TASHKENT (WiMAX Day). The Japanese company Sumitomo Corp and Korea Telecom announced today the acquisition of two companies in Uzbekistan for a total of ¥ 8 billion yen (US$69.6 million). The acquisitions will enable Sumitomo to offer WiMAX services in Uzbekistan.

The acquisitions include East Telecom, a fixed-line telecoms operator and one of the largest Internet providers in Uzbekistan. KT will acquire 51% of East Telecom and Sumitomo will acquire a 34% stake. The second acquisition includes the company Super iMax, which according to a KT press release, is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that owns licenses for mobile WiMAX spectrum in Uzbekistan. KT will acquire 60% of Super iMax and Sumitomo will acquire 40%.

Accoriding to Sumitomo, the two companies should be able to achieve combined revenue of $61 million by 2012. Sumitomo is not new to the WiMAX business. The Japanese company invested in the Russian wireless broadband operator Enforta in 2006. Enforta is one of the strongest WBA providers in Russia, offering services in 25 cities.

Korea Telecom has other telecom investments in Russia. The company owns the Vladivostok-based NTC (New Telephone Company), one of the ten largest Russian telecoms operators that provides fixed-line, GSM and broadband services.

In a press release today, KT said that these acquisitions are a step toward further penetration into Central Asia for KT, a relatively undeveloped market of some 65 million people. Uzbekistan is the largest country in Central Asia, with 26 million people, neighboring Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

At the beginning of 2007 there were an estimated 250,000 Internet users in Uzbekistan using mainly dial-up connections, and some 10,000 broadband users.

With such opportunity for WiMAX also comes competition. MTS-Uzbekistan, a subsidiary of Mobile TeleSystems OJSC – the largest GSM operator of Russia, is already planning to launch a mobile WiMAX network in Uzbekistan in early 2008. The company was awarded a license for 2500 ~ 2700 Mhz spectrum in April 2007.

The Uzbek telecoms operator Sarcor Telecom already offers pre-WiMAX services, and is expected to launch mobile WiMAX next year using the 3.5 GHz spectrum it owns. Sarcor is owned by Eventis Telecom, the Russian telecoms investment group that previously owned Synterra, the Russian WiMAX operator.

It is also rumoured that Golden Telecom plans to offer WiMAX services in Uzbekistan next year.