VimpelCom enters the Georgian cellular market
12 Jul 2006

Moscow and New York (July 12, 2006) — Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("VimpelCom" or the "Company") (NYSE: VIP), today announced that it acquired 51% of Georgian cellular operator OOO Mobitel and a call option for the remaining 49% of ООО Mobitel. The purchase price for 51% of Mobitel was US$12.6 million.

ООО Mobitel owns GSM-1800 cellular licenses that are valid through mid-2013. Mobitel was founded in November 2003 and does not conduct any commercial operations. Upon closing of the transaction, VimpelCom plans to hold a tender for purchase of equipment and start construction and development of the network.

Commenting on today's announcement, Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom, said: "We are pleased to announce our entry into Georgia, a country with a population of 4.7 million. This market undoubtedly has big development potential. With VimpelCom's entry into Georgia, the total population of our license area is about 237 million. In line with VimpelCom’s CIS expansion strategy, this is the fifth CIS country outside of Russia in which VimpelCom will have operations".

The Republic of Georgia is located in central and western Transcaucasia. Georgia borders Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Armenia and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea shoreline constitutes the country's western border. The total area of the country is 69.7 thousand sq.km. Georgia’s population is approximately 4.7 million. Today there are two cellular operators in the Georgian market: Geocell (55% market share, according to independent sources) and Magticom (45% market share, according to independent sources). The penetration rate of cellular services in Georgia is about 30%.

VimpelCom

Altimo, a leading private equity group, operating on some of the world's most desirable and potentially lucrative mobile telecommunications markets, was created in 2005 from Alfa Telecom, which itself was established in 2004 to hold the telecoms investments of the Alfa Group Consortium (Golden Telecom, Inc., Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Kyivstar GSM, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Sky Mobile). Those assets are in Russia, the CIS and other promising emerging markets.

VimpelCom consists of telecommunications operators providing voice and data services through a range of wireless, fixed and broadband technologies. The Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia, in territories with a total population of about 340 million. The Group companies provide services under the "Beeline" brand.  VimpelCom was the first Russian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (under the symbol "VIP").  In Q1 2008, VimpelCom acquired 100% of the oustanding share capital of Golden Telecom, a leading facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services in Russia and the CIS.

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