PJSC VimpelCom (russian: ПАО «ВымпелКом» or full name russian: ПАО «Вымпел-Коммуникации», ''PAO «

Vympel Directorate "V" of the FSB Special Purpose Center, often referred to as Spetsgruppa "V" Vympel ( pennant in Russian, originated from German , and having the same meaning), but also known as KGB Directorate "V", Vega Group, is an elite Russia ...

-Kommunikatsii»'') is a Russian telecommunications company started in 1992 when its co-founders, Dr.

Dmitry Zimin Dmitry Borisovich Zimin (russian: Дмитрий Борисович Зимин; 28 April 1933 – 22 December 2021) was a Russian radio scientist and businessman, who was the founder and honorary president of VimpelCom. From his retirement in t ...

and Augie K. Fabela II came together to pioneer the Russian mobile industry. Augie Fabela, who was then a young entrepreneur from the US, and Dr. Zimin who was a Russian scientist in his 50s, together launched the Beeline brand. PJSC VimpelCom is the third-largest wireless and second-largest telecom operator in Russia. VimpelCom's main competitors in Russia are

Mobile TeleSystems MTS (russian: Мобильные ТелеСистемы, МТС, "Mobile TeleSystems"), headquartered in Moscow, is the largest mobile network operator in Russia, operating on GSM, UMTS and LTE standards. Apart from cellular network, the compan ...

and

MegaFon MegaFon (russian: МегаФон), previously known as North-West GSM, is the second largest mobile phone operator

. PJSC VimpelCom's headquarters is located in Moscow. In 1996-2010, traded as . It is wholly owned by

Veon VEON Ltd. (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.) is a Dutch-domiciled multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications, telecommunication services company. It predominantly operates services in the regions of Asia, Africa and Europe. It is the 13t ...

History

The company was founded in 1992 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and initially operated AMPS/

D-AMPS IS-54 and IS-136 are second-generation ( 2G) mobile phone systems, known as Digital AMPS (D-AMPS), and a further development of the North American 1G mobile system Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). It was once prevalent throughout the America ...

network in Moscow and Moscow Oblast. The brand "

Beeline A bee line is an idiom for the shortest route or a straight line between two points (see "as the crow flies"): bee line, bee-line, or beeline may also refer to: Brands and enterprises * Beeline (brand), a telecommunications brand by VimpelCom L ...

" was created in 1993. In 1996 OJSC VimpelCom became the first Russian company listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

(). In 1997 the company began

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

network roll-out and in 2001 it started GSM networks throughout Russia's regions. On February 29, 2008 OJSC VimpelCom completed a merger with

Golden Telecom Golden Telecom is an internet services provider in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It was acquired by VimpelCom in 2007. History Founded in 1996 by the global corporation Global Telesystems ("GTS"). NYSE-listed Global T ...

. In October 2008 OJSC VimpelCom acquired a 49.9% stake in

Euroset Euroset (russian: Евросеть) was Russia's largest mobile phone retailer, with over 5,000 stores across Russia and Belarus. In 2006, the company controlled 37% of the Russian mobile retail market and in 2010 it employed some 27,000 people. I ...

, the largest mobile retailer in Russia and the CIS. In 2010 the ticker “VIP” was transferred to VimpelCom Ltd. holding. In February 2017, VimpelCom renamed itself

, after the messaging platform that it had developed. On April 14, 2005, the company decreased its net income in 2002 and 2003 as a result of this restatement: 2002 - $2.8 million or 2.2%, 2003 - $5.2 million or 2.2%.

References

External links

About company

beeline.ru
{{Authority control . Telecommunications companies of Russia Internet service providers of Russia Mobile phone companies of Russia Companies based in Moscow Telecommunications companies established in 1992 1992 establishments in Russia Telenor VEON