How old is the Megafon company? MegaFon is one of the “Big Three” leaders in the domestic cellular communications market

Shareholders of MegaFon resolved a corporate dispute and agreed to change the ownership structure, the Swedish-Finnish company TeliaSonera reported. She now owns 35.6% of the shares
F directly and another 8.2% through the Telecominvest company. Another 31.13% is controlled by an entrepreneur who owns AF Telecom Holding and a share in Telecominvest. The remaining 25.1% belongs to the company Altimo, owned by -.

Altimo will sell its stake: 14.4% - to a subsidiary of MegaFon for $2.16 billion, and the remaining 10.7% - to AF Telecom for $1.61 billion. Another $200 million will be paid to Alpha's subsidiary TeliaSonera.

TeliaSonera will sell its stake in Telecominvest to Alisher Usmanov for $1.45 billion. Thus, the entrepreneur will gain control over MegaFon, concentrating 50.1% of the shares.

The shareholders decided that For the first time in its history, MegaFon will pay dividends, which will amount to $5.15 billion. In the future, the company will spend more than 50% of its net profit on dividends. The ratio of the company's net debt to EBITDA will remain at the level of 1.2–1.5, the rest will go to dividends, the shareholders decided.

Thus TeliaSonera will earn $3.3 billion, and Altimo - more than $5 billion. Alisher Usmanov’s expenses will be about $1.35 billion.

"In fact, upon redemption"MegaFon will pay all its shareholders for the time that the company did not pay dividends," says analyst Ilya Rachenkov.

Finally, the mobile operator announced plans to go public. The placement will take place on the London Stock Exchange. Investors will be offered 20% of MegaFon shares. Of these, 10.6% will be contributed by TeliaSonera, and 9.4% by MegaFon itself. TeliaSonera says it will retain 25% plus one share of the mobile operator in the long term.

MegaFon's prospects for IPO Amadeus financial analyst Evgeniy Ryabov is cautious in his assessment. “There is no particular interest in telecommunications assets now,” he says. “The market is very saturated, and there are no special prospects for its development.” At the same time, the expert notes that there is quite a strong interest in Russian assets on the Lodno exchange.

Other participants The Big Three and Co. listed on the stock exchange when cellular communications in Russia were still actively developing, recalls Evgeny Ryabov.

Until the completion of the IPO, MegaFon's board of directors will have three directors each from TeliaSonera and AF Telecom. In addition, the parties agreed that if MegaFon's IPO does not take place before the end of 2014, TeliaSonera will be able to sell AF Telecom or MegaFon's subsidiary 10.6% of the company's shares.

TeliaSonera (then there were two companies: Telia and Sonera) stood at the origins of the creation of MegaFon in 1993. Subsequently, the history of the mobile operator resembled a detective story. In 2001, the IPOC investment fund, whose owner the Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond called himself, received a blocking stake in the company. However, the media persistently attributed the fund to the Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman and a group of “St. Petersburg signalmen.”

Over more than 20 years of operation in the Russian market, MegaFon has come a long way from a small regional telecom operator to one of the largest in Russia and the absolute leader today in the field of mobile data transmission. During this time, the mobile communications industry has undergone dramatic changes, both in terms of technology development and customer needs. Today the company is a leader in the field of mobile data transmission. A stable business model and a clear strategy helped achieve such strong results, which ensured high competitiveness and sustainable creation of value for shareholders. At every stage of its history, MegaFon has followed the path of smart growth and the introduction of innovative technologies - be it in technological solutions, marketing, organizing internal processes or working with subscribers.

MegaFon today

• 1993-2001
• 2002-2006
• 2007-2013
• MegaFon today

Formation of the first all-Russian federal telecom operator

• January 1992 The idea of ​​creating a joint operator company emerged as a result of a meeting between the head of the information and computing center of the Leningrad intercity telephone exchange, Alexander Malyshev, and the owner of the West Link company, Evgeniy Kesarev, at which the new standard of modern GSM communications was discussed.
• June 17, 1993 MegaFon's birthday: the company was created and registered as North-West GSM CJSC, begins to develop from the North-West region, and not from Moscow, like other Russian cellular operators. In the first two years of operation, from 1994 to 1996, 8,000 subscribers were connected - three times more than planned.
• August 25, 1994 The first call on the GSM network in St. Petersburg: a conversation between Göran Olsen (Telia) and Aki Kinnunen (Telecom Finland) during the first press conference of North-West GSM.
• January 17, 1995 The first appearance of the new operator is the official start of commercial operation of the GSM network in St. Petersburg.
• 1996 North-West GSM is the first to provide its customers with automatic roaming services and SMS messaging services.
• Late 1996 The company becomes the undisputed leader in the St. Petersburg cellular communications market and the largest GSM operator in Russia, with more than 24,000 customers.
• 1997 The company expanded beyond the borders of the Leningrad region, launching GSM networks in Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Petrozavodsk.
• Late 90s Boom of the mobile communications market in Russia. It becomes clear that mobile communications should be available to everyone.
• August 1998 Creation of a mobile communications division, which, against the backdrop of the crisis, laid the foundation for the future MegaFon company.
• 1999 The company is the first to offer customers Internet access using WAP technology and makes cellular communications available in the metro: St. Petersburg becomes the fifth city in the world and the first in Russia where mobile communications go underground.
• December 1, 2000 The birth of the MegaFon brand - the operator's first SIM cards were sold in Saratov and Saransk. In 2000, the Saratov region and Mordovia were connected, in 2001 - the Samara region, in 2002 - Bashkortostan, Kalmykia, Volgograd, Astrakhan and Ulyanovsk regions.
• August 14, 2001 The creation of a single operator company providing services throughout Russia was announced - an unprecedented event for the Russian mobile communications market.
• November 21, 2001 With the launch of the network in Moscow, the development of the difficult Moscow market begins.
• May 29, 2002 CJSC North-West GSM was transformed into OJSC MegaFon: a group of companies was formed, which became the only operator in those years that had licenses to deploy mobile communication networks in all regions of Russia. By the end of the first year of operation under the MegaFon brand, the customer base increased 10 times and exceeded 1 million people.

Active growth and development of the company
The period from 2002 to 2006 became a period of rapid growth for MegaFon. We have focused our attention on achieving technological leadership and have made large investments in the construction of modern infrastructure.

• 2002 Active competition for market leadership begins: the MegaFon group of companies already provides services to 1.4 million subscribers (the share of mobile communications penetration in Russia is only 12.5%).
• July 16, 2002 MegaFon comes to the territory of the Greater Urals, investments in development double every year: from $43 million in 2003 to $160 million in 2005.
• December 2002 MegaFon-Center began operating in the Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh regions, in 2003 the network was launched in ten more subjects of the Central Federal District, and in April 2004 the development of the licensed territory was completed.
• December 6, 2003 Commercial operation of the MegaFon-Siberia network starts in Novosibirsk. An unusual offer for Siberia - roaming-free space, allowing you to make a call for the price of a local call over thousands of kilometers - confirms the operator’s innovative approach to doing business.
• 2004 A number of important events for the company:
  • The beginning of the active development of related mobile communication services: St. Petersburg is the first city in Europe where the MMS service was launched.
  • Start of the “Mobile TV” service.
  • MegaFon is coming to the Far East - service centers have been opened in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.
  • The licensed coverage of MegaFon and its subsidiaries already covers 100% of the territory of Russia - all 89 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, where 146 million people live.
  • The first landmark financial transaction: MegaFon places European bonds in the amount of $375 million (the number of applications submitted was four times higher than the offer).
  • The company becomes the only operator of confidential cellular communications (CCS) in Russia and can guarantee the preservation of the secrecy of conversations of its subscribers.
• 2005 MegaFon clients are the first in Russia to gain access to services based on EDGE technology. The territory of international roaming from MegaFon based on GPRS and EDGE covers 50 countries on four continents.
• 2004-2006 The rapid development of the network continues: Jewish Autonomous Region, Sakhalin, Amur Region, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Buryatia, Chita Region, Magadan, Kamchatka. In 2006, MegaFon became the first GSM cellular operator in the history of the region in Chukotka.
• 2007 Two geographical records: base stations are integrated simultaneously in the northernmost point of Russia - the village of Tiksi (Yakutia, the average temperature in January is minus 40˚) and in the easternmost - the Chukotka village of Provideniya.

Development of innovative technologies and investment in leadership
From 2007 to 2013, we continued to invest in innovative technologies to develop and modernize the network to improve the quality of service for our customers.

• 2007 MegaFon is the first among Russian mobile operators to launch new generation 3G networks.
• 2008 and 2009 The growth in the number of MegaFon subscribers is 22% and 16%, respectively. The company becomes a leader in the number of connections.
• 2010 MegaFon ranks second among the Big Three operators in terms of the number of subscribers (with a market share of 25.3%) and in terms of revenue.
• 2011 The number of users of unlimited Internet services increased by 25% - to 20 million. Mobile Internet is becoming the main driver of growth for the company, which invests its income in the large-scale construction of new generation networks.
• July 2012 One of four licenses for the provision of 4G/LTE services in Russia for a period of 10 years was received. Such services are provided in more than 50 regions of the country.
• November 2012 Initial public offering on the Moscow and London stock exchanges, which became the largest placement of Russian companies in 2012.
• October 2013 The acquisition of 100% of Scartel/Yota, which has 4G/LTE licenses, has been completed, allowing MegaFon to provide its subscribers with access to a unique range of services. Now MegaFon's frequency resource supports average and peak speeds four times higher than other operators.

MegaFon today: betting on effective growth
Today MegaFon is focused on customers, provides high quality services and relies on a balanced approach to investment in business development in order to maintain its leading position in the world.

• February 2014 MegaFon acted as the General Telecommunications Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi and fulfilled its promise to provide high-quality communication services to guests and participants of the Games. For this purpose, 4G+/LTE was launched in Sochi, the fastest mobile Internet network in the world, opening up a huge range of opportunities for working with online content - up to 300 Mbit/s.
• June 2014 Signing a seven-year contract with Huawei for the development and modernization of networks. Early payment of 90% of the total transaction value for Scartel/Yota. Inclusion of MegaFon's ordinary shares in the highest quotation list of the Moscow Exchange.
• November 2014 MegaFon signed a memorandum of understanding and interaction with Huawei as part of the creation and development of communication networks of the new 5G standard in Russia.
• 2014 We continued to improve the quality of customer service: thanks to optimal load distribution, we were able to increase the throughput of the contact center by 25%. In addition, we have created a new 24-hour virtual service “ELENA”, which recognizes voice commands and can help solve problems and answer client questions.
• January 2015 MegaFon tested a data transfer speed of 450 Mbit/s in joint tests with Ericsson.
• March 2015 MegaFon has entered into a 7-year agreement with Nokia, within the framework of which the operator’s federal 4G+ network will be built and modernized based on Single RAN radio access network technology.
• April 29, 2015 Changing the form of ownership of the company to Public Joint Stock Company MegaFon (PJSC MegaFon).
• July 30, 2015 During the first half of 2015, MegaFon's subscriber base increased to 73.8 million subscribers. Revenue from the priority mobile data business increased by more than 15%. The operator ranks first in Russia in this segment with a market share of 39.2%.
• August 31, 2015 MegaFon is starting to introduce voice services in the 4G network: subscribers of the Company's Capital branch now have access to VoLTE.
• August 2015 The acquisition of additional frequencies through the purchase of 100% shares of four companies of the SMARTS Group, which strengthened the Company’s position in the 900/1800 MHz band in the Volga region and the Central economic region. The deal will allow optimizing capital costs for network development in the future.
• September 2015 Acquisition of 100% shares of GARS Holding Ltd (“Gars”), which provides a full range of fixed-line telecommunications services for tenants of business centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This allowed the Company to expand its presence in the fixed-line communications market in the B2B segment in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

