MegaFon

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MegaFon

Type	OJSC
Founded	May 2002
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Key people	Sergey Soldatenkov, CEO
Industry	Mobile telecommunications
Products	Mobile networks
Revenue	$851 million USD (2006)
Operating income	$445 million USD (2006)
Net income	$187 million USD (2006)
Slogan	Будущее зависит от тебя (The future depends on you)
Website	www.megafon.ru

This article is about the cellular phone operator. For a sound amplification device, see megaphone.

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MegaFon (previously known as North-West GSM) is the third largest mobile phone operators in Russia.^[1] It works in the GSM standard. Its main competitors are Bee Line GSM and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS).

The name "MegaFon" in Russian looks exactly like a word for a megaphone; other connotations are mega- as "big" and fon as "telephone". Its headquarters are located in Moscow.

In 2002 the company changed its name from North-West GSM to MegaFon when it acquired several regional companies, becoming the first GSM company in Russia to cover all its territory.

As of February 2007, MegaFon had 30,657,864 subscribers.

1 Business in Tajikistan
2 Business in Uzbekistan
3 Ownership
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Business in Tajikistan

MegaFon's only subsidiary outside Russia is Tajikistan's TT Mobile.^[1]

[edit] Business in Uzbekistan

Kommersant reported on September 7, 2006 that MegaFon is negotiating in buying an 85% stake in Uzbek mobile operator Coscom from the MCT Corpation. The other 15% stake in Coscom would be held by Coscom management and private shareholders. Analysts estimated Coscom is worth between USD $180-200 million. Coscom's has over 300,000 customers.^[1]

[edit] Ownership

The company was founded by Finnish and Swedish national telecom companies, now merged into TeliaSonera along with the Russian holding company Telecom-invest. As of March 2006

Telecom-invest together wih its Bermuda based sister company IPOC International Growth Fund own 39% of the company.
- Jeffrey Galmond, a Danish lawyer publicly claims to own and control both companies, but they are rumored to in fact represent the personal interests of Russian telecommunications minister Leonid Reiman. ^[2]
TeliaSonera now owns 36% of the company.
Alfa Group of Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman owns 25.1%.