APRIL 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh mobile operator Kcell, controlled by Sweden’s TeliaSonera, said it had added 310,000 subscribers in Q1 2013, suggesting that Kazakhstan’s economy is still buoyant. At the end of March, Kcell said it had 13.8m subscribers and was the biggest mobile phone network in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
MARCH 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish investigators said they may consider fining or confiscating assets from the part state-owned telecoms operator Teliasonera if criminal charges stick over an investigation into whether the company illegally paid bribes to a Gibraltar-registered firm in 2007/8 for 3G licences in Uzbekistan, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
FEB. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Lars Nyberg, CEO of TeliaSonera, resigned after a report by a law firm concluded the Swedish telecoms giant had failed to do proper due diligence before buying an Uzbek 4G licence from a Gibraltar-registered firm in 2007. Media reports have since linked the Gibraltar firm to the eldest daughter of the Uzbek president.
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(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
JAN. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzdunrobita, the Uzbek subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS, has laid-off 200 staff and filed for bankruptcy after saying it could not pay $600m of fines imposed by the authorities in Uzbekistan, media reported. Uzdunrobita and the Uzbek authorities have been involved in a dispute over taxes since July.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzdunrobita, the Uzbek subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS, has laid-off 200 staff and filed for bankruptcy after saying it could not pay $600m of fines imposed by the authorities in Uzbekistan, media reported. Uzdunrobita and the Uzbek authorities have been involved in a dispute over taxes since July.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
DEC. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera completed a deal worth $205m to buy WiMAX cables in six Kazakh cities from Alem Communications. WiMAX infrastructure is used to create 4G coverage. The deal, announced in August, also involved buying a stake in KazTransCom, another Kazakh company.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
JAN. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Anders Narvinger, chairman of TeliaSonera, again denied that the Swedish telecoms company had bribed the Uzbek president’s family to win a lucrative 3G operating contract. Email evidence submitted in court, media reported, suggested TeliaSonera had paid a Gibraltar- registered company linked to the Uzbek president’s daughter for the contract.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
DEC. 12 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors investigating a deal in 2007 by Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera to buy a 3G licence in Uzbekistan through a Gibraltar- registered company linked to the daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov have interviewed two of the company’s employees, media reported. TeliaSonera has denied any wrong-doing.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
DEC. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera earned $525m from the sale of its 25% stake in Kcell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile operator, in an IPO in London. This is slightly lower than some analysts had anticipated when TeliaSonera announced the sale last month.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
NOV. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Uzbek court overturned a ruling ordering the state to confiscate the local assets of Russian mobile operator MTS. The surprise ruling could allow MTS’s local subsidiary, Uzdunrobita, to resume operations. Uzdunrobita stopped operations in August after prosecutors accused it of a series of tax violations.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
