Can you give us some additional information about Coscom, on its structure and historical background in Uzbekistan?
The company Coscom has been registered at the Ministry of Justice as a Joint Venture since 26th of April, 1996. There has been done a lot of work prior to the registration of the company. A group of enthusiasts had been working for two years on the project of creation of a modern cellular company with a GSM standard and two years ago we have successfully finished the project. We have a worthy partner, which is an American company MCT, and created a joint venture COSCOM. Mr. I.M. Muminov, the General Director of "Uzbekkosmos", Mr. Abdullaev, deputy of Mr. Muminov, and I are the members of the initiative group. In late 1996 we obtained a license, but we have to note the fact that the so-called pioneer station has been already run in March 1996, before the registration, e.g. initially the equipment was imported, and we showed that it worked. We are the only operators who did this and we presented GSM acting in two major cities of Samarkand and Tashkent. Our network has been exploited since September 1st, 1997. At present, we are working along the whole Silk Road including Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Guylistan and Djizak. Our company started its activity in Ferghana Valley. We are trying to come forth and are the pioneers who established the cellular communication in Zerafshan. It is a very important region due to the fact that Zerafshan is an industrial region, where gold mining and Uranus takes place. It is considered as a provision of the infrastructure for development of business.
Communication is important. As I mentioned earlier we are working along the Grate Silk Road. We will finish up the construction of the communication service in Ferghana Valley at the end of this year. At the same time we are in the second step of development which presumes construction of cellular service in the rural regions like Ghijduvan, Kattakurgan and other densely populated regions. The major fact is that we have implemented an international roaming service in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan since November 1998. We should also note the fact that the personnel of Coscom consists only of citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan. We are certainly proud of it considering that many other cellular companies, having highly experienced specialists, still cannot achieve provision of such communication. We are awarded with the certificate of achievement for our activities for a big contribution by COSCOM in import substituting activities and also export of service. Today, we are the second of the most profitable activities after the international communication. Presently we have 23 countries where our roaming is active. Currently we are working on implementing a roaming service in USA. This is merely an engineering task for us. Initially it had been taking my personal attention, but now it does not.
Speaking about our other peculiarities, I should note that we pay much attention to the training of our personnel. Today the personnel of COSCOM fulfill all the works beginning from projecting and ending with assembling and exploitation.
There are about 6 companies presently operating in Uzbekistan. What is your market share, and what are your competitive advantages?
It is hard for me to analyze but I can only speak
from the standpoint of COSCOM. We always esteem
"Uzdunrobita", the pioneer and the operator of the
cellular communication, the first company that established
and provided the cellular service in Uzbekistan,
but the MPS standard is already obsolete. Let me
make a little comparison. The coordinator of the
famous "YALLA" Farukh Zakirov came to me and was
asking me about the difference between the analogue
and GSM standards. I spent about an hour talking
about the difference but eventually he seemed not
tounderstanding anything. Then I gave him a little
example of the difference between the CD and a hard
disc. He said that I should not have explained to
him for so long but to give him that example at
the beginning. I gave this example just because
that it would be more expedient to divide our market
into two parts: analogue and digital standards.
"Uzdunrobita" is the leader in the analogue standard
communication service, "Rubicon Utel" is still not
developed and has not expanded out of Tashkent as
an operator. Today, "Uzdunrobita" is the largest
operator in Uzbekistan network and coveragewise.
Let me give you a brief analysis of the GSM standard
operated by Coscom, Uzmacom, Buztel and Daewoo Unitel.
Only two among the listed companies, Coscom and
Daewoo Unitel, had expanded out of Tashkent and
Coscom is the only company offering a roaming service.
Today we are one of the most expensive companies.
The less provided services, the lesser the prices.
Distribution of the consumer base is as follows:
Our consumers are the ones who travel much. Those
include business people and others. Yet we cannot
be sure that the cellular market is already formed.
