Uzbekistan clears VEON's Perfectum deal if 5G FWA tariffs hold for a year

Uzbekistan's Competition Committee approved VEON's purchase of the mobile operator Perfectum on condition that existing customers keep their 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) tariffs for 12 months and that average internet speed does not fall below 300 Mbit/s, it said on 20 October.

VEON announced the agreement a day earlier. Its release of 19 October puts the total consideration at about US$207 million, including about US$93 million of Perfectum's outstanding financial debt that VEON will assume, which leaves about US$114 million for the shares by Corridor Signal's calculation. The release said the relevant regulatory approvals had been obtained and that completion was expected by the end of October. It did not mention any conditions.

The committee, formally the Committee for the Development of Competition and Protection of Consumer Rights, said in the statement on its official Telegram channel that it had considered an application by VEON UZB Holding Ltd, a VEON group company registered in the United Arab Emirates, to buy 100 per cent of the shares of Rubicon Wireless Communication, the joint-stock company that provides mobile services under the Perfectum brand. VEON UZB Holding Ltd already owns 100 per cent of Unitel, the statement says. Unitel is the company behind the Beeline Uzbekistan brand, VEON says.

Seven conditions

The committee said its special commission had analysed the deal and that prior consent was given subject to conditions aimed at protecting competition. Translated and summarised by Corridor Signal, the conditions are to:

• keep Perfectum operating separately for at least three years and extend its 5G standalone technology to other regions;
• keep existing subscribers' 5G FWA tariffs for 12 months, create favourable terms for new subscribers and not let average internet speed fall below 300 Mbit/s;
• not impose on subscribers conditions unrelated to the subject of the contract, and not restrict their freedom to move to other mobile operators;
• not oblige subscribers to use digital platforms belonging to Beeline and the VEON group, and not restrict their use of competing services;
• not worsen service conditions without justification, and protect subscribers' rights;
• protect subscribers' personal and commercial data, not use it to restrict competition and not transfer it to foreign servers in breach of the law;
• comply with the Law on Competition and ensure a healthy competitive environment in the market.

The statement does not say from which date the 12-month and three-year periods run, whether the 300 Mbit/s floor covers the FWA service or the whole network, how compliance will be checked or what follows a breach. It gives no subscriber numbers or market shares for either operator, and VEON's release gives none for Perfectum.

What VEON says it is buying

VEON says Perfectum's assets include 115 MHz of spectrum across the 850 MHz and 3,800 MHz bands and a 5G standalone network deployed with Nokia equipment. VEON expects the deal to raise Beeline Uzbekistan's spectrum holdings by about 50 per cent, support its plans for 5G and fixed wireless access, and bring savings in capital and operating expenditure from integrating the two networks. It says the cash consideration will come from existing cash resources. These are the company's statements; the committee's statement refers to Perfectum's 5G standalone technology but gives no figures for its spectrum.

"Perfectum's spectrum complements our existing holdings and will support our plans to strengthen coverage and capacity, introduce 5G services and expand wireless broadband for homes and businesses," Yevgeniy Nastradin, CEO of Beeline Uzbekistan, said in the release. The reference to introducing 5G is consistent with Corridor Signal's reading of VEON's annual report, which found no 5G among Beeline's Uzbek licences. Kaan Terzioglu, Group Chief Executive Officer of VEON, called Uzbekistan "one of VEON's core growth markets".

A regulator already looking at tariffs

The conditions come while the committee examines whether recent mobile price increases were justified. In a statement on 9 October it said consumers objected that tariff rises were out of proportion to the extra internet traffic included in plans, and it listed instructions it had sent to Beeline, Mobiuz and Ucell during 2025 and the first nine months of 2026. Among them, Beeline ended the practice of moving customers to a daily tariff without warning when their balance could not cover the monthly fee. Corridor Signal's report on that review compared one operator's published fees.

VEON has scheduled results for the third quarter, which ended before the agreement was announced, for 6 November, according to a notice of 8 October. For the combined business, the committee's conditions set the first tests: the tariff hold for existing FWA customers and three years of separate operation for Perfectum.