WIND Telecomunicazioni (WIND), a subsidiary of Vimplecom,
announced that it won spectrum in the 800MHz and 2600MHz frequencies following
the completion of the competitive spectrum auction initiated by the Italian
government on August 29, 2011.

WIND has been awarded two blocks FDD (5+5 MHZ paired
each) of spectrum in the 800MHz frequency range and four FDD (5+5 MHz paired)
blocks in the 2,600MHz frequency range for a total consideration of euro 1,120
million.

WIND has to pay an amount of approximately euro 682
million within 30 days from the completion of the auction while the remaining
amount of approximately euro 438 million will be payable over five yearly installments.

The first spectrum payment will be funded by a
combination of cash on hand and draw down under a euro 600 million bridge loan
facility available to WIND and provided by a group of leading international
banks.

The spectrum awarded to WIND will enable the company to
deploy and launch LTE/4G telecommunication services in the coming years. The
combination of the acquired 800 MHz and 2,600 MHz blocks will allow Wind to exploit
the LTE technology to the maximum performance as well as provide the service
with high quality indoor coverage.

VimpelCom recently announced that its subsidiary OJSC
VimpelCom acquired 90 percent of shares of New Telephone Company (NTC).

In line with the earlier announcement regarding the
acquisition of NTC, VimpelCom has acquired 90 percent of NTC shares. VimpelCom
will launch a mandatory tender offer under Russian law to acquire the remaining
10 percent of the outstanding NTC shares. Completion of the tender offer is
expected to occur in the third quarter of 2011.  The acquisition price for
100 percent of NTC shares is based on an enterprise value of $420 million. The
major shareholders of NTC are KT Corporation and Summit Telecom Global Management,
a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation.

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]