Enforta Expands Network Services to Russia’s Capital Cities with Investment into ART Communications
Amsterdam and Moscow September 19th, 2006
Enforta BV announced today that it has acquired a 51% share in ART Communications Ltd. ART Communications is amongst the largest wireless broadband operators in Russia serving the countries two largest cities of Moscow and St Petersburg as well as Moscow Region. Upon completing this investment, Enforta broadband services are now available in a total of 18 Russian regional capital cities as well as the growing Moscow Region market.
“Enforta’s initial strategy was to focus exclusively on Russia’s underserved regional markets, but our growing base of enterprise customers pushed us to extend services into Moscow and St Petersburg earlier than we had planned”, said Lee Sparkman, President of Enforta. “Due to the absence of additional radio spectrum, the only means to enter these two cities was through acquisition. Fortunately, we found the perfect partner in ART Communications.”
“It is clear that scale will be critical for success in the wireless broadband business and we wanted to affiliate with a company of like mind and objective”, said Alexander Ohotnikov, co-founder and General Director of ART Communications. “The joining of our two companies will clearly benefit both our current and future customers”. ART operates an extensive ‘pre-WiMAX’ network with over 60 base stations supplied by Infinet Wireless marketed under the “5G” brand. Enforta has experienced rapid growth this past year both building and acquiring broadband wireless operators.
In May Enforta announced the acquisition of ‘Netprovodov’ — the largest wireless broadband operator in Russia’s Ural region. This was followed by the acquisition of Sky Telecom in Rostov and Mir TV in Ufa during August. Simultaneously, the company has constructed its own operations in 12 cities. The inclusion of ART Communications gives Enforta the largest wireless broadband ‘footprint’ in Russia. Enforta plans to further extend services to a total of 30 cities by the end of 2007. Basic service packages including both Internet and voice start for as little as $44 per month.
About ART
ArtCommunications Ltd company began its activity in 1995. Today the clients of the company include state, enterprise, scientific, education, manufacturing, foreign representations and trade companies. The company provides broadband Internet access with speeds up to 11 Mbps as well as telephony services. See www.5g.ru or www.artcoms.ru.