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The Russian mobile phone provider Vimpelcom has declared the start of commercial operations of a 3.5G cellular network in Tajikistan. The company emphasizes that the Central Asian republic is within adequate range for the new services to work and will invest $100 million over the next five-six years to provide service all throughout Tajikistan. Vimpelcom plans to introduce 3.5G services in Russia after it receives licenses to work on third generation networks there.

Comment: It's interesting that Vimpelcom has chosen Tajikistan for introducing its next-generation network. This is presumably due to the fact that Tajikistan's open telecom market makes it attractive to foreign investment, whereas in Vimpelcom's own more bureaucratic Russia, government regulation impedes the rollout. (See article above)

Source:cnews.ru