are installed by the end of 2006.

In 2007 the company plans to begin construction of a fibre-optical highway Kazan-Naberezhnye Chelny-Perm-Yekaterinburg and complete the construction of line Ufa-Samara-Saratov.

Golden Telecom LLC (Ukraine)

Golden Telecom LLC is the smallest GSM operator in Ukraine, although it started early by launching its GSM-1800 operation back in 1996. Its wireless network covers just two metropolitan areas: Kyiv and Odessa, lacking the national coverage of its competitors. In the early 2000s new owners (controlled by the Russian Alfa Group) shifted company's strategy, which since then has focused on providing integrated telecommunications services for businesses and other high-usage customers and telecommunications operators.

The current number of Golden Telecom's GSM postpaid and prepaid subscribers is just below 50,000 (June 2007). The outlook of its GSM business is quite grim in the wake of huge success and growth of traditional (Kyivstar, UMC) and emerging (Astelit) competitors. Even its earlier competitive advantage, absence of the connection fee (a small flat fee, usually $0.05-$0.06, charged by Kyivstar and UMC per connection in addition to per minute rate), is not a factor anymore as new competitors (Astelit, Beeline do not charge connection fees as well.

To cope with its limited GSM coverage, the company has recently concluded an agreement with Beeline, another trailing local mobile operator, which allows Golden Telecom's contract subscribers to roam onto Beeline's growing cellular network throughout Ukraine. This is the first national roaming agreement between mobile operators in Ukraine.

Golden Telecom's network code in Ukraine is +38039*******.

Golden Telecom LLC Ukraine is a division of Golden Telecom Inc. (NASDAQ: GLDN), which also operates a telecom business in Russia.

External links

*en icon [http://www.goldentelecom.com Golden Telecom Inc. Web site]
*en icon [http://gsm.goldentele.com/english/ Golden Telecom GSM Web site]
*ru icon [http://www.mobile-ukraine.com Ukrainian mobile operators Official news]
*ru icon [http://www.rol.ru ROL is mass service brand of Sovintel]