Tele2 will launch mobile services in and around Moscow on 22 October, it announced on Friday.
"The operator will offer easy-to-understand tariffs at low prices and without any hidden conditions to residents of Moscow and Moscow Region," Tele2 said, in a short statement.
The announcement came a month after Tele2 opened a new contact centre in the city of Saransk which it said will handle customer enquiries following the launch of services in Moscow.
The Tele2 brand is still used for mobile services in Russia despite the exit of Sweden’s Tele2 from the market last year. The telco agreed to merge its Russian assets with those of fixed-line provider Rostelecom and in August last year the new joint venture was completed. Rostelecom owns 45% of Tele2 Russia while VTB Group and strategic investors hold the other 55%.
The launch of services in Moscow should help Tele2 to build its market share.
The telco serves 14% of the 242.3 million mobile subscribers in Russia as of the end of June, according to specialist consultancy Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M). It has a bigger share in St Petersburg and in the Russian regions – 17% in each – but the lack of a presence in Moscow is restricting its overall size.
There were 40.2 million subscribers in Moscow in mid-2015, AC&M’s figures show. The market is evenly split between MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon.
