Shareholders of Uzbektelecom at extraordinary meeting allowed the company to sign contract on supply of telecommunication equipment for US$117.6 million with Huawei Technologies Co.LTD.
The contract will be financed due to loan of the State Development Bank of China for US$100 million and Aloqabank for US$17.6 million.
The State Development Bank of China will provide loan for nine years with three-year grace period under interest rate of 6-month LIBOR plus 3.9%.
Huawei Technologies will supply equipment to Uzmobile, which currently is constructing its own GSM network in Uzbekistan.
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov signed a resolution “On measures on organization of activity of national operator of mobile communication” on 12 February 2014.
Uzbekistan creates national operator of mobile communication on the base of Uzmobile, a branch of the joint stock company “Uzbektelecom”. The operator will provide services on GSM standard, while continue to develop CDMA-450 network, which it created in 2004.
The operator will install 3,900 base stations and 4,000 sets of radio relay equipment with total number capacity of 8 million numbers.
The project, with the estimated cost of US$500 million, will be financed due to loan of the State Development Bank of China for US$100 million and the resources of the Uzbek side.