• June 16, 2016 in St. Petersburg, as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), MegaFon was the first in Russia and one of the first in the world to demonstrate mobile data transmission at 5G speeds - more than 1 Gbit/s. During testing, Huawei network and terminal equipment and a prototype subscriber device based on a Qualcomm modem were used.
• July 28, 2016 MegaFon and Nokia signed a memorandum of cooperation on the development of the 5G standard in Russia. The result of the partnership will be the testing of new solutions within the framework of joint pilot projects and the possible construction of a 5G test cluster at Russian stadiums participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
• August 22, 2016 MegaFon presented a bank card that has no analogues in the world. Its uniqueness is that the account of this card is a mobile phone account. With its help, MegaFon subscribers can pay wherever cards of the Mastercard payment system, which has the widest acceptance network, are accepted. When paying, funds are debited from your phone balance.
• September 21, 2016 As part of the V international business summit in Nizhny Novgorod, MegaFon showed record speeds of mobile data transfer in Russia. During the demonstration, the speed reached 4.94 Gbps. MegaFon, together with Nokia, has come close to 5 Gbit/s and demonstrated the speeds of the mobile Internet of the future.
• September 2016 MegaFon has launched commercial operation of voice transmission services over LTE networks (VoLTE) in Moscow and the Moscow region. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) allows you to transmit voice, video and SMS messages over 4G networks without switching to 2G/3G networks.

Sometimes, reading publications that come out about our company, we come across the incorrect spelling of the brand name “MegaFon”. “MegaFon” with a capital letter “F” is the name of the organization and trademark, and not our whim. :)
We would like to tell you how the company name was born more than 10 years ago, and at the same time ask you to spell the word “MegaFon” correctly in relation to our brand. OK?:)

The first all-Russian mobile operator appeared in public on December 1, 2000 in Saratov and Saransk: on this day the first SIM cards of MegaFon were sold here. However, the definition of this date requires clarification. Russia was on the verge of a mobile boom. In St. Petersburg, the parent company, North-West GSM, with its own separate history, has been making waves for seven whole years. There, in St. Petersburg, he collected the telecommunications assets of OJSC Telecominvest with the idea of ​​​​promoting into Russian regions. And the emergence of a new company was the result of a lot of preparatory work, but unnoticeable to the general public.

So what happened on this day?

The company said its name out loud for the first time, but it didn’t mean anything to anyone yet. It had not yet been identified with a face (the company did not have a face yet!), did not evoke associations or emotions, it was just a word.

When the decision was made to create an all-Russian operator, the question arose of what to call it.

The debate was long, several options were offered to choose from, one of which was “MegaFon” with a capital letter “F” in the middle of the word. MegaFon - can be interpreted as a derivative of the words “mega” and “background”. The background is the sound. Mobile communications are, first and foremost, voice and sound. With numerous “communications” and “telecom” in company names, we abandoned such associations, conveying our idea using a familiar word, but at the same time giving it a new meaning. The word Mega speaks for itself; it is scale, ambition, goals, achievements. In other words, the word “mega” reflects our approach to business and our vision. We became, perhaps, the first company not only in the cellular communications market, but also one of the first companies in Russia that focused not on rational motives, but on the emotional perception of the world. We, a young company, had to compete with the “bison” of the market. It is clear that in the area of ​​rational arguments: quality of network coverage, price, it was difficult for us to compete with them. 10 years have passed, and there is no need to rebrand, despite the fact that over the years both the world and the company have changed. This suggests that the work was done very well.

In St. Petersburg, at the Telecominvest office on Nevsky Prospekt, the Moscow and St. Petersburg agencies that participated in the brand development competition presented their presentations. Some were rejected immediately (for example, “People’s Communications” - “Narkom” was proposed as one of the names), but there were still more than twenty options for the brand name, and not one of them was accepted unconditionally.

Since time was running out, we agreed at the next meeting in Moscow not to disperse until agreement was reached and a name was chosen.

In Moscow, the elimination continued. In the end, there were three finalist names left. And here I found a scythe on a stone. The debate goes on for an hour or two - the people gathered are young, creative. Everyone defends their opinion. As a result, someone suggested: let's write down all three names and send them to the secretaries on the floors. Let everyone they meet put a plus next to one of the options - whichever one has the most votes, we will choose. In general, the score was 2:5:19 in favor of MegaFon. That's what we decided.
The MegaFon brand eventually gave its name to the company. When its final legal registration took place in 2002, it began to be called the same as its trademark.

By the way, these similar concepts - brand and trademark - are often confused. A trademark is the territory of lawyers, while a brand is a symbol that exists in the imagination. Moreover, associations associated with a brand are not limited to the company’s image in the eyes of the consumer, but also include information about a product or service, promises, and, recently, also the level of service.

The fact that the company adopted the brand name means that from the very beginning it intended to share its values ​​with customers and partners. MegaFon for the general public and MegaFon for “internal use” were supposed to be identical.
This is how the company acquired its unique identity, unlike anyone else’s. But the main discovery of the new company’s brand was not even in the logo or color combination.

MegaFon became the first among Russian operators whose slogan, the main words addressed to the client, did not mention either mobile communications, or communications in general, or telephones, or “telecom” in the broad sense, or even communication as such. Instead, simple words were heard from screens, billboards and speakers - “The future depends on you”, understandable and close to everyone.

, cable television and a number of related services.

Story

• 1993, June 17 - date of registration of North-West GSM CJSC (St. Petersburg). Alexander Malyshev became the first general director. The largest foreign investors were the Scandinavian companies Sonera (Finland), Telia International AB (Sweden) and Telenor Invest AS (Norway). Telecommunications equipment was purchased from Nokia.
• 1994 - commercial operation began second after MTS [ ] in Russia GSM (2G) networks.
• 1999 - the number of company subscribers exceeded 100,000 people. By this time, the North-West GSM network had completely covered St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region and was actively developing in the northern regions of the North-West.
• July 1999 - North-West GSM was the first among Russian operators to enter into roaming agreements with all European countries without exception. In the same year, for the first time in Russia, cellular communications appeared in the St. Petersburg metro; the range of additional operator services for the first time in the country was supplemented with the “WAP Internet access” service.
• 2000 - shareholders adopted a new company development strategy aimed at developing the mass market.
• November 2001 - the number of North-West GSM subscribers exceeded 500,000 people.
• May 2002 - the number of North-West GSM subscribers exceeded 1 million people.
• May 7, 2002 - CJSC North-West GSM was renamed OJSC MegaFon during rebranding. On April 28, 2002, the company began rebranding, which consisted of changing the logo. At this time, CJSC North-West GSM was joined by the companies CJSC Sonic Duo (Moscow-Yekaterinburg), CJSC Mobicom-Kavkaz (Krasnodar), CJSC Mobicom-Center (Nizhny Novgorod), CJSC Mobicom-Novosibirsk, JSC Mobikom-Khabarovsk, JSC MSS-Povolzhye, JSC Volzhsky GSM (Saransk, Republic of Mordovia)
• On October 2, 2007, Megafon put into operation the first fragment of the third generation IMT-2000/UMTS (3G) network in Russia in St. Petersburg and part of the Leningrad region. For the first time in the country, the radio access subsystem UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network), including 30 base stations, was put into pilot commercial operation. Already on October 24, 2007, Megafon announced the start of providing standard cellular communication services in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. For the first time in Russia, the following became available to a wide range of users: Internet access at a speed ten times higher than the data transfer speed using all second and second and a half generation (2G and 2.5G) technologies operating in GSM networks (GPRS / EDGE), “ Mobile television" of high quality, video communication.
• December 2008 - an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of MegaFon OJSC decided to reorganize MegaFon OJSC in the form of merging with it Sonic Duo CJSC (Moscow), Ural GSM CJSC (Ekaterinburg), Mobicom-Kavkaz CJSC "(Krasnodar), CJSC Mobicom-Center (Nizhny Novgorod), CJSC Mobicom-Novosibirsk, CJSC Mobicom-Khabarovsk, OJSC MSS-Povolzhye.
• On March 16, 2009, Megafon created a virtual cellular operator “Just for Communication” on the basis of the Capital branch.
• On July 1, 2009, the reorganization was completed, and now mobile communication services in Russia are provided by the North-Western, Stolichny, Caucasian, Central, Volga, Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern branches of MegaFon OJSC.
• On September 25, 2009, the rebranding of TT Mobile CJSC, which provides telecommunications services under the MLT brand - Mobile Lines of Tajikistan, was announced. The new name of the company is MegaFon-Tajikistan. However, the leadership of Tajikistan did not support the rebranding of TT Mobile, and therefore it was postponed. On July 20, 2011, the rebranding of TT Mobile CJSC was announced. The MLT brand received a new name - Megafon-Tajikistan.
• In 2009, Megafon became the official mobile operator of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• On April 23, 2012, Megafon provided the opportunity to access fourth generation mobile communication services (4G).
• October 16, 2012 - launch of the MegaFon distributed hardware and software platform for CDN services in collaboration with CDNetworks.
• On December 19, 2014, the company’s largest shareholder, Alisher Usmanov, transferred a controlling stake in Megafon to Russia.
• On February 25, 2014, Megafon launched commercial operation of the LTE-Advanced network in Moscow inside the Garden Ring.
• On August 31, 2015, Megafon launched test voice calls on the LTE network.

Logo

The company changed 3 logos. The current one is the 4th in a row.

The very first logo (1993-2002)

Error creating thumbnail: File not found

Logo in 2002-2007.

Error creating thumbnail: File not found

Logo in 2007-2013.

MegaFon sign+logo horiz green RU (RGB).svg

Logo from 2013 to present.

Owners and management

The company's largest shareholders are Sberbank PJSC (52% minus one share) (are pledged, previously the share was 33.1%), TeliaSonera (25.17%), Alisher Usmanov's USM Group (4.32% + 1 share) and MegaFon Investments (Cyprus) Limited - a subsidiary of MegaFon itself (3.92%). 14.59% of shares are in free float.

General Directors Chairmen of the Board of Directors

Scandals related to the IPOC Foundation

In the early 2000s, information appeared in the media that the actual owner of the company was allegedly the Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman. A number of media outlets named Leonid Reiman as the beneficiary of the IPOC fund (until 2008, the largest shareholder of MegaFon). Leonid Reiman himself has repeatedly denied this information, and the Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond called himself the owner of the fund, who subsequently sold his stake in MegaFon to the AF-Telecom holding of Alisher Usmanov. Upon completion of the transaction, Usmanov will gain control of 39.3% of the shares of the mobile operator. The estimated transaction amount is at least $5 billion.

In the spring of 2008, representatives of the IPOC fund, which owns 8% of Megafon shares (as well as offshore companies affiliated with it), admitted in the courts of the Virgin Islands and Bermuda that the company was involved in operations related to money laundering. In accordance with settlement agreements concluded between local authorities and IPOC-affiliated structures, its owners agreed to liquidate all of their 12 Caribbean offshore companies, compensate for the costs of investigations and court hearings, and pay a fine of $45.45 million.

