Icon Private Equity, one of the largest private equity funds in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, plans to invest USD200m to establish a national Wimax operator.
Icon Private Equity, one of the largest private equity funds in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, plans to invest USD200m to establish a national Wimax operator.
Kirill Dmitriev, the fund’s managing partner, says the networks will be deployed in the "digital divide" regions, where broadband internet availability is presently insufficient.
The fund plans to launch the operator’s commercial services by October 2009 and intends to cover a population of 20 million by the end of 2009.
The service will be offered to both individual subscribers and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The investment is a part of Icon’s broader strategy of becoming the major Wimax operator across the CIS, a strategy that has already seen the group invest USD100m in UHT, a Wimax operator in Ukraine.
Huawei Technologies was awarded a contract for supply of the equipment for the new network. Additional funding for network deployment will be provided in a form of loans from China’s financial institutions.
Sergei Avdeev, former executive vice president of VimpelCom, is appointed as the chief executive officer of the new company.
