Enforta Announces Zarja Acquisition for Russian Wi-MAX, VoIP

Enforta BV announced that it has acquired 100 percent of the Zarja Century Holding Company, including its operating subsidiaries in Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, and Sverdlovsk Region.

Zarja is the sole owner of Tron LLC operating under the “Netprovodov” brand (“No wires”). Netprovodov is the largest wireless broadband operator in Russia’s Ural region.

Enforta’s General Director Victor Ratnikov said Tron was selected since it has “established a solid reputation as an early leader in the provisioning of pre-WiMax, VoIP, and broadband products in the Urals.”

Lee Sparkman, president of Enforta told this reporter that the acquisition of TRON / Netprovodov “gives Enforta a great 'springboard' into one of the fastest growing regions of Russia, and greatly complements the 8 offices we have opened in the last couple of months.  We are still scheduled to open another 4 offices in the second quarter of this year.”

Vladimir Strelok, Tron’s General Director said Enforta’s objectives were “much like ours,” as far as providing SOHO and SME subscribers with broadband services goes.

Enforta was formed in October, 2003 with the objective to provide broadband services using WiMAX and other advanced technologies in Russia’s regions. Enforta is owned by Sumitomo Corporation, Baring Vostok Capital Partners, and its management team.

Enforta is a member of the WiMAX Forum, an industry-led consortium of over 300 members developing and promoting standards for IEEE 802.16 wireless broadband technology.

“The WiMAX technology is really working pretty well, but the regulatory challenges are not insignificant,” Sparkman said, adding that “here in Russia WiMAX technology is ideally suited to the economics given the subscriber penetration that we forecast for the next several years.”

Last October InfiNet Wireless announced that Enforta  selected the company as the wireless equipment provider for a nationwide broadband network. InfiNet Wireless and Enforta signed an equipment supply agreement which Enforta officials said would lead to the creation, “over the next 24 months, of the largest WiMAX network in the Russian Federation spanning 28 major cities.”

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.

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