Report: Usmanov says Russia’s MegaFon, Yota to merge in 2 years

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (PRIME) -- Russian mobile operator MegaFon can merge with its unit, Internet provider turned mobile operator Yota, during the coming two years, business daily Kommersant said late Monday on its Web site, quoting MegaFon’s main owner Alisher Usmanov.

“When buying Yota, we received a huge margin of safety for LTE future technologies and a frequency resource. Up to the present day, MegaFon and Yota have existed separately. The both have been gradually developing,” Usmanov said in an interview to the Rossiya 24 television channel.

“MegaFon is a bit heavier since the market is highly competitive. Yota has been raising its infrastructure. Now, Yota, as an affiliate, can exploit MegaFon’s infrastructure.”

Telecommunications operators look for new points of growth in crisis environment. Experts earlier pointed to decreasing revenue from voice connection with data transfer services to lead in the future.

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