Entering the stock exchange

At the end of April 2012, it was announced that Megafon shareholders had reached an agreement on the company's entry into the stock exchange (IPO), the last of the "big three" Russian mobile operators. Also on April 24, 2012, the shareholder structure changed, as a result of which Altimo withdrew from the shareholders (receiving $5.2 billion for its shares), AF Telecom of Alisher Usmanov received a controlling stake (50% and one share), TeliaSonera's share was reduced to 35 .6% shares.

On July 10, 2012, the shareholders of Megafon and Scartel announced the completion of the transaction, as a result of which the ownership structure of both operators changed. The owner of 50% plus 1 share of MegaFon and 100% of Scartel was the holding company Garsdale Services (British Virgin Islands), 82% of which was received by Alisher Usmanov, and 18% was divided by Telconet Capital of entrepreneur Sergei Adonyev and the state corporation Russian Technologies in proportion to their shares in Scartel.

Mergers and acquisitions

With the acquisition in June 2010 of one of the leading Russian trunk operators, the Synterra group, Megafon entered the fixed-line communications market for large government and corporate clients, as well as fixed broadband access (BBA) services. GSM 900/1800, 3G, VSAT, IP/MPLS, long-distance/international, data centers, and data centers networks operate on the basis of the unified infrastructure.

In 2010, it cost 2 billion rubles. acquired 100% of CJSC Metrocom, the largest fixed-line operator in St. Petersburg, a major Internet provider and owner of a fiber-optic network in the St. Petersburg metro. In the spring of 2011, MegaFon acquired the company NetByNet, one of the leading players in the Moscow broadband market (315 thousand subscribers). The transaction amount was estimated at $350-360 million. In April 2011, he acquired 100% of the shares of one of the oldest Internet providers in St. Petersburg, Web Plus CJSC.

In October 2013, Megafon acquired 100% of the Scartel/Iota group from the Garsdale holding. The transaction amount was $1.18 billion excluding debt.

Activity

The MegaFon company provides cellular (GSM, UMTS and LTE) and fixed-line communications services to individuals and legal entities under the trademark of the same name.

Statistics

The number of subscribers (according to the company) as of December 2012 is 64,646,707.

Prefixes

The company uses the following prefixes:

• Far Eastern branch: 924, 929-4, 934-4
• Caucasian branch: 928, 929-8, 938

(Belgorod region, Voronezh region, Lipetsk region, Tambov region): 920-(2.4.5), 929-0-(0.1), 930-(0.4)

• Volga branch: 927, 929-7, 937

(Orenburg region): 922-(5,6,8), 929-201, 932-(2.5)

• North-Western branch: 921, 929-1, 929, 931

(Vologda region, Ivanovo region, Kostroma region, Smolensk region, Tver region, Yaroslavl region, Pskov region): 920-(1,3,6), 929-0-(7,8,9), 930-(0, 1.3), 999-0

• Siberian branch: 923, 929-3, 933
• Capital branch: 925, 926, 929-(5,6,9), 936
• Ural branch: 922, 929-2, 932
• Central branch: 920, 929-0, 930

Since December 1, 2013, telephone number portability has been in effect in Russia.

Performance indicators

The number of personnel at the end of 2010 was 24 thousand people.

In September 2010, it took second place in Russia in terms of revenue among the Big Three operators, overtaking VimpelCom in this indicator. The company's revenue for 2010 according to US GAAP amounted to 215.6 billion rubles. (for 2009 - 181.9 billion rubles), net profit - 49.17 billion rubles. (RUB 45.3 billion). On December 9, 2011, MegaFon acquired the large Ural provider YugraTel. The transaction amount was 2.4 billion rubles.

IP telephony

The company has created a program that allows you to make and receive calls, including long-distance and international calls, over the Internet, as well as make and receive video calls, chat and use other features.

Megafon tried to limit access to Skype services on its networks, and even charge a separate fee for its use. MegaFon also tried, according to unconfirmed information, to restrict access to Skype at the legislative level in 2009 .

CDN

Company branches

Capital branch

"Megafon-Moscow" is a trademark of the Moscow branch, which has been providing communication services since July 1, 2009 in Moscow and the Moscow region. Number of subscribers - 5,309,326 people (as of March 1, 2007), more than 7.3 million subscribers as of November 2009.

On July 1, 2009, the process of reorganization of Sonic Duo CJSC, a subsidiary of MegaFon PJSC, which provided communication services in Moscow and the region from November 2001 to June 30, 2009, was completed in the form of merger with MegaFon PJSC.

Coverage area

Covers almost all Moscow metro stations with the GSM network, surpassing its competitors Beeline and MTS in this indicator. The vast majority of stations have a 3G network available.

Siberian branch

The Siberian branch operates in the Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Omsk and Tomsk regions, Altai and Krasnoyarsk territories, the Altai, Khakassia and Tyva republics. Uses the Megafon-Siberia brand.

Number of subscribers - 2.2 million people. From January to July 2009, the process of reorganization of Mobicom-Novosibirsk CJSC was carried out in the form of merger with MegaFon PJSC.

Northwestern branch

The North-Western branch represents the interests of the operator in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the Arkhangelsk region and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Vologda, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod, Pskov regions and the Republic of Karelia. Since July 1, 2009, the branch zone has included Ivanovo, Kostroma, Smolensk, Tver and Yaroslavl regions.

Fixed-line communication services are provided to legal entities and entrepreneurs without forming a legal entity.

On September 12, 2012, the North-Western branch was the first in St. Petersburg to announce almost complete coverage of the tunnels of the St. Petersburg metro with cellular communications and mobile Internet.

Far Eastern branch

The Far Eastern branch operates in the Irkutsk, Amur, Sakhalin and Magadan regions, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Transbaikal, Khabarovsk, Primorsky and Kamchatka territories, the Republics of Buryatia and Sakha (Yakutia), and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

The department was created in 2004-2005. The coverage area was partially provided by our own towers; in the Kamchatka and Magadan regions, work was carried out under the terms of equipment rental from Dalsvyaz. In 2007, the company switched to providing its own communication systems.

CJSC Mobicom-Khabarovsk is a 100% subsidiary of PJSC MegaFon. From January to July 2009, the process of reorganization of Mobicom-Khabarovsk CJSC was carried out in the form of merger with MegaFon PJSC.

• MegaFon-Far East company is the first in the Far Eastern region:
  • announced that outgoing calls to all numbers in the Far East and to MegaFon numbers in Russia are local calls and, accordingly, are charged at local prices.
  • introduced a single roaming-free space for its subscribers. Thanks to this, every Far Eastern MegaFon subscriber can use his number throughout the entire Far East, regardless of in which region he connected to the network.
  • introduced a special “Transit” tariff, the main feature of which is free incoming calls when within the coverage area of ​​the MegaFon network in Siberia and the Far East, a single cost for outgoing calls to all numbers in Siberia and the Far East and to MegaFon numbers in Russia. Thus, subscribers served on this tariff plan receive a single roaming-free space from the Omsk region to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

Volga region branch

The Volga region branch was formed in 2009 after the merger of MSS-Povolzhye OJSC with Megafon PJSC. Covers the territory of the Astrakhan, Volgograd, Penza, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov, Ulyanovsk regions, the republics of Bashkortostan, Kalmykia, Mari El, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Chuvashia. The main office of the branch is located in Samara.

Caucasian branch

The Telecominvest branch was created in 2001, Mobicom-Kavkaz CJSC became an investment project of the MegaFon trademark in the Caucasus. The network was built in the summer of 2001, and the first subscribers who were in roaming immediately appeared. Sales of telephone numbers started in mid-August. At the first stage, serious investments were made in the network: a program was implemented under which 200 base stations were installed in the region: 50 in the Stavropol Territory, 50 in the Rostov Region and 100 in the Krasnodar Territory. The system was implemented on three switches with 90,000 numbers each, the network operated in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands. The cost of implementing the program was more than $30 million.

The Caucasian branch was formed on July 1, 2009 during the reorganization of MegaFon PJSC, by merging 100% of the subsidiaries of Mobicom-Kavkaz CJSC and the Southern branch of Mobicom-Center CJSC.

The coverage area of ​​the Caucasian branch extends to the territory of the Rostov, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Tambov and Belgorod regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, as well as the republics: Adygea, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Republic of Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Chechen Republic , Republic of Ingushetia.

CJSC Mobicom-Kavkaz is a 100% subsidiary of PJSC MegaFon. From January to July 2009, the process of reorganization of Mobicom-Kavkaz CJSC was carried out in the form of merger with MegaFon PJSC. The main office of the branch is located in the city of Krasnodar.

Central branch

The central branch operates in the Bryansk, Vladimir, Kaluga, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Ryazan and Tula regions. The MegaFon network in the Central region was launched into commercial operation on December 10, 2002 with the opening of a fragment of the network in Nizhny Novgorod. Provides services in the Nizhny Novgorod, Kursk, Vladimir, Ryazan, Bryansk, Kaluga, Tula, and Oryol regions. The main office of the branch is located in Nizhny Novgorod.

Ural branch

The Ural branch provides services in the Kirov, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk regions, Perm Territory, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the republics of Udmurtia, Komi and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The main office of the branch is located in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Tajik branch

Ukrainian branch

The legal entity of the branch in Ukraine is MF Telecom LLC, created in 2012. The main office is in Kyiv.

Violations of antitrust laws

In March 2010, on behalf of the Chairman of the Russian Government, Vladimir Putin, the Federal Antimonopoly Service opened a case against the Big Three operators, including Megafon, on grounds of violation of the law on the protection of competition. According to the FAS Russia, the operator set unreasonably high prices for roaming services, and also did not properly inform subscribers about changes in the roaming payment procedure.

As a result of the consideration of the case, tariffs for roaming services were reduced for voice services, for SMS messaging services and for mobile Internet services. The Federal Antimonopoly Service, taking into account the actions taken by the company, found it to have violated paragraph 1 of part 1 of Article 10 of the Law “On Protection of Competition” and issued an order to eliminate the violation by reducing tariffs and introducing SMS informing subscribers about roaming conditions.

Criticism

In July 2007, careless advertising of the operator's services caused an international scandal. At the request of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia, a commercial for the company was removed from television, in which Azerbaijan is indicated on the geographical map as the territory of Armenia. In the video, only the capital of Armenia Yerevan was present on the map and there was no mention of Baku. MegaFon recognized the claims as fair.

In the summer of 2012, the non-disconnectable “Internet Click” service was launched for all subscribers, simplifying the debiting of funds from their phone account. There have been opinions that it is widely used by scammers. The option to ban “Internet Click” appeared only at the beginning of 2013.

Claims regarding data roaming tariffs

In 2010, Megafon went to court, intending to recover 1 million rubles from one of its subscribers in compensation for losses for the roaming services provided to the subscriber on the island of Crete (the owners of the Megafon 3G modem, while on vacation, downloaded several episodes of a popular series). During the trial of the case in the Leninsky District Court of the city of Vladimir, the court established facts indicating the illegality of MegaFon's demands: the agreement with the subscriber did not provide for the provision of roaming services; the contract with the subscriber was drawn up with significant violations of the law; the operator, at its own expense, provided services on credit to the subscriber with an advance payment system; the operator on the island of Crete, to which Megafon referred, has long ceased operations. These and a number of other facts were the basis for the denial of the claims, after which the company itself abandoned the claim.

