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MTS gets 0.64 million new subscribers in the month of June (Russian Federation)

  • July 18th, 2008
  • 11:55 am

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) added 0.64 million new subscribers during June, reaching a total of 86.94 million users. MTS subscribers in Russia totalled 61.38 million, up by 0.52 million versus the end of April. MTS added 0.08 million subscribers in Moscow and the Moscow region to reach a total 14.11 million subscribers at the end of May. Subscribers in the rest of Russia numbered 44.31 million. In Ukraine, MTS lost 0.24 million subscribers, reaching 19.13 million. MTS also has 4.37 million subscribers in Uzbekistan, 0.57 million in Turkmenistan, 1.49 million in Armenia and 4.03 million in Belarus.

   

Sistema plans to branch out in Bangladesh and China.

  • July 16th, 2008
  • 2:11 pm

Sistema, the largest diversified consumer services corporation of Russia is planing to expand its mobile services to Bangladesh and China. Sistema, reportedly acquired licenses for mobile services in border areas of China and is in talks to acquire a local operator in Bangladesh. According to Interfax, Vladimