A Swiss based telecom holding company, Trivon, has formed a partnership with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to bring WiMAX services to Russia under the Virgin Connect brand.

Over the weekend, Trivon, which operates the network, launched services in 32 Russian regions including Moscow, St. Petersburg and the 20 largest cities where it holds the required licences and frequencies for WiMAX-based services.

Virgin Connect will provide broadband internet connectivity, voice and value added services to residential, SME and larger corporate customers.

“We offer Russian consumers high quality of service, a differentiating feature of the Virgin services worldwide, and we really care about our customers. We also give easy access to our services with simple and transparent tariffs”, said Istvan Kovacs, COO of the Trivon Group. Virgin Connect said it plans to gain a market share of 10 per cent within five years of launch.

Co-investors in the project are two private equity companies, Delta Partners and Eurasia Capital Management. All three firms own stakes in Trivon.