In development of this case, the Vladimir branch of the public organization "Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights - People's Control" filed a lawsuit in the Leninsky District Court of the city of Vladimir, insisting that Megafon and its Vladimir branch must indicate in the subscriber agreement all terms of service, including and conditions for Internet access in roaming. In September 2011, this court ruled in favor of an indefinite number of persons, declaring “the actions of PJSC MegaFon to not include in the standard form of a public agreement for the provision of mobile communication services and telematic communication services the essential conditions provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation” illegal and obliging the company to include this information in the standard form of a public contract.

Incidents

On July 18, 2011, approximately 8,000 SMS messages sent to Megafon users through the company’s website were indexed by the Yandex search engine and were publicly available for two hours. It was enough to enter the request url: sendsms.megafon.ru into the Yandex search line, and the results would display messages with the subscriber numbers of SMS recipients. The problem was fixed within two hours. Representatives of the cellular operator explained the incident by saying that “a technical failure occurred, as a result of which a number of customer messages sent through the MegaFon website ended up in the Yandex search database.” But “the outage did not affect customer SMS messages sent through phones and other mobile devices.” Yandex, for its part, explained the situation by the absence of a robots.txt file, which indicates pages that the system’s search robot does not index.

Kutuzov retreated to Vienna, destroying behind him bridges on the rivers Inn (in Braunau) and Traun (in Linz). On October 23, Russian troops crossed the Enns River. Russian convoys, artillery and columns of troops in the middle of the day stretched through the city of Enns, on this side and on the other side of the bridge.
The day was warm, autumn and rainy. The vast perspective that opened up from the elevation where the Russian batteries stood protecting the bridge was suddenly covered with a muslin curtain of slanting rain, then suddenly expanded, and in the light of the sun objects as if covered with varnish became visible far away and clearly. A town could be seen underfoot with its white houses and red roofs, a cathedral and a bridge, on both sides of which masses of Russian troops poured, crowding. At the bend of the Danube one could see ships, an island, and a castle with a park, surrounded by the waters of the Ensa confluence with the Danube; one could see the left rocky bank of the Danube covered with pine forests with the mysterious distance of green peaks and blue gorges. The towers of the monastery were visible, protruding from behind a pine forest that seemed untouched; far ahead on the mountain, on the other side of Ens, enemy patrols could be seen.
Between the guns, at a height, the chief of the rearguard, a general, and a retinue officer stood in front, examining the terrain through a telescope. Somewhat behind, Nesvitsky, sent from the commander-in-chief to the rearguard, sat on the trunk of a gun.
The Cossack accompanying Nesvitsky handed over a handbag and a flask, and Nesvitsky treated the officers to pies and real doppelkümel. The officers joyfully surrounded him, some on their knees, some sitting cross-legged on the wet grass.
- Yes, this Austrian prince was not a fool to build a castle here. Nice place. Why don't you eat, gentlemen? - Nesvitsky said.
“I humbly thank you, prince,” answered one of the officers, enjoying talking with such an important staff official. - Beautiful place. We walked past the park itself, saw two deer, and what a wonderful house!
“Look, prince,” said the other, who really wanted to take another pie, but was ashamed, and who therefore pretended that he was looking around the area, “look, our infantry have already climbed there.” Over there, in the meadow outside the village, three people are dragging something. “They will break through this palace,” he said with visible approval.
“Both,” said Nesvitsky. “No, but what I would like,” he added, chewing the pie in his beautiful, moist mouth, “is to climb up there.”
He pointed to a monastery with towers visible on the mountain. He smiled, his eyes narrowed and lit up.
- But that would be good, gentlemen!
The officers laughed.
- At least scare these nuns. Italians, they say, are young. Really, I would give five years of my life!
“They’re bored,” said the bolder officer, laughing.
Meanwhile, the retinue officer standing in front was pointing something out to the general; the general looked through the telescope.
“Well, so it is, so it is,” the general said angrily, lowering the receiver from his eyes and shrugging his shoulders, “and so it is, they will attack the crossing.” And why are they hanging around there?
On the other side, the enemy and his battery were visible to the naked eye, from which milky white smoke appeared. Following the smoke, a distant shot was heard, and it was clear how our troops hurried to the crossing.
Nesvitsky, puffing, stood up and, smiling, approached the general.
- Would your Excellency like to have a snack? - he said.
“It’s not good,” said the general, without answering him, “our people hesitated.”
– Shouldn’t we go, Your Excellency? – said Nesvitsky.
“Yes, please go,” said the general, repeating what had already been ordered in detail, “and tell the hussars to be the last to cross and light the bridge, as I ordered, and to inspect the flammable materials on the bridge.”
“Very good,” answered Nesvitsky.
He called to the Cossack with the horse, ordered him to remove his purse and flask, and easily threw his heavy body onto the saddle.
“Really, I’ll go see the nuns,” he said to the officers, who looked at him with a smile, and drove along the winding path down the mountain.
- Come on, where will it go, captain, stop it! - said the general, turning to the artilleryman. - Have fun with boredom.
- Servant to the guns! - the officer commanded.
And a minute later the artillerymen cheerfully ran out from the fires and loaded.
- First! - a command was heard.
Number 1 bounced smartly. The gun rang metallic, deafening, and a grenade flew whistling over the heads of all our people under the mountain and, not reaching the enemy, showed with smoke the place of its fall and burst.
The faces of the soldiers and officers brightened at this sound; everyone got up and began observing the visible movements of our troops below and in front of us - the movements of the approaching enemy. At that very moment the sun completely came out from behind the clouds, and this beautiful sound of a single shot and the shine of the bright sun merged into one cheerful and cheerful impression.

Two enemy cannonballs had already flown over the bridge, and there was a crush on the bridge. In the middle of the bridge, having dismounted from his horse, pressed with his thick body against the railing, stood Prince Nesvitsky.
He, laughing, looked back at his Cossack, who, with two horses in the lead, stood a few steps behind him.
As soon as Prince Nesvitsky wanted to move forward, the soldiers and carts again pressed on him and again pressed him against the railing, and he had no choice but to smile.
- What are you, my brother! - the Cossack said to the Furshtat soldier with the cart, who was pressing on the infantry crowded with the very wheels and horses, - what are you! No, to wait: you see, the general has to pass.
But furshtat, not paying attention to the name of the general, shouted at the soldiers blocking his way: “Hey!” fellow countrymen! keep left, wait! “But the fellow countrymen, crowding shoulder to shoulder, clinging with bayonets and without interruption, moved along the bridge in one continuous mass. Looking down over the railing, Prince Nesvitsky saw the fast, noisy, low waves of Ens, which, merging, rippling and bending around the bridge piles, overtook one another. Looking at the bridge, he saw equally monotonous living waves of soldiers, coats, shakos with covers, backpacks, bayonets, long guns and, from under the shakos, faces with wide cheekbones, sunken cheeks and carefree tired expressions, and moving legs along the sticky mud dragged onto the boards of the bridge . Sometimes, between the monotonous waves of soldiers, like a splash of white foam in the waves of Ens, an officer in a raincoat, with his own physiognomy different from the soldiers, squeezed between the soldiers; sometimes, like a chip winding through a river, a foot hussar, an orderly or a resident was carried across the bridge by waves of infantry; sometimes, like a log floating along the river, surrounded on all sides, a company or officer's cart, piled to the top and covered with leather, floated across the bridge.
“Look, they’ve burst like a dam,” the Cossack said, stopping hopelessly. -Are there many of you still there?
– Melion without one! - a cheerful soldier walking nearby in a torn overcoat said winking and disappeared; another, old soldier walked behind him.
“When he (he is the enemy) begins to fry the taperich on the bridge,” the old soldier said gloomily, turning to his comrade, “you will forget to itch.”
And the soldier passed by. Behind him another soldier rode on a cart.
“Where the hell did you stuff the tucks?” - said the orderly, running after the cart and rummaging in the back.
And this one came with a cart. This was followed by cheerful and apparently drunk soldiers.
“How can he, dear man, blaze with the butt right in the teeth…” one soldier in an overcoat tucked high said joyfully, waving his hand widely.
- This is it, sweet ham is that. - answered the other with laughter.
And they passed, so Nesvitsky did not know who was hit in the teeth and what the ham was.
“They’re in a hurry, he let the cold one in, so you think they’ll kill everyone.” - the non-commissioned officer said angrily and reproachfully.
“As soon as it flies past me, uncle, that cannonball,” said the young soldier, barely restraining laughter, with a huge mouth, “I froze.” Really, by God, I was so scared, it’s a disaster! - said this soldier, as if boasting that he was scared. And this one passed. Following him was a carriage, unlike any that had passed so far. It was a German steam-powered forshpan, loaded, it seemed, with a whole house; tied behind the forshpan that the German was carrying was a beautiful, motley cow with a huge udder. On the feather beds sat a woman with a baby, an old woman and a young, purple-red, healthy German girl. Apparently, these evicted residents were allowed through with special permission. The eyes of all the soldiers turned to the women, and while the cart passed, moving step by step, all the soldiers' comments related only to two women. Almost the same smile of lewd thoughts about this woman was on all their faces.
- Look, the sausage is also removed!
“Sell mother,” another soldier said, emphasizing the last syllable, turning to the German, who, with his eyes downcast, walked angrily and fearfully with wide steps.
- How did she clean up? Damn it!
“If only you could stand with them, Fedotov.”
- You saw it, brother!
- Where are you going? - asked the infantry officer who was eating an apple, also half-smiling and looking at the beautiful girl.
The German, closing his eyes, showed that he did not understand.
“If you want, take it for yourself,” the officer said, handing the girl an apple. The girl smiled and took it. Nesvitsky, like everyone else on the bridge, did not take his eyes off the women until they passed. When they passed, the same soldiers walked again, with the same conversations, and finally everyone stopped. As often happens, at the exit of the bridge the horses in the company cart hesitated, and the entire crowd had to wait.
- And what do they become? There is no order! - said the soldiers. -Where are you going? Damn! There's no need to wait. Even worse, he will set the bridge on fire. “Look, they’ve locked up the officer too,” the stopped crowds said from different sides, looking at each other, and still huddled forward towards the exit.
Looking under the bridge at the waters of Ens, Nesvitsky suddenly heard a sound that was still new to him, quickly approaching... something big and something plopping into the water.
- Look where it's going! – the soldier standing close said sternly, looking back at the sound.
“He’s encouraging them to pass quickly,” said another restlessly.
The crowd moved again. Nesvitsky realized that it was the core.
- Hey, Cossack, give me the horse! - he said. - Well you! stay away! step aside! way!
With great effort he reached the horse. Still screaming, he moved forward. The soldiers squeezed to give him way, but again they pressed on him again so that they crushed his leg, and those closest were not to blame, because they were pressed even harder.
- Nesvitsky! Nesvitsky! “You, madam!” a hoarse voice was heard from behind.
Nesvitsky looked around and saw, fifteen paces away, separated from him by a living mass of moving infantry, red, black, shaggy, with a cap on the back of his head and a brave mantle draped over his shoulder, Vaska Denisov.
“Tell them what to give to the devils,” he shouted. Denisov, apparently in a fit of ardor, shining and moving his coal-black eyes with inflamed whites and waving his unsheathed saber, which he held with a bare little hand as red as his face.
- Eh! Vasya! – Nesvitsky answered joyfully. -What are you talking about?
“Eskadg “onu pg” you can’t go,” shouted Vaska Denisov, angrily opening his white teeth, spurring his beautiful black, bloody Bedouin, who, blinking his ears from the bayonets he bumped into, snorting, spraying foam from the mouthpiece around him, ringing, he beat his hooves on the boards of the bridge and seemed ready to jump over the railings of the bridge if the rider would allow him. - What is this? like bugs! exactly like bugs! Pg "och... give dog" ogu!... Stay there! you're a wagon, chog"t! I'll kill you with a saber! - he shouted, actually taking out his saber and starting to wave it.
The soldiers with frightened faces pressed against each other, and Denisov joined Nesvitsky.
- Why aren’t you drunk today? – Nesvitsky said to Denisov when he drove up to him.
“And they won’t let you get drunk!” answered Vaska Denisov. “They’ve been dragging the regiment here and there all day long. It’s like that, it’s like that. Otherwise, who knows what it is!”
- What a dandy you are today! – Nesvitsky said, looking at his new mantle and saddle pad.
Denisov smiled, took out a handkerchief from his cart, which emitted the smell of perfume, and stuck it in Nesvitsky’s nose.
- I can’t, I’m going to work! I got out, brushed my teeth and put on perfume.
The dignified figure of Nesvitsky, accompanied by a Cossack, and the determination of Denisov, waving his saber and shouting desperately, had such an effect that they squeezed onto the other side of the bridge and stopped the infantry. Nesvitsky found a colonel at the exit to whom he needed to convey the order, and, having fulfilled his instructions, went back.
Having cleared the road, Denisov stopped at the entrance to the bridge. Casually holding back the stallion rushing towards his own and kicking, he looked at the squadron moving towards him.
Transparent sounds of hooves were heard along the boards of the bridge, as if several horses were galloping, and the squadron, with officers in front, four in a row, stretched out along the bridge and began to emerge on the other side.
The stopped infantry soldiers, crowding in the trampled mud near the bridge, looked at the clean, dapper hussars marching orderly past them with that special unfriendly feeling of alienation and ridicule that is usually encountered with various branches of the military.
- Smart guys! If only it were on Podnovinskoe!
- What good are they? They just drive for show! - said another.
- Infantry, don't dust! - the hussar joked, under which the horse, playing, splashed mud at the infantryman.
“If I had driven you through two marches with your backpack, the laces would have been worn out,” the infantryman said, wiping the dirt from his face with his sleeve; - otherwise it’s not a person, but a bird sitting!
“If only I could put you on a horse, Zikin, if you were agile,” the corporal joked about the thin soldier, bent over from the weight of his backpack.
“Take the club between your legs, and you’ll have a horse,” responded the hussar.

