PRESS: China Mobile registers firm in Russia to service companies

MOSCOW, Jan 11 (PRIME) -- China’s biggest telecom operator China Mobile has registered a company to work in Russia, where it will provide services to corporate clients from China and sell channel capacity to operators to carry data by the Europe-Asia route, business daily Kommersant reported on Thursday.

China Mobile International Russia was registered on December 15, 2017 and belongs to China Mobile, which has 867 million subscribers and is controlled by the Chinese government.

A source from the telecom industry told the daily that China Mobile entered Russia to work with Chinese corporate clients. Competition among Chinese telecom companies in Russia is gaining force, and their expansion is supported by the Chinese government under the On Belt and One Road initiative, the source said.

China Mobile’s biggest rivals have already come to Russia. China Unicom, which has 277 million subscribers in China, opened its representative office in Russia in June 2017, and China Telecom, which has 128 million subscribers on its local market, registered a firm in Russia in 2012. These companies also received licenses to provide connection services.

After registration, China Mobile will receive a license to provide telecom services to work with Russian companies, the source said. At this stage, the company’s investment will count “hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars”, which will be spent to buy telecom equipment.

MegaFon, one of the biggest Russian operators, has already become a partner to China Mobile and launched a long-haul route with a capacity of 100 Gbit/s to carry data between Europe and Asia. A MegaFon spokesperson said that “it’s the first step in MegaFon’s long-term strategy to develop own international network consistently.”

The share of Chinese companies on the Russian corporate telecom market will remain small in comparison to its leaders, Rostelecom, MegaFon, and Orange Business Services, the source said.

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