GTEL-Mobile, the joint venture of Russia's Vimpelcom in Vietnam had been assigned a GSM license and frequencies, a Reuters report said.

"Now, with all the procedural issues solved, we can focus all our efforts on the network rollout and the preparation of commercial launch," Vimpelcom CEO Alexander Izosimov was quoted as saying.

Vimpelcom signed an agreement to set up the venture in July this year and is paying $267 million for a 40% stake in the venture.

Its partners are two of Vietnam's state-owned companies. Under the agreement, they contribute the mobile licence that has now been issued.

Vimpelcom, in which Norway's Telenor and Russia's Alfa Group have large stakes, said earlier it was aiming for a 15%-20% share of the Vietnamese mobile calls market within five years, or around 20 million subscribers, the Reuters report said.

GTEL-Mobile is scheduled to launch commercial services in the middle of next year.

Source:telecomasia.net