We are now in the process of forming. Every company
is undertaking its own marketing policies. There
are two points of success or failure of the operators.
First, it is the extent to which the investor is
strong and far - sighted, and second, it is the
team, and to which extend it solves the given task
finding the new ways and methods of solving them.
Our interview would have been incomplete if had
not had mentioned our cofounders. On the western
part Coscom is presented by the investor MCT, with
its head office in Alexandria which has 51% of shares,
on our part it is presented by the Agency of cosmic
researches "Uzbek State Space Agency" having 26%
, and the rest of shares is distributed among the
physical persons, including me. It is a good motivation
for an active work. |
How many employees do you have in your company ? What has been your turnover last year?
There are 250 employees in total working on the territory of Uzbekistan, including the ones who work in our branches. We are trying to use our labor resources effectively.
The turnover makes up 1,000,000 USD a month taking into account the inflation. Due to the problems with the currency conversion it is hard to give an exact number and we divide the profit into roaming and other articles. Our company has 15000 telephone subscribers and the "R time" makes up 400 minutes.
Where do you see COSCOM three to four years from now ?
Talking time wise of 4-5 year period there will be implemented a third generation, which represents a serious financial inflow, and as I said before we have a solid investor, the company "STCor". This company is a cofounder of 14 companies in other CIS countries. In particular, with an assistance of Coscom there was put into operation a cellular communication in Khodjent (Tajikistan), and our American colleagues and partners are very aggressive. We are now working on making the cellular communication coverage full throughout the country before the end of next year. We have also started working on the provision of cellular communication along the strategic highways such as Tashkent - Ferghana. It is an exploration of all types of service like the ones provided by the operators of GSM world wide, and due to this we are now in the process of innovation in the field of cellular communication. We are also exploring new services. In particular, using the services of COSCOM at the same time you can also have an access to the Internet. As I believe, it is a very important service for the incoming businessmen. However, we are facing such problems as a slow data transmission in the GSM standard, and the speed is 9.600 b/s. We are now working on speeding up the data transmission to 30 - 40b/s by setting the GPRS.
We are constructing a new office and expanding the roaming service.
What would be your final message to our readers, all potential investors ?
I would say that we are experienced not only working in Uzbekistan but also working in the CIS and other countries. Our company is a member of the International Association of GSM operators and the Russian Association. We intensively and often do exchange the information and there is almost no difference between the provided services let's say in Uzbekistan and Moscow, or London. Changing of equipment is another issue for a permanent retraining and qualification enhancement.
As I mentioned before Coscom began implementing the third generation of the base station. We implemented many kinds of new equipment in less than three years. Simply saying - if we lag behind, note our company is the only one that provides roaming services, than we will be forced out of the international communication space. In other words, by providing roaming services we also bear a responsibility.
While coming into Tashkent airport foreigners recognize Coscom from the first sight. They turn their cellular phones on and read Coscom. Almost all of the senior specialists are fluent in English and they have served an internship in Stuttgart, Chicago and therefore we are a full and equal member of the international society, which would be impossible during the Soviet Union. Our employees can call directly to Stuttgart to get advised, and also our partners in London also often call us, and therefore we work as a team.
This also happens due to the legislative base that encourages and improves the investment climate. Bureaucracy in Uzbekistan is less spread than it is in Russia and Germany. I'm saying this not as a patriot but as a businessman. It relates to other complicated issues such as customs clearance, certification, and so on. You can compare these two positions in any other country and see where would that be easier to work. For instance, a new technological equipment that is not produced in Uzbekistan is not levied with a Value Added Tax(VAT). There is 20% of VAT in Russia for importing similar equipment. Same situation in other countries.
Coscom is involved in the State Investment Program. We are exempted from the income tax for 7 years. The state policy in the field of new technologies seems to be is correct and shows that the government has a strong intention towards the development of our country.
NOTE: World Investment News Ltd cannot be made responsible for the content of unedited transcriptions. |
COSCOM