Telecom briefs--Aug. 15

Russia to welcome a nationwide operator

Sonera Corporation, Russian telecommunications investment company AO Telecominvest and Telia Mobile have combined their Russian mobile holdings in order to form the first nationwide operator in Russia, where mobile-phone penetration is expected to increase during the next five to seven years,.

The operator will consist of St Petersburg’s GSM operator ZAO North-West GSM, Moscow’s third mobile-phone operator Sonic Duo and Telecominvest’s five local GSM 900/1800 operators. A single brand will be introduced later this year. The operator, which plans to participate in 3G, will cover 400,000 subscribers and 122 million potential customers, which represents 80% of Russia.

Legal confirmation of the merger is expected no later than the end of the first quarter of 2002, and the company's management will be appointed during the third quarter of this year.

CommWorks, Lucent score well on 3G interoperability testing

CommWorks Corporation and Lucent Technologies have concluded interoperability testing of their products for standards-based third-generation wireless networks.

The testing centered on CDMA2000 networks and involved Lucent Flexent CDMA network equipment and CommWorks' high-speed data networking solution.