Vimpelcom Announces Plans For Ukraine.

Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom (VIP) which purchased the Ukrainian company URS in late 2005, plans to invest USD 500 mln during the next five years, and increase URS’s subscriber base to 5-6 mln (from about 0.2 mln) by the end of 2008. Concorde Capital: Currently URS occupies less than 1% of the Ukrainian mobile market, and it will be hard for it to increase its share in Ukraine to 12-15% by 2008. Astelit’s experience allows for some optimism, the mobile operator increased its market share from 0% to almost 7% during 2005. Still, as competition in the market is getting fiercer, Ukrtelecom (UTEL: HOLD) also is expected to enter mobile market in 2006, it will be hard for the company to differentiate its services from the competition and attract customers.