VimpelCom Ltd, Kcell agree to jointly offer 4G services in Kazakhstan

MOSCOW, Aug 31 (PRIME) -- Beeline Kazakhstan, a unit of Amsterdam-based telecom giant VimpelCom Ltd., has signed a network sharing agreement with local operator Kcell to jointly offer 4G/LTE services in Kazakhstan, marking an important step in VimpelCom Ltd.’s asset-light strategy, VimpelCom Ltd. said Wednesday in a statement.

“Becoming asset-light is key to our strategy to transform our group-wide network into one that meets our needs as a digital operator of the future. Central to our network consolidation strategy is finding like-minded partners to work with,” VimpelCom Ltd.’s Chief Technology Officer Yogesh Malik said.

“The countrywide agreement with Kcell is the latest in a series of network sharing milestones that will further enable VimpelCom Ltd. to deliver new digital services and improved network quality to bring us closer to our customers.”

The agreement aims to incorporate all 4G/LTE ready sites in terms of location, transmission capacity and the infrastructure environment of each city into the newly-shared network, providing customers with 4G/LTE coverage and service quality.

The shared network will be managed by combined teams from Kcell and Beeline Kazakhstan.

The first phase is expected to be launched across 13 cities in September . The joint network is expected to cover over 30% of the country’s population by the end of 2016.

VimpelCom Ltd. also fully owns Russian mobile operator VimpelCom.

End