p; Norway's Tele- worldwide. Headquar- nor, 36.4% tered in Amsterdam. Scartel Telconet Capital Fund, Russian Technologies is 74.9%; Russian Tech- government controlled. nologies State Corpora- It was established in tion, 25.1% 2007 to attract invest- ments and develop military/industrial and technology products. Rostelcom Rostelcom State telecom holding Links between Russian (Russian company Svyazinvest, carriers, undersea fiber spelling 50.7%; the rest is pub- cable, satellites, televi- Rostelkom) licly traded sion broadcasting, Inter- net access, and cellular service. In 2010 merged with seven regional telecom firms. Tele2 Rostov Swedish mobile pro- Rostov is known as the Cellular vider Tele2 AB, 100% low-cost provider in areas in which it pro- vides service. The Vimplecom/WIND Telecom S.p.A. Merger In a complex purchase arrangement, Vimplecom, the third largest mobile provider in Russia, purchased WIND Telecom in 2011. WIND Telecom is the third largest mobile provider in Italy. At the time of its purchase, it owned the largest mobile provider in Summary North Africa, Orascom. After the purchase was finalized, Vimplecom announced that it was divesting itself of the Orascom operations in Egypt and North Korea. It initially announced its intention to keep its Algerian unit, but is currently negotiating a price with the Algerian government that plans to nationalize it. To complicate matters, as of this writing, Vimplecom is in the midst of a tax dispute with the Algerian government and has been fined for foreign exchange violations. As a result of its purchase of WIND Telecom, Vimplecom is now the fifth larg- est mobile provider in the world. It will have subscribers in 19 international markets, including Cambodia, Canada, Italy, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zim- babwe. Its offerings include fixed-line as well as mobile services. SUMMARY During the past decade, attracted by the potential for dramatic growth in mobile scribers, large international carriers and local business people have invested heav