Mobile operator Sonic Duo’s Antonios Vanezis speaks with Vladimir Kozlov.

Antonios Vanezis is commercial director of Sonic Duo, a Moscow mobile operator that is expected to start operations this fall in competition with established giants Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and VimpelCom with its Bee Line brand.

Sonic Duo forms part of the Megafon consortium of mobile phone service providers that was formed last month in a bid to create a nationwide operator. Sonic Duo will cover Moscow and its oblast, with the rest of Russia divided between several companies, including Northwest Telecom.

A native of Cyprus, Vanezis began his career as a product manager in Greece. After moving to Moscow nine years ago, he worked for the local offices of Nesco, Rowenta and Bosch-Siemens in senior marketing and sales positions. He talked to The Russia Journal about his company's plans and prospects.

The Russia Journal: According to press reports, Sonic Duo is planning to start operations in the third quarter of this year. Is there a more specific date?

Antonios Vanezis: We've already mentioned and are ready to confirm once again that we're planning to launch our network this fall. The Sonic Duo network is being actively built. After Sonic Duo's incorporation into the Megafon project – a program envisaging the establishment of a national GSM network – the provision of service for guest subscribers and roamers has become one of our top priorities.

Moscow is attractive because there is high demand for mobile communication services from both Muscovites and numerous visitors. That is why, by the end of the third quarter of this year, Sonic Duo is planning to start a trial commercial operation of its network, servicing roamers from Russia and foreign countries.

RJ: How many stations are you planning to have at the initial stage?

AV: The 200 base stations currently under construction are supposed to cover Moscow, the international airports, and the main highways and critical towns in Moscow Oblast. We'll continue work on commercial operations for our own subscribers as soon as the number of base stations in our network exceeds 350, and the coverage will be stable not only in Moscow but in the neighboring towns of Moscow Oblast.

RJ: What are your company's short-term and long-term objectives?

AV: Sonic Duo's goals, if described in figures, are to gain 20-25 percent of Moscow's market in the next three years. Given that in Moscow and the oblast only one in five residents uses a mobile phone, compared with an average European penetration of 40-50 percent, our plans are realistic enough. On the national scale, the market potential is much higher, because only 3 percent of Russians use cellular services.

Figures aside, we want to grow into an operating company of a new kind, which will be able to offer subscribers in any region of Russia high-quality services of international quality and advanced mobile services on the most favorable terms.

RJ: In what way will Sonic Duo be different from other cellular operators?

AV: We won't wage any price wars, or introduce dumping tariffs or carry out programs aimed at enticing subscribers from other operators. Sonic Duo and our partners in the Megafon project have enough capacity to compete in a fair and efficient manner, without attempting to gain short-term profits.

Our company possesses the most advanced technological base in the Moscow region as well as significant reserves in other regions, powerful partners throughout Russia and abroad, a professional team and good investment potential. These factors make us confident that subscribers' decisions in favor of Sonic Duo will be well-considered, weighted and long-term.

RJ: Could you tell us more about Sonic Duo's tariff policy?

AV: The basic principles of our tariff policy are simplicity and transparency. Sonic Duo will offer a range of subscription plans for all our target clients.

RJ: What will Sonic Duo's quality standards be?

AV: Our intention is to make high quality a distinctive feature of Sonic Duo's services on the Moscow market, meaning the quality of services and of customer care. For readers of The Russia Journal it is quite logical to view this task in terms of service provided to foreign roamers and foreigners who permanently reside in Moscow.

Those people are probably the most demanding mobile services' user group. They have experience of dealing with Western operators, they know what high-quality service is about, and they can compare it with what is offered in Russia today. They have a good pragmatic approach to mobile communication – or to put it more correctly, "we" have, because I'm a foreigner who has been living in Russia for nine years now.

A phone should meet our individual needs in business communications and information handling, and we can't afford to spend much time dealing with an operator when sorting out such simple issues as tariff changes or balance check-ups. So, Sonic Duo will spare no effort to make foreign subscribers' visits to our network as comfortable as possible.

We have a homogenous network built as a turnkey project using the most advanced equipment from a single manufacturer – world leader Ericsson. This is the so-called GSM 2.5 network that supports advanced GPRS technologies, applications and the most advanced services on the basis of WAP, SIM Toolkit etc; the network that may accomplish a seamless transition to 3G services in the future. There is simply no place for technical faults caused by internal failures in the network.

The main procedures for monitoring balances, payments, and for selecting and changing individual sets of services should be made, to the extent possible, remote so that the subscriber can avoid wasting time visiting the operator.

In the sales and service offices themselves, everything is thoroughly thought over: from an automated visitor ticket dispenser – in many Western banks such dispensers enable customers to avoid lining up for service, even during rush hours – to interior decoration details.

Of course, customer service staff at Sonic Duo should be up to the mark. These people have experience in serving customers, good knowledge of the cellular market and command of English and are now subject to special training based on the best international methodology. Soon, upon completion of training, they will be able to provide clear advice to subscribers on selecting tariffs, new services and mobile communication in general.

Finally, our specialists are determined to bring the quality of services in the Sonic Duo network up to an internationally acceptable level. It is important not only to meet certain standards, but also ensure impeccable content of services. First of all, this concerns the most advanced information services based on WAP and GPRS. In today's Russia, these services are perceived by many as prestigious technical innovations that are not always easy to understand since cellular companies offer them "non ripe," with unfriendly interface.

RJ: There have been reports that Sonic Duo almost has enough frequencies to start operations. When will the frequency issue be completely solved?

AV: A unified pool of frequencies assigned to Sonic Duo is enough for the network's commercial launch. In the 1800 MHz band, Sonic Duo has a bandwidth of 20 MHz, in the 900 MHz band it has about 3 MHz, including a bandwidth of 1.6 MHz in the E-GSM. At the same time, it is our company's intention to continue its participation in radio frequency conversion programs, and in the company of other Russian operators to take part in the study of the promising E-GSM band. Thus, in the future, we are counting on access to an additional frequency resource.