VEON Ltd. agreed to buy Uzbekistan's Perfectum operator for about $207 million, a move the company says would expand Beeline Uzbekistan's spectrum holdings by roughly 50% as subscribers use more mobile data.
VEON said Oct. 19 it would acquire all of Rubicon Wireless, which operates under the Perfectum brand. The valuation includes approximately $93 million in debt that VEON would take on. VEON plans to pay the cash portion from resources it already has, but did not specify the payment amount.
The purchase centers on Perfectum's 115 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum in two bands: 850 MHz and 3,800 MHz. VEON expects those frequencies and Perfectum's standalone 5G network, built with Nokia equipment, to support Beeline's 4G service, future 5G offerings and wireless broadband for homes and businesses.
Nokia said in April 2024 that the network rollout was planned to begin in Tashkent and extend to other regions. That plan does not establish the network's current coverage.
For Beeline, the agreement comes as customer numbers fall while data use grows. VEON's second-quarter 2026 results put Beeline Uzbekistan's mobile customer count at 7.7 million, down 2.6% from the second quarter of 2025. Mobile data use rose 29.4% over the same period to 20.1 gigabytes per user.
Uzbekistan's National Statistics Committee put the country's population at 39,047,321 in preliminary census results as of Jan. 15, 2026. VEON expects the additional network assets to improve coverage and capacity and make future investment more efficient. Those benefits depend on completing the purchase and combining the operations.
Beeline Uzbekistan CEO Yevgeniy Nastradin said the company would focus on bringing the acquired assets into its business and improving the experience for customers. VEON said the relevant regulatory approvals were in place and set an end-of-October 2026 target for closing the deal.