The rest of the infantry hurried across the bridge, forming a funnel at the entrance. Finally, all the carts passed, the crush became less, and the last battalion entered the bridge. Only the hussars of Denisov's squadron remained on the other side of the bridge against the enemy. The enemy, visible in the distance from the opposite mountain, from below, from the bridge, was not yet visible, since from the hollow along which the river flowed, the horizon ended at the opposite elevation no more than half a mile away. Ahead there was a desert, along which here and there groups of our traveling Cossacks were moving. Suddenly, on the opposite hill of the road, troops in blue hoods and artillery appeared. They were French. The Cossack patrol trotted away downhill. All the officers and men of Denisov’s squadron, although they tried to talk about outsiders and look around, did not stop thinking only about what was there on the mountain, and constantly peered at the spots on the horizon, which they recognized as enemy troops. The weather cleared again in the afternoon, the sun set brightly over the Danube and the dark mountains surrounding it. It was quiet, and from that mountain the sounds of horns and screams of the enemy could occasionally be heard. There was no one between the squadron and the enemies, except for small patrols. An empty space, three hundred fathoms, separated them from him. The enemy stopped shooting, and the more clearly one felt that strict, menacing, impregnable and elusive line that separates the two enemy troops.
“One step beyond this line, reminiscent of the line separating the living from the dead, and - the unknown of suffering and death. And what's there? who's there? there, beyond this field, and the tree, and the roof illuminated by the sun? Nobody knows, and I want to know; and it’s scary to cross this line, and you want to cross it; and you know that sooner or later you will have to cross it and find out what is there on the other side of the line, just as it is inevitable to find out what is there on the other side of death. And he himself is strong, healthy, cheerful and irritated, and surrounded by such healthy and irritably animated people.” So, even if he doesn’t think, every person who is in sight of the enemy feels it, and this feeling gives a special shine and joyful sharpness of impressions to everything that happens in these minutes.
The smoke of a shot appeared on the enemy’s hill, and the cannonball, whistling, flew over the heads of the hussar squadron. The officers standing together went to their places. The hussars carefully began to straighten out their horses. Everything in the squadron fell silent. Everyone looked ahead at the enemy and at the squadron commander, waiting for a command. Another, third cannonball flew by. It is obvious that they were shooting at the hussars; but the cannonball, whistling evenly quickly, flew over the heads of the hussars and struck somewhere behind. The hussars did not look back, but at every sound of a flying cannonball, as if on command, the entire squadron with their monotonously varied faces, holding their breath while the cannonball flew, rose in their stirrups and fell again. The soldiers, without turning their heads, glanced sideways at each other, curiously looking for the impression of their comrade. On every face, from Denisov to the bugler, one common feature of struggle, irritation and excitement appeared near the lips and chin. The sergeant frowned, looking around at the soldiers, as if threatening punishment. Junker Mironov bent down with each pass of the cannonball. Rostov, standing on the left flank on his leg-touched but visible Grachik, had the happy look of a student summoned before a large audience for an exam in which he was confident that he would excel. He looked clearly and brightly at everyone, as if asking them to pay attention to how calmly he stood under the cannonballs. But in his face, too, the same feature of something new and stern, against his will, appeared near his mouth.
-Who is bowing there? Yunkeg "Mig"ons! Hexog, look at me! - Denisov shouted, unable to stand still and spinning on his horse in front of the squadron.
The snub-nosed and black-haired face of Vaska Denisov and his entire small, beaten figure with his sinewy (with short fingers covered with hair) hand, in which he held the hilt of a drawn saber, was exactly the same as always, especially in the evening, after drinking two bottles. He was only more red than usual and, raising his shaggy head up, like birds when they drink, mercilessly pressing spurs into the sides of the good Bedouin with his small feet, he, as if falling backwards, galloped to the other flank of the squadron and shouted in a hoarse voice to be examined pistols. He drove up to Kirsten. The headquarters captain, on a wide and sedate mare, rode at a pace towards Denisov. The staff captain, with his long mustache, was serious, as always, only his eyes sparkled more than usual.
- What? - he told Denisov, - it won’t come to a fight. You'll see, we'll go back.
“Who knows what they’re doing,” Denisov grumbled. “Ah! G” skeleton! - he shouted to the cadet, noticing his cheerful face. - Well, I waited.
And he smiled approvingly, apparently rejoicing at the cadet.
Rostov felt completely happy. At this time the chief appeared on the bridge. Denisov galloped towards him.
- Your Excellency! Let me attack! I will kill them.
“What kind of attacks are there,” said the chief in a bored voice, wincing as if from a bothersome fly. - And why are you standing here? You see, the flankers are retreating. Lead the squadron back.
The squadron crossed the bridge and escaped the gunfire without losing a single man. Following him, the second squadron, which was in the chain, crossed over, and the last Cossacks cleared that side.
Two squadrons of Pavlograd residents, having crossed the bridge, one after the other, went back to the mountain. Regimental commander Karl Bogdanovich Schubert drove up to Denisov's squadron and rode at a pace not far from Rostov, not paying any attention to him, despite the fact that after the previous clash over Telyanin, they now saw each other for the first time. Rostov, feeling himself at the front in the power of a man before whom he now considered himself guilty, did not take his eyes off the athletic back, blond nape and red neck of the regimental commander. It seemed to Rostov that Bogdanich was only pretending to be inattentive, and that his whole goal now was to test the cadet’s courage, and he straightened up and looked around cheerfully; then it seemed to him that Bogdanich was deliberately riding close to show Rostov his courage. Then he thought that his enemy would now deliberately send a squadron on a desperate attack to punish him, Rostov. It was thought that after the attack he would come up to him and generously extend the hand of reconciliation to him, the wounded man.
Familiar to the people of Pavlograd, with his shoulders raised high, the figure of Zherkov (he had recently left their regiment) approached the regimental commander. Zherkov, after his expulsion from the main headquarters, did not remain in the regiment, saying that he was not a fool to pull the strap at the front, when he was at headquarters, without doing anything, he would receive more awards, and he knew how to find a job as an orderly with Prince Bagration. He came to his former boss with orders from the commander of the rearguard.
“Colonel,” he said with his gloomy seriousness, turning to Rostov’s enemy and looking around at his comrades, “it was ordered to stop and light the bridge.”
- Who ordered? – the colonel asked gloomily.
“I don’t even know, colonel, who ordered it,” the cornet answered seriously, “but the prince ordered me: “Go and tell the colonel so that the hussars come back quickly and light the bridge.”
Following Zherkov, a retinue officer drove up to the hussar colonel with the same order. Following the retinue officer, fat Nesvitsky rode up on a Cossack horse, which was forcibly carrying him at a gallop.
“Well, Colonel,” he shouted while still driving, “I told you to light the bridge, but now someone has misinterpreted it; Everyone there is going crazy, you can’t understand anything.
The colonel slowly stopped the regiment and turned to Nesvitsky:
“You told me about flammable substances,” he said, “but you didn’t tell me anything about lighting things.”
“Why, father,” Nesvitsky said, stopping, taking off his cap and straightening his sweat-wet hair with his plump hand, “how come you didn’t say to light the bridge when the flammable substances were put in?”
“I’m not your “father,” Mr. Staff Officer, and you didn’t tell me to light the bridge! I know the service, and it’s my habit to strictly carry out orders. You said the bridge will be lit, but who will light it, I cannot know with the Holy Spirit...
“Well, it’s always like this,” Nesvitsky said, waving his hand. - How are you here? – he turned to Zherkov.
- Yes, for the same thing. However, you are damp, let me squeeze you out.
“You said, Mr. Staff Officer,” the colonel continued in an offended tone...
“Colonel,” interrupted the retinue officer, “we must hurry, otherwise the enemy will move the guns to the grape shot.”
The colonel silently looked at the retinue officer, at the fat staff officer, at Zherkov and frowned.
“I’ll light the bridge,” he said in a solemn tone, as if expressing that, despite all the troubles being caused to him, he would still do what he had to do.
Hitting the horse with his long muscular legs, as if it were all to blame, the colonel moved forward to the 2nd squadron, the same one in which Rostov served under the command of Denisov, and ordered to return back to the bridge.
“Well, that’s right,” thought Rostov, “he wants to test me!” “His heart sank and the blood rushed to his face. “Let him see if I’m a coward,” he thought.
Again, on all the cheerful faces of the squadron people, that serious feature appeared that was on them while they were standing under the cannonballs. Rostov, without taking his eyes off, looked at his enemy, the regimental commander, wanting to find confirmation of his guesses on his face; but the colonel never looked at Rostov, but looked, as always at the front, strictly and solemnly. A command was heard.
- Alive! Alive! – several voices spoke around him.
Clinging to the reins with their sabers, rattling their spurs and hurrying, the hussars dismounted, not knowing what they would do. The hussars were baptized. Rostov no longer looked at the regimental commander - he had no time. He was afraid, with a sinking heart he was afraid that he might fall behind the hussars. His hand trembled as he handed the horse to the handler, and he felt the blood rushing to his heart. Denisov, falling back and shouting something, drove past him. Rostov saw nothing except the hussars running around him, clinging to their spurs and clanking their sabers.
- Stretcher! – someone’s voice shouted from behind.
Rostov did not think about what the demand for a stretcher meant: he ran, trying only to be ahead of everyone; but at the bridge itself, without looking at his feet, he fell into viscous, trampled mud and, stumbling, fell on his hands. Others ran around him.
“On both sides, captain,” he heard the voice of the regimental commander, who, riding forward, stood on horseback not far from the bridge with a triumphant and cheerful face.
Rostov, wiping his dirty hands on his leggings, looked back at his enemy and wanted to run further, believing that the further he went forward, the better it would be. But Bogdanich, although he did not look and did not recognize Rostov, shouted at him:
- Who is running along the middle of the bridge? On the right side! Junker, go back! - he shouted angrily and turned to Denisov, who, flaunting his courage, rode on horseback onto the planks of the bridge.
- Why take risks, captain! “You should get down,” said the colonel.
- Eh! he will find the culprit,” answered Vaska Denisov, turning in the saddle.

