VimpelCom, an international NASDAQ-listed telecom group and a leading Russian mobile operator under the Beeline brand, is stepping up its Russian-wide LTE presence. Last Friday, the operator started an active regional 4G expansion by announcing the launch of a LTE network in Russia’s westernmost enclave of Kaliningrad. The FDD LTE standard network works in a …
A new early stage technology support entity called ImpulseVC was launched last week in Moscow to invest in new media and web-based entertainment startups. ImpulseVC includes a venture fund, an accelerator and an incubator. The founders of Sape.ru, a six-year-old online exchange that buys and sells links from a wide variety of websites and is estimated …
New fund and incubator ImpulseVC to invest $65 million in Russian Internet startups Read More
MegaFon, a leading Russian telecom operator, announced late last week the launch of ‘DREAM,’ an ambitious Eurasian fiber optic communications landline project that connects Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany and Hong Kong in China. To undertake this endeavor, which has cost MegaFon 600 million rubles (about $18 million), the Russian company partnered with KazakhTelecom, a leading telecom …
MegaFon and partners launch DREAM FOCL to connect Europe and Asia Read More
VTB Bank, a leading, state-owned Russian bank, surprised the Russian telecom market last week by announcing the sale of a 50% stake in Tele2 Russia, Russia’s fourth largest mobile operator. The Bank had acquired 100% of shares in Tele2Russia for $3.55 billion just six months ago from the Swedish telecom group Tele2 AB. The buyer …
VTB sheds 50% of its Tele2 Russia asset in unexpected deal Read More
Vobis Computer, a sizable Russian supplier and vendor of Chinese-assembled smartphones, satellite navigation systems and software operating under the Highscreen trademark, announced last week the rollout of its Highscreen Boost 2, the next generation of Russian smartphones with record-long battery life. Eight months after the inaugural Boost was introduced as Russia’s first smartphone to offer a …
Russia’s new budget smartphone claims to beat world record for battery life Read More
Orion Express, a Russian satellite TV operator, has announced expansion plans in several former member states of the former Soviet Union. Analysts believe that this strategic move may be necessary for Russia’s fastest-growing player in the sector since it faces a glut in its domestic market. Earlier this week, Orion launched its pay services in …
Russian satellite TV operator Orion Express seeks fresh air outside Russia Read More
Yandex, Russia’s search giant, now enables its users to surf the web for images that are similar or identical to the ones that they have uploaded. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported last week, citing Alexander Krainov, who is in charge of Yandex’s computer vision technology department, that users can now enjoy this function …
Yandex launches image-based search and streamlines targeting for ad campaigns Read More
This summer, Nokia once again became the top seller in Russia’s mobile phone market after several consecutive years of less than stellar performance and a year after it scrapped plans to develop a single-brand retail network in Russia. Leading mobile phone retailer Euroset found that in the summer months, Nokia’s share in the Russia’s handset market inched …
Amid its global slump, Nokia retakes center stage in Russia’s mobile handset market Read More
Mobile Satellite Systems (MSS) GLONASS, a Moscow-headquartered developer and manufacturer of monitoring equipment based on Russia’s GLONASS global satellite navigation technology, is making inroads into the booming automotive market in the United Arab Emirates. Last week RNSinfo, a Russian website covering developments in the domestic navigation sector, reported MSS GLONASS’ plans to finalize a strategic …
GLONASS poised to enter the Emirati automotive market Read More
In its IFRS results report for H1 2013 published last week, Mail.ru Group, a leading, LSE-listed Russian Internet group, has made public the fact that over the course of July and August it disposed of its remaining $525+ million worth of Facebook equity, a total of 14.2 million shares. The group did not disclose the …
Mail.ru shuts the door on US equity by shedding last of Facebook shares Read More
A widely touted nationwide e-government system, designed to facilitate interdepartmental interaction between government agencies and streamline the offering of government services to Russian citizens, seems to have barely progressed in the past year. The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia reported last week the results of its latest August monitoring of the e-government Gosuslugi.ru portal, supposed to …
Russia discovers upsetting delays in its far-reaching e-government effort Read More
Ruslan Gattarov, a Russian senator who has recently become an advocate for the privacy of Russian Internet users, continues his crusade against what he perceives as the unlawful actions of the world’s largest Internet companies in Russia. In late August, he asked the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and Roskomnadzor, the key federal …
Google and Facebook taken to task, Twitter suspected of user data misuse Read More
