History
June 17, 1993 – registration date of North-West GSM CJSC (Saint Petersburg). Alexander Malyshev became the first General Director. The major international investors included Scandinavian companies Sonera (Finland), Telia International AB (Sweden) and Telenor Invest AS (Norway). Telecommunication equipment was supplied by Nokia.
1994 — launch of commercial operation of GSM (2G) network, the first in Russia.
1999 — number of the company’s subscribers became over 100,000. By that time the network of the North-West GSM had completely covered Saint Petersburg and Leningrad region, it was also actively expanding in the northern areas of the Russian North-West.
July 1999 — North-West GSM was the first Russian operator that signed roaming agreements with all countries in Europe. The same year, for the first time ever in Russia, mobile communication started to operate in Saint Petersburg metro, and the operator’s spectrum of value-added services included WAP-access to the Internet.
2000 — shareholders of the company adopted a new strategy that was targeted at the mass market.
November 2001 — number of North-West GSM subscribers exceeded 500,000.
May 2002 — number of North-West GSM subscribers became over 1 million.
May 7, 2002 — in the course of rebranding North-West GSM CJSC was renamed to MegaFon OJSC. Rebranding of the company was started on April 28, 2002 by change of the logo. At that moment, North-West GSM was merged with Sonic Duo CJSC (Moscow), Ural GSM CJSC (Yekaterinburg), Mobicom-Kavkaz CJSC (Krasnodar), Mobicom-Center CJSC, Mobicom-Novosibirsk CJSC, Mobicom-Khabarovsk CJSC, MCS-Povolzhie OJSC, Volzhsky GSM (Saransk, Republic of Mordovia).
On October 2, 2008, MegaFon launched for operation the first Russian fragment of the third generation network in IMT-2000/UMTS (3G) at the territory of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad region. For the first time ever in this country the radio access sub-system UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) was launched for trial commercial operation and included 30 base stations. And already on October 24, 2007, MegaFon announced about start of 3G service in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad region. For the first time in Russia, the following services became available for mass users: Internet access at the data transmission speed that is 10-fold higher than in the existing GSM networks (2G and 2,5G) of GPRS/EDGE technology, high-quality Mobile TV, video communication.
December2008 — the extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting of MegaFon took a resolution on reorganization of MegaFon OJSC in the form of its merger with Sonic Duo CJSC (Moscow), Ural GSM CJSC (Yekaterinburg), Mobicom-Kavkaz CJSC (Krasnodar), Mobicom-Center CJSC, Mobicom-Novosibirsk CJSC, Mobicom-Khabarovsk CJSC, MCS-Povolzhie OJSC. The number of subscribers exceeded 43.2 million.
On March 16, 2009, MegaFon founded a virtual mobile network operator “PROSTO” (Just for Communication) on the basis of the Stolichny Branch.
On July 1, 2009, reorganization was completed, and now mobile communication services in Russia are provided by the North-West, Stolichny, Kavkaz, Center, Volga, Ural, Siberia and Far East branches of MegaFon OJSC.
On September 25, 2009, it was announced about rebranding of TT mobile CJSC, subsidiary of MegaFon that provided telecom services under the brand of MLT – “Mobile Lines of Tajikistan”. The new company’s name is MegaFon-Tajikistan.
Since March 1, 2010, Ostelecom CJSC started to provide telecom services in the South Ossetia under MegaFon brand.
In June 2010, MegaFon acquired 100% shares of Synterra company, which was a move to strengthen network infrastructure and enhance the positions in the markets of long-distance communication, fixed and mobile broadband access to the Internet, as well as convergence services.
Three months later, the extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting of MegaFon unanimously approved acquisition of 100% shares of PeterStar CJSC from Synterra.
Based on the results of Q3 2010 MegaFon became the second-ranked operator in mobile revenue.
Based on Q3 2010 results MegaFon became the leader in the revenue share from value-added services (VAS) among the Big Three operators.
As a result of 2010, MegaFon became the Top 2 operator (after MTS) in number subscribers among the Russian cellular communication providers.
As a result of 2010, MegaFon acquired the Top Second position in terms of revenue among the Russian Big Three operators.
On July 20, 2011, it was announced about rebranding of TT mobile CJSC. MLT brand was renamed to MegaFon-Tajikistan.
In November 2011, MegaFon signed a partnership agreement with Scartel on joint development of the Forth Generation networks LTE (Long Term Evolution) in Russia. As a result, the company got the opportunity to provide LTE 4G services using Scartel’s equipment. In its turn, Scartel will be able to use MegaFon’s infrastructure.
In December 2011, the company created MegaLabs, 100% subsidiary, which is the single center of innovative design and prompt launch of value-added services. The new company is focused on fast introduction of advanced products and services to the market (content and media, mobile finance, mobile advertising, clod solutions, М2М, e-government, m-health, etc.) through efficient partnership with well-known market players and young teams of developers. At the same time, MegaLabs is a platform for experimental designs by MegaFon.
In August 2012 MegaFon released its first Smartphone called Megafon Mint in Russia with the new Intel Atom (system on chip).
Read more about this topic: Mega Fon
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