According to an announcement by NEC on July 12, the company has established a new subsidiary in Moscow, which will focus on infrastructure equipment for 3G mobile communications. NEC stated that the new subsidiary, named NEC Infocom, has been formed by merging two prior existing units, the Moscow liaison office and a technical support center. NEC Infocom has an initial capital of 14 million rubles and is staffed by 50 employees.

 

Russia is expected to start commercialization of 3G mobile communications in 2006. At the end of March 2005 Russia had approximately 85 million mobile phone subscribers, up from about 72 million at the end of 2004. Major telecom companies on the Russian market are MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon. For its overall operations in Russia NEC has an annual sales target of 30 billion Yen in 2008.