Uzbekistan’s telecommunications regulator has threatened mobile operator Unitel, a 100% subsidiary of Russia’s VimpelCom, with license revocation after the regulator received multiple complaints about the quality of Unitel’s services, the regulator said in a statement on Monday.

Unitel’s customers complain they often cannot get through when calling and that the voice quality is low, Uzbekistan’s Communications and IT Agency said.

In a statement Monday, the operator blamed the low service quality to network upgrades and said it was preparing a network development plan in order to enhance quality.

VimpelCom acquired Unitel last year, as well as another cellular operator, Buztel, which it merged into Unitel. VimpelCom said last year it would invest up to US$150 million in Unitel’s network by 2008.

Unitel had a 35.6% market share as of 1 October, when Uzbekistan had 4.57 million mobile subscribers, the regulator said. Unitel received a third generation (3G) mobile license earlier this month.