Tele2 Russia, a subsidiary of Stockholm based European telecom group, received a warning earlier this week from Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor that its licenses may be recalled should the company or its local subsidiaries continue serving regions where they have no licences, reported Russian business daily Kommersant.
An unscheduled Roskomnadzor inspection revealed that Votek Mobile and Smolenskaya Sotovaya Svyaz, two local operators owned by Tele2, had made their mobile services available to users in parts of the Moscow region where they had no operating license from base stations located in neighboring regions.
Tele2 Russia has denied any such violation and is expected to either request another inspection or to challenge Roskomnadzor’s inspection in court.
Tele2 has positioned itself as a mobile discounter on the Russian market where it claims to have over 19 million subscribers, making it the fourth mobile operator after the ‘Big Three’ Russian operators, including MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon. Tele2 has licenses to operate in just 43 of Russia’s 83 regions, whereas MTS and MegaFon have GSM licenses in all regions, and VimpelCom has licenses in almost all regions.
