MegaFon, Russia’s 3rd-largest wireless carrier, signed a $72.5 million contract with the mobile communication group at Siemens to deliver and install GSM switches and base stations and other technology in the nation’s Volga and Ural regions. In 2003, the number of wireless subscribers in Russia doubled from 18 million to 36 million.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
Comcast and Liberty Media announced settlement of a sticky entanglement that had forced Comcast to give up its lucrative stake in QVC after it bought AT&T Broadband in Nov. 2002. In the QVC transaction, Comcast got cash to pay down debt from the AT&T Broadband deal and gained 120.3 million shares of Liberty Media and Liberty got QVC. Under the arrangement announced Wed., Comcast disposed of those shares, returning them to Liberty Media in exchange for 100% stock ownership of Liberty subsidiary Encore ICCP, which has several moving parts. Comcast and Liberty also settled litigation.
Nokia reported Thurs. that while profits were up 14% in the 2nd quarter its overall sales declined 5.7%. Wireless phone sales decreased 13%. The news sent Nokia’s stock price down 13% in Helsinki to a 5-year low. Jorma Ollila, Nokia chmn., said the company will continue to cut prices on its handsets to remain competitive, and those cuts will hurt profits. “We will continue to use pricing selectively and aim to strengthen the competitiveness of our product portfolio in order to increase our market share,” he said. “As a result, we expect our profitability to continue to come under pressure during the second half of the year.” Ollila said the global handset market will likely surpass 600 million units for the year. He predicted especially strong growth in Russia, Brazil and India. “Europe and to a lesser extent the U.S. remained challenging,” Ollila said.
Telecom and intellectual property are among the major issues Russia should address before it can enter the WTO, a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) spokesman told us. “The pace of the accession process is determined by Russia,” he said: “It’s been an on-again and off-again process, but we are pleased the talks are on again.” The spokesman didn’t speculate on timing for the entry, but U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick indicated last week Russia could become a WTO member by year-end. “There is no limitation on our part in terns of trying to get that done by the end of the year and I would be very pleased if we could,” Zoellick said Fri. after the meetings of the OECD in Paris. He praised Russia for “making some headway” with the European Union, saying “that will be good because… once there is a commitment made to one country they apply to all countries.” He also noted that after Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected in March, there was a “renewed effort to try to work through some of the issues that we'll have to work through.” But he said there was “a real problem with intellectual property rights,” with the estimated loss from copyright piracy reaching $1 billion a year. The USTR spokesman said to enter the WTO, Russia should “make sure [of] fair access for American and European” carriers to its telecom market. He also said Russia should “put in place some domestic legislation to comply with the WTO” requirements.
Russian satellite Express AM11 was successfully launched early Tues. morning, said payload manufacturer Alcatel Space. The Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC) operates the Express AM satellites. The AM11 has 32 C-band transponders and 6 Ku-band transponders to provide TV, telephone and data transmissions throughout Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia, Alcatel said. The company will also provide payloads for AM2 and AM3, it said.
Wireless carriers were strongly criticized for generating much so-called “phantom traffic” -- which can’t be identified or classified for billing purposes -- at a daylong conference Wed. sponsored by the National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA) in Washington. “A lot of the traffic that is not being billed is originating from wireless carriers,” said NECA Vp-Operations James Frame. NECA Vp-Industry Relations Richard Snopkowski said the problem was that unidentified traffic “goes uncompensated, and therefore [there are] very severe revenue shortfalls” that especially affect local rural carriers.
Foreign “countries are typically opening up” their telecom markets to competition and foreign investment, a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) official told us: “There is a clear trend there.” The official said countries such as Cambodia and former Soviet Union republics had “opened up in terms of allowing new people to participate in the market. But at the same time, it’s hard” for foreign carriers to operate in many of those markets because “often [those markets] don’t have adequate rules to support competition.”
Metromedia International Group, which has interests in various communications and media businesses in Russia, Eastern Europe and the Republic of Georgia, said it sold its interest in FX Communications, otherwise known as Romsat Cable TV, and FX Internet. Metromedia sold to a consortium of buyers that includes Romania Cable Systems and Astral Telecom, for $16 million.
Citing a growing threat to public service broadcasting (PSB) across Europe, a Council of Europe (CoE) panel called on govts. to commit to strong, independent PSB and bring it into the Internet age. A report last week by the CoE’s Committee on Culture, Science & Education said PSB’s future was under attack by political and economic forces, growing competition from commercial media, media concentration, financial problems and the challenge of adapting to globalization and new technologies. The report is to be debated at the Parliamentary Assembly beginning Mon.
Many World Trade Organization (WTO) members still don’t comply with telecom trade agreements, comments filed with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week revealed. The comments were filed as part of USTR’s annual review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements on telecom products and services. The USTR is expected to conclude its review by March 31.