Meanwhile, Nesvitsky, Zherkov and the retinue officer stood together outside the shots and looked either at this small group of people in yellow shakos, dark green jackets embroidered with strings, and blue leggings, swarming near the bridge, then at the other side, at the blue hoods and groups approaching in the distance with horses, which could easily be recognized as tools.
“Will they light the bridge or not? Who came first? Will they run and set fire to the bridge, or will the French drive up to the grapeshot and kill them?” These questions, with a sinking heart, were involuntarily asked by each of the large number of troops who stood over the bridge and, in the bright evening light, looked at the bridge and the hussars and on the other side, at the moving blue hoods with bayonets and guns.
- Oh! will go to the hussars! - said Nesvitsky, - no further than a grape shot now.
“It was in vain that he led so many people,” said the retinue officer.
“Indeed,” said Nesvitsky. “If only we had sent two young men here, it would have been all the same.”
“Oh, your Excellency,” Zherkov intervened, not taking his eyes off the hussars, but all with his naive manner, due to which it was impossible to guess whether what he was saying was serious or not. - Oh, your Excellency! How do you judge! Send two people, but who will give us Vladimir with a bow? Otherwise, even if they beat you up, you can represent the squadron and receive a bow yourself. Our Bogdanich knows the rules.
“Well,” said the retinue officer, “this is buckshot!”
He pointed to the French guns, which were being removed from their limbers and hastily driving away.
On the French side, in those groups where there were guns, smoke appeared, another, a third, almost at the same time, and at the very minute the sound of the first shot reached, a fourth appeared. Two sounds, one after the other, and a third.
- Oh, oh! - Nesvitsky gasped, as if from burning pain, grabbing the retinue officer’s hand. - Look, one fell, fell, fell!
- Two, it seems?
“If I were a king, I would never fight,” Nesvitsky said, turning away.
The French guns again hastily loaded. The infantry in blue hoods ran toward the bridge. Again, but at different intervals, smoke appeared, and buckshot clicked and crackled across the bridge. But this time Nesvitsky could not see what was happening on the bridge. Thick smoke rose from the bridge. The hussars managed to set fire to the bridge, and the French batteries fired at them no longer to interfere, but so that the guns were aimed and there was someone to shoot at.
“The French managed to fire three grape shots before the hussars returned to the horse handlers. Two volleys were fired incorrectly, and all the buckshot was carried over, but the last shot hit the middle of a group of hussars and knocked down three.
Rostov, preoccupied with his relationship with Bogdanich, stopped on the bridge, not knowing what to do. There was no one to cut down (as he always imagined a battle), and he also could not help in lighting the bridge, because he did not take with him, like other soldiers, a bundle of straw. He stood and looked around, when suddenly there was a crackling sound across the bridge, like scattered nuts, and one of the hussars, who was closest to him, fell on the railing with a groan. Rostov ran towards him along with others. Someone shouted again: “Stretcher!” The hussar was picked up by four people and began to be lifted.
“Ohhh!... Stop it, for Christ’s sake,” cried the wounded man; but they still picked him up and put him down.
Nikolai Rostov turned away and, as if looking for something, began to look at the distance, at the water of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun. How beautiful the sky seemed, how blue, calm and deep! How bright and solemn the setting sun! How tenderly the water glittered in the distant Danube! And even better were the distant, blue mountains beyond the Danube, a monastery, mysterious gorges, pine forests filled to the top with fog... it was quiet, happy there... “I wouldn’t want anything, I wouldn’t want anything, I wouldn’t want anything, if only I were there,” thought Rostov. “There is so much happiness in me alone and in this sun, and here... groans, suffering, fear and this obscurity, this haste... Here again they shout something, and again everyone runs back somewhere, and I run with them, and here she is.” , here it is, death, above me, around me... A moment - and I will never see this sun, this water, this gorge again”...
At that moment the sun began to disappear behind the clouds; another stretcher appeared ahead of Rostov. And the fear of death and stretchers, and the love of the sun and life - everything merged into one painfully disturbing impression.
“Lord God! He who is there in this sky, save, forgive and protect me!” Rostov whispered to himself.
The hussars ran up to the horse guides, the voices became louder and calmer, the stretcher disappeared from sight.
“What, bg”at, did you sniff pog”okha?...” Vaska Denisov’s voice shouted in his ear.
“It's all over; but I’m a coward, yes, I’m a coward,” thought Rostov and, sighing heavily, took his Grachik, who had put his leg out, from the hands of the handler and began to sit down.
-What was that, buckshot? – he asked Denisov.
- And what a one! – Denisov shouted. - They did a great job! And the work is mediocre! An attack is a nice thing to do, kill in the dog, but here, who knows what, they hit like a target.
And Denisov drove off to a group that had stopped near Rostov: the regimental commander, Nesvitsky, Zherkov and a retinue officer.
“However, it seems no one noticed,” Rostov thought to himself. And indeed, no one noticed anything, because everyone was familiar with the feeling that an unfired cadet experienced for the first time.
“Here’s the report for you,” said Zherkov, “you’ll see, they’ll make me a second lieutenant.”
“Report to the prince that I lit the bridge,” the colonel said solemnly and cheerfully.
– What if they ask about the loss?
- A trifle! – the colonel boomed, “two hussars were wounded, and one on the spot,” he said with visible joy, unable to resist a happy smile, loudly chopping off the beautiful word on the spot.

Pursued by a hundred thousand French army under the command of Bonaparte, met by hostile inhabitants, no longer trusting their allies, experiencing a lack of food and forced to act outside all foreseeable conditions of war, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand, under the command of Kutuzov, hastily retreated down the Danube, stopping where it was overtaken by the enemy, and fought back with rearguard actions, only as much as was necessary in order to retreat without losing weight. There were cases at Lambach, Amsteten and Melk; but, despite the courage and fortitude, recognized by the enemy himself, with whom the Russians fought, the consequence of these affairs was only an even faster retreat. The Austrian troops, having escaped capture at Ulm and joined Kutuzov at Braunau, now separated from the Russian army, and Kutuzov was left only to his weak, exhausted forces. It was impossible to even think about defending Vienna any longer. Instead of an offensive, deeply thought-out, according to the laws of the new science - strategy, war, the plan of which was transferred to Kutuzov when he was in Vienna by the Austrian Gofkriegsrat, the only, almost unattainable goal that now seemed to Kutuzov was to, without destroying the army like Mack under Ulm, to connect with the troops coming from Russia.
On October 28, Kutuzov and his army crossed to the left bank of the Danube and stopped for the first time, putting the Danube between themselves and the main forces of the French. On the 30th he attacked Mortier’s division located on the left bank of the Danube and defeated it. In this case, trophies were taken for the first time: a banner, guns and two enemy generals. For the first time after a two-week retreat, the Russian troops stopped and, after a struggle, not only held the battlefield, but drove out the French. Despite the fact that the troops were stripped, exhausted, weakened by one third, backward, wounded, killed and sick; despite the fact that the sick and wounded were left on the other side of the Danube with a letter from Kutuzov, entrusting them to the philanthropy of the enemy; despite the fact that the large hospitals and houses in Krems, converted into infirmaries, could no longer accommodate all the sick and wounded, despite all this, the stop at Krems and the victory over Mortier significantly raised the morale of the army. Throughout the entire army and in the main quarters, the most joyful, although unfair, rumors were circulating about the imaginary approach of columns from Russia, about some kind of victory won by the Austrians, and about the retreat of the frightened Bonaparte.
Prince Andrei was during the battle with the Austrian general Schmitt, who was killed in this case. A horse was wounded under him, and he himself was slightly grazed in the arm by a bullet. As a sign of the special favor of the commander-in-chief, he was sent with news of this victory to the Austrian court, which was no longer in Vienna, which was threatened by French troops, but in Brunn. On the night of the battle, excited, but not tired (despite his weak-looking build, Prince Andrei could endure physical fatigue much better than the strongest people), having arrived on horseback with a report from Dokhturov to Krems to Kutuzov, Prince Andrei was sent that same night courier to Brunn. Sending by courier, in addition to rewards, meant an important step towards promotion.
The night was dark and starry; the road turned black between the white snow that had fallen the day before, on the day of the battle. Now going over the impressions of the past battle, now joyfully imagining the impression that he would make with the news of victory, remembering the farewell of the commander-in-chief and comrades, Prince Andrei galloped in the mail chaise, experiencing the feeling of a man who had waited for a long time and had finally achieved the beginning of the desired happiness. As soon as he closed his eyes, the firing of rifles and cannons was heard in his ears, which merged with the sound of wheels and the impression of victory. Then he began to imagine that the Russians were fleeing, that he himself had been killed; but he quickly woke up, with happiness as if he learned again that none of this had happened, and that, on the contrary, the French had fled. He again remembered all the details of the victory, his calm courage during the battle and, having calmed down, dozed off... After the dark starry night, a bright, cheerful morning came. The snow melted in the sun, the horses galloped quickly, and new and varied forests, fields, and villages passed indifferently to the right and left.
At one of the stations he overtook a convoy of Russian wounded. The Russian officer driving the transport, lounging on the front cart, shouted something, cursing the soldier with rude words. In the long German vans, six or more pale, bandaged and dirty wounded were shaking along the rocky road. Some of them spoke (he heard Russian dialect), others ate bread, the heaviest ones silently, with meek and painful childish sympathy, looked at the courier galloping past them.

The volume of placed bonds amounted to 20 billion rubles

Collaboration with GIT

On January 15, 2019 it became known that the Multidisciplinary holding in the housing and communal services sector "City Innovative Technologies" ("GIT"), the all-Russian operator of digital opportunities "MegaFon" and its subsidiaries Kometrica and Netbynet agreed to work together on technological projects in the housing and communal services sector in at the federal level. The agreement was signed by the founder of GIT Grant Agasyan, member of the board of directors of MegaFon Anna Serebryanikova, CEO of NETBYNET Andrey Batanov and CEO of Kometrica Dmitry Petrov.

The main areas of cooperation will be joint investments in the country's most important technological projects, the acquisition of telecommunications and housing and communal services assets, the use of modern technologies in the field of housing services, improving the quality of service in the housing and communal services industry in Russia, and the formation of new standards. In addition, the companies agreed to work together to implement the Digital Management Company solution, conduct joint research and implement pilot projects in the field of automation of residential property management processes.

We are glad that we have a strategic partner who has the same serious plans for the development of the housing and communal services industry as we do, and has the necessary technological competencies. We are confident that together we can change the housing and communal services market, ensuring that the Russian housing sector becomes one of the most modern and technologically advanced in the world. Our plans include a joint arrival in various regions of the Russian Federation, joint investments and active work. We are confident that in 2019 our cooperation will bring concrete results and will cover tens of millions of square meters of housing throughout the country. Grant Agasyan, founder of PJSC GIT

Housing and communal services are an area that especially needs digital transformation. We are actively working in this direction. For example, in the Novgorod region, the “Digital Management Company” solution is already operating in pilot mode. Together with our partners, we will be able to implement solutions that will simplify the interaction of residents with utility services throughout the country. To make this a reality, we apply our own developments and use the expertise of our partners in terms of big data and the Internet of things]. Anna Serebryanikova, member of the board of directors of MegaFon

2018

Mandatory offer from MegaFon Finance to purchase equity securities

Appointment of Gevork Vermishyan to the post of CEO of MegaFon

On November 13, 2018, as part of an extraordinary meeting of MegaFon shareholders, the appointment of Gevork Vermishyan to the post of CEO of the company was approved. As a result, a contract was signed with him for a period of three years. Read more.

Establishment of the Association of Big Data Market Participants

Receiving a tranche of 21 billion rubles from Alfa Bank to finance shares

On August 15, 2018, MegaFon, the national Russian operator of digital opportunities, announced that it had received a tranche on August 14, 2018 in the amount of 21 billion rubles under an existing loan agreement totaling 25 billion rubles with Alfa-Bank.

The loan was received at a fixed interest rate for three years. The Company plans to use the funds to finance the issued and allotted ordinary shares and GDRs of the Company by MegaFon Investments (Cyprus) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, on the terms specified in the program, which in turn was announced on July 16, 2018.

Decision to leave the London Stock Exchange

The purchase program for ordinary shares and GDRs will be carried out by MegaFon Investments (Cyprus) Limited (MICL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, through a cash acquisition of up to 128,950,036 issued and outstanding ordinary shares and GDRs, representing 20.8% of all issued and outstanding shares of the company. The purchase price for the tendered securities will be $9.75 for each common share and each GDR. The acquisition program begins on July 16, 2018 and is scheduled to close on August 22. The offer to MICL under the acquisition program will be made to all holders of ordinary shares and GDRs, except USM Holdings and Gazprombank Group, as well as MICL.

The Company plans to cancel the listing of the GDRs on the LSE after completion of the acquisition program. MegaFon may also consider maintaining or terminating the GDR program following cancellation of the listing, taking into account, among other things, the number of GDRs remaining outstanding following the completion of the Tender Offer. However, there is no guarantee that the GDR program will be preserved. Due to the complexity and possible high costs of delisting ordinary shares on the Moscow Exchange, the Board of Directors has not yet made a decision on such a delisting. MegaFon will consider the issue of possible delisting of ordinary shares on the Moscow Exchange after the completion of the acquisition program.

Formation of the joint venture "MF Technologies"

2017

Mobile subscribers

Purchase of a 12.5% ​​share in the authorized capital of Forpost

MegaFon and Rostelecom will jointly develop 5G networks

Telecommunications companies MegaFon and Rostelecom signed an agreement on cooperation in the development of 5G networks in November 2017. According to the companies, this will reduce the costs of building such networks. As part of the cooperation, MegaFon and Rostelecom intend to develop optimal scenarios for the implementation of fifth generation networks based on international experience, taking into account the characteristics of the Russian mobile communications market. Read more.

On the sale of MegaFon shares to Telia Company

Telia has agreed to sell its 19% stake in MegaFon to Gazprombank. As stated in a company statement, this transaction is in line with the strategy aimed at concentrating business in the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Previously, the company had already sold 6.2% in MegaFon for about 22.5 billion rubles. The amount of the new deal with Gazprombank amounted to 60.4 billion rubles, or 514 rubles per share.

Despite the fact that the bank is subject to sanctions from the United States and the European Union, the transaction does not involve bank financing and is not subject to restrictions.

On October 31, 2017, PJSC MegaFon comments on the press release of Telia Company, which announces its agreement to sell a 19% stake in the operator to Gazprombank. The company's management expresses deep gratitude to Telia Company, which was at the forefront of creating MegaFon, for many years of fruitful cooperation and enormous contribution to the development of MegaFon.

MegaFon and Veon divided Euroset

MegaFon has set itself the goal of evolving and adapting to the new digital world. One of the areas of development is “big data”, thanks to which the company hopes to better understand the wishes of each specific client in order to offer them the necessary services.

MegaFon announced “big data” and the Internet of things as key elements of the new strategy

MegaFon also intends to pay attention to projects in the field of information and communication technologies and the Internet of things, in particular. As part of the development of an ecosystem of partnerships, the operator will offer corporate clients comprehensive industry solutions, including the service of a fiscal data operator, a monitoring system for transport and industrial facilities, smart meters for housing and communal services, etc.

MegaFon is going to develop integration services in the field of communications for the state and business, providing them in packages.

For example, when a customer contacts us about a partnership, we do not discuss minutes or megabytes, because clients order turnkey services. This includes a monitoring system, dash boards and other reports. A similar project is one example of participation in the Digital Economy program,” a MegaFon representative explained to RBC.

The company plans to focus on the so-called digital customers, by which the operator means subscribers who consume a large amount of mobile Internet traffic every month, use mobile applications, communicate in instant messengers, and also use the phone to pay for goods. By May 2017, such clients accounted for a third of MegaFon’s subscriber base.

The biggest crash in history

On May 19, 2017, Megafon experienced the largest outage in its history (), as a result of which subscribers throughout Russia and abroad were left without communication throughout the day.

2016

Purchase of a controlling stake in Mail.ru Group

Partnership with Mail.ru

On November 16, 2016, the MegaFon company confirmed the fact of negotiations with Mail.ru Group Limited on possible cooperation in the field of joint development of products and services for mobile subscribers and Internet users in the markets where the companies operate.

According to the published statement, the companies see opportunities for more active cooperation between telecom operators and Internet companies in technologies and market trends. Mail.Ru Group and MegaFon consider themselves natural partners for such a partnership and are discussing various commercial projects aimed at achieving the strategic and economic goals of both companies.

Confirming the general intentions and ongoing negotiations with the shareholders of Mail.Ru Group, MegaFon in its press statement made it clear that as of November 16, 2016, there is no clarity as to whether MegaFon will be a shareholder of Mail.ru. The agreement, whether such an agreement will be reached or not, regardless of the acquisition of a stake in Mail.Ru Group, will not have an impact on the style of relationships and the work of the companies - the partners will continue to act as independent companies in market conditions. The company's management teams will adhere to the established corporate culture and corporate governance, ensuring development, product development and cooperation in strategically and economically mutually beneficial projects.

Sergey Soldatenkov is again the CEO of MegaFon

In addition to traditional telecommunications services, Gars Telecom is engaged in telecom consulting, outsourcing of communication services and telecom infrastructure, as well as telecom budget management.

$600 million loan from a Chinese bank

On December 4, 2015, MegaFon announced the signing of two loan agreements with the China Development Bank (CDB) for a total amount of $600 million.

As part of the optimization of its debt portfolio, MegaFon will receive a loan of $300 million from CDB with repayment in 2021, which will be used to refinance the operator’s current debt. The second loan agreement for a period of eight years (2015-2023) will allow MegaFon to purchase Huawei telecommunications equipment for $300 million for the construction of 4G and 3G networks, as well as for the modernization of existing infrastructure. Interest rates on these loans are not disclosed.

Chinese bank will give MegaFon $300 million to purchase Huawei equipment

“The company considers the signing of an agreement for refinancing purposes an important step in the development of relations with CDB, since for the first time this financial institution provides the company with funds not only to finance the purchase of equipment. This significantly expands MegaFon’s access to sources of debt refinancing,” the operator said in a statement.

The company announced that CDB would open a $600 million credit line to MegaFon in early September 2015. The framework agreement between them was signed during the then visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China.

Cooperation between CDB and MegaFon began in 2005. By the beginning of December 2015, the total volume of agreements between the companies exceeded $2.4 billion, and the operator had more than $500 million available through two credit lines for the purchase of Huawei equipment, Kommersant notes.

2014

Contract with Ericsson for the supply of equipment and software for 7 years

In August 2014, Megafon and the Swedish company Ericsson announced the conclusion of a strategic agreement on the development and modernization of telecommunications infrastructure for a period of seven years.

As part of the agreement, Ericsson will have the opportunity to supply equipment and software for the 2G/3G/4G radio network and core network for the purpose of developing and modernizing Megafon’s network, including the possible replacement of equipment from other suppliers in any region of Russia.

At the first stage, joint work is planned to modernize the core network equipment in the North-Western branch of Megafon.

In a highly competitive telecommunications market, the quality of customer service is becoming a key factor for maintaining technological leadership. The agreement between Ericsson and Megafon involves the supply of a full line of solutions and services that will allow the operator to introduce new products in the shortest possible time and provide the highest level of service by increasing network capacity and coverage, the press service noted.

“Thanks to this contract, we are opening a new stage in the cooperation between the two companies. Choosing such a reliable partner as Ericsson will allow us to offer subscribers the most advanced technological solutions. I express my gratitude to the management and the entire Ericsson team for the work done and willingness to meet the partner halfway,” commented Evgeny Chermashentsev, Megafon’s director of infrastructure.

“The agreement with Megafon takes our cooperation to a fundamentally new level. Our portfolio and global knowledge of the market allow us to be confident that we can solve problems of any complexity and scale in the shortest possible time and with maximum efficiency. Just like Megafon, Ericsson attaches great importance to increasing the availability of high-quality mobile services and intends to support the operator in implementing plans to develop telecommunications infrastructure,” said Charlotte Sund, head of Ericsson in the Northern Europe and Central Asia region.

A controlling stake in MegaFon OJSC was transferred from offshore companies to the Russian AF Telecom Holding LLC.

Alisher Usmanov's USM Holdings Ltd transferred a controlling stake in MegaFon OJSC from offshore companies to the ownership of a Russian holding company - AF Telecom Holding LLC.

“USM Holdings Ltd announces the completion of the process of reorganization of the holding structure with the aim of transferring controlling stakes in strategic enterprises to Russian holding companies,” follows from the USM message. In addition to MegaFon shares, Usmanov transferred a controlling stake in Metalloinvest from offshore companies to the Russian LLC UeSem Metalloinvest. “Both enterprises, whose controlling stakes will thus be transferred to Russian jurisdiction, are of strategic importance for the Russian economy,” the USM statement emphasizes.

The company explained that the reorganization occurred in connection with the course announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin towards deoffshorization of the Russian economy. In addition, another reason for this is the introduction into the tax code of provisions relating to the taxation of profits of controlled foreign companies. Let us recall that on December 5, Vladimir Putin instructed the government to prepare a law on “offshore amnesty” by July 15, 2015. He spoke about its significance on December 4 in a message to the Federal Assembly, where he proposed “turning the offshore page in the history of the country.”

Ivan Tavrin transferred 2.5% shares of MegaFon to USM

MegaFon CEO Ivan Tavrin transferred to USM a 2.5% stake in MegaFon, previously acquired at a public offering price of $20 per share, as partial compensation for his acquired stake in USM. The terms of the completed transaction also provide for the transfer of an option to purchase an additional 2.5% in the authorized capital of the Company, which was received by Mr. Tavrin as part of the long-term incentive program for the General Director, approved by the Board of Directors of the Company on November 30, 2012.

As a result, USM's share in the authorized capital of the Company increased from 53.82% to 56.32%. This transaction, as well as the previous repurchase of USM shares from Alisher Usmanov, which the Company reported earlier, is aimed at motivating and retaining USM top management and is consistent with statements made during the public offering of MegaFon shares.

2013: The most expensive mobile operator in Russia by capitalization

On May 15, 2013, MegaFon's market capitalization for the first time in history exceeded that of Russian mobile operators and amounted to more than $20 billion (according to Bloomberg).

2012

Management

The company's top management at the beginning of 2012 included:

• Soldatenkov Sergey Vladimirovich - General Director
• Mikhail Andreevich Dubin - First Deputy General Director for Strategic Development
• Ermakov Valery Viktorovich - First Deputy General Director for Operations
• Gevork Harutyunovich Vermishyan - Deputy General Director for Financial Affairs
• Ostrovsky Eduard Georgievich - Deputy General Director for the implementation of special programs and interaction with government bodies
• Tigran Karlenovich Poghosyan - Deputy General Director for Strategic Projects
• Solodukhin Konstantin Yurievich - Deputy General Director for Development of Federal Corporate Sales and Operator Business
• Tkachuk Larisa Sergeevna - Deputy General Director for Commerce
• Goryainova Anna Andreevna - Director of Legal Affairs, Corporate Secretary
• Zheimo Yuri Antonovich - Director of Internal Audit
• Kononov Dmitry Leonovich - director of business development in the field of mergers and acquisitions
• Lidov Petr Alekseevich - Director of Public Relations
• Likhova Irina Borisovna - Director of Human Resources
• Narvskaya Olga Andreevna - Director of Strategy
• Nikolaenko Oleg Veniaminovich - Director for Intersectoral Projects
• Nochevnov Denis Vladimirovich - Director for New Technologies and Services
• Parfenov Igor Borisovich - technical director
• Strelkina Lyubov Nikolaevna - chief accountant
• Khrenov Sergey Nikolaevich - Head of the Department for Income Guarantee and Fraud Management
• Yunov Konstantin Vladlenovich - Director of Information Technology

Change of CEO: Soldatenkov is replaced by Tavrin

On April 20, 2012, it became known that an extraordinary meeting of Megafon shareholders decided to early terminate the contract with the company’s general director Sergei Soldatenkov from April 20, 2012. Deputy General Director Ivan Tavrin became the new head of the company. At the same time, the board of directors of Megafon recommended Soldatenkov’s candidacy for joining the board.

Soldatenkov's contract expired in the summer. He previously said that he did not intend to renew it. Many market participants assume that the head of Megafon will move to the Ministry of Communications after the formation of a new government in May. Soldatenkov himself insisted that he had no intention of working in the civil service, but his early departure could serve as further confirmation of such rumors.

The change in Megafon's management coincided with the emergence of information about the possible sale of Alfa Group's stake in the operator. The fact that Usmanov’s partner became the new CEO of Megafon can be considered as another confirmation of Alpha’s departure.

MegaFon shareholders have formed a new ownership structure

Company ownership structure at the beginning of 2012:

• Telia Company (formerly TeliaSonera)Sonera - 43.8%, including 35.6% directly and 8.2% through Telecominvest.
• AF Telecom Holding - 31.1%, including 8% directly and 23.1% through Telecominvest.

On April 24, 2012, Alisher Usmanov bought out its stake in Telecominvest from TeliaSonera and together with it received an 8.2% stake in MegaFon. In addition, the businessman's AF Telecom Holding acquired 10.7% from Altimo (Alfa Group holding). As a result, Usmanov became the owner of 50% plus 1 share of MegaFon, of which he controls 31.3% through Telecominvest, and 18.7% through AF Telecom Holding.

In May 2012, it became known that Telecominvest OJSC, which previously owned 31.3% of the shares of MegaFon OJSC in the interests of Alisher Usmanov and TeliaSonera, withdrew from the operator’s shareholders, as follows from the list of MegaFon affiliates as of April 26, 2012 .

At the same time, the offshore Telecominvest Holdings Ltd, registered in Cyprus, appeared on the list, which, according to MegaFon materials, owns 48.5% of the operator. It is not indicated which company Alisher Usmanov transferred another 1.5% to.

After the deal with Usmanov to sell 8.2% of MegaFon (within Telecominvest), TeliaSonera remained in direct ownership of a 35.6% stake. The list of affiliates of the operator indicates that the structure of the Scandinavian company is the Dutch Sonera Holding B.V. - as of April 26, she received 34.1% of MegaFon shares (before the change she owned 26%). It is also not specified which company holds another 1.5% due to TeliaSonera.

A subsidiary of Megafon Investments Ltd appeared on the list of affiliates. with a share in MegaFon's capital of 14.4%. Megafon Investments bought this package from Altimo on April 24, simultaneously with Usmanov’s deal to purchase shares of the mobile operator from Altimo and TeliaSonera.

As a result of these transactions, Altimo completely withdrew from MegaFon's capital in April 2012, which reflects changes in the operator's affiliates.

Alisher Usmanov, who became the controlling shareholder of MegaFon after all the transactions, said that simplifying the ownership structure would contribute to the development of the operator. One of the tasks facing MegaFon in the near future is entering an IPO, the businessman said. Analysts noted that straightening the ownership structure would help increase MegaFon's investment attractiveness.

MegaFon is preparing an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The total volume of placement will be about 20% of the operator's authorized capital. TeliaSonera is ready to sell 10.6% of MegaFon's shares during the placement with the condition of maintaining a share of 25% plus 1 share; another 9.4% of shares will be offered to investors by MegaFon's subsidiary Megafon Investments. The remaining shares on Megafon Investments' balance sheet can be redeemed. The issue of reducing the authorized capital by redeeming securities was submitted for consideration by shareholders on June 4, 2012.

IPO: placement of shares on the London Stock Exchange

On November 28, 2012, Megafon (at that moment the second largest mobile operator in Russia) placed shares at the lower limit of the previously determined IPO price range - at $20 per GDR, thus, the volume of attraction will be $1.7 billion, the company officially announced on Wednesday . Conditional trading in the company's securities begins today in London, as well as in Russia. Upon listing, Megafon's capitalization will be $11.1 billion. Funds from the placement will be received by TeliaSonera (its stake will be reduced to 25.1%) and a subsidiary of Megafon. Alisher Usmanov does not lose control after the IPO. Megafon's free float will be 15.2%.

Trading in Megafon shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) began on November 28, 2012 at $19.75 per share, 1.25% below the offering price. During trading, the price continued to decline, reaching $19.45 (minus 2.75% to the placement price), but then this drop was partially recouped: the closing price was $19.6 (minus 2%). Other Big Three operators, whose receipts are traded in America, also fell in price that day: MTS - by 2.09%, Vimpelcom - by 1.19% (as of 21.30 Moscow time).

The trading volume of Megafon securities on the LSE amounted to $785.5 million - about 47% of the placement volume, on the Moscow Exchange - less than 4 million rubles. Demand was active, shares were sold to a wide range of investors, says operator representative Elena Alexandrova. Large global funds were the most active, says Gergey Vorosh, co-head of Morgan Stanley Russia, which served as global coordinator and bookrunner of the placement. According to him, approximately 30% of the demand was provided by investors from. There were investors from America and Europe, not only focused on Russia, but also diversified funds from developing countries, says the manager of a large European fund. According to his colleague, Swedish funds showed great interest in the placement.

Buyers of Megafon explain their decision by saying that they expect a good dividend yield and consider the operator to be the leader of the Russian market, says Igor Mikhailov, manager of Uralsib Management Company; he bought Megafon securities for about $5 million. And Renaissance Asset Management portfolio manager Dmitry Mikhailov, who bought securities for “several million dollars,” likes the quality of Megafon’s coverage and its leadership in data transmission.

The drop in quotes after the IPO was all the more unexpected because, as all brokers said, the company was valued at a large discount and there were few speculators among investors, managers complain. Vorosh from Morgan Stanley calls the start of trading in Megafon shares expected and calls not to rush into assessments. Shareholders and managers of the operator believe in the growth of its shares, he points out: Telecominvest did not sell a single share during the IPO; the operator’s CEO Ivan Tavrin and TeliaSonera President Lars Nyberg even invested personal funds in the purchase of shares. Tavrin decided to exercise his option to purchase 1.25% of Megafon from Megafon Investments (100% subsidiary of the operator) at the offering price, a company representative said. The package will cost him $155 million. Megafon's debt burden is the lowest among the Big Three operators.

In 2011, it was decided to create a subsidiary company, MegaLabs, which occupies a unique position in the field of digital services and content. At the end of 2012, MegaLabs launched more than 30 projects in the field of electronic payments, digital television, mobile applications and UMS.

“Our project can rightfully be called unique for the entire telecommunications industry in Russia. In just a few months, we and our partners not only installed new equipment, but also immediately launched a network with HSPA+ support over a large area. This will allow both existing MegaFon subscribers and our new customers to use the most modern services of 3.75G networks - access the Internet at high speeds, make video calls, free long-distance calls through the Internet telephony program MultiFon and use other services , previously unavailable in the GSM standard,” commented Alexey Tyutin, director of the Siberian branch of MegaFon OJSC.

“Currently, Alcatel-Lucent wireless solutions are used in 350 commercial networks of various standards. Based on our experience in network transformation, we, together with MegaFon specialists, quickly integrated our solution into MegaFon’s existing network and prepared a new infrastructure for the introduction of commercial services. We are proud of our participation in the launch of a new Russian commercial converged network and partnership with OJSC MegaFon, one of the most dynamic companies in the Russian telecommunications industry, - noted Alexander Tikhonov, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent in Russia and the CIS countries - We are ready to provide OJSC "MegaFon will provide assistance and support in subsequent stages of development of this project."

2009: Reorganization in the form of merger of regional companies

Corporate customer service office of MegaFon OJSC in Kazan

On July 1, 2009, the company completed reorganization in the form of the merger of subsidiaries - regional operating companies.

In 2009, MegaFon was the only Russian mobile operator to become the General Partner of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In 2009, MegaFon, before other telecom operators, offered devices under its own brand: photo frames and MMS cameras. At the same time, MegaFon was the first and only (as of 2013) to offer clients the MultiFon service.

Russian football championship among pupils of orphanages and boarding schools “The future depends on you.” This is the only tournament in Russia for children under state care. In 2013, the RFU, ROC, the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation and the Football for Children Charitable Foundation joined the organizers.

2004: St. Petersburg is the first city in Europe with an MMS service

In 2004, St. Petersburg became the first city in Europe to launch a multimedia messaging service (MMS). In the same year, the Mobile Television service was launched.

Became available in the metro.

1997: Expansion in the regions of the North-West

In 1997, the company began expansion into the regions of the northwestern part of Russia. By the end of 2000, the subscriber base of North-West GSM numbered more than 250 thousand people, and by the end of 2002 it reached 2.8 million people.

1995: Launch of the GSM network in St. Petersburg

In 1995, the GSM network was launched into commercial operation in St. Petersburg. In the first 12 months of operation, the company connected 8 thousand subscribers.

On June 17, 1993, the Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg City Hall, Vladimir Putin, signed the Certificate of State Registration of North-West GSM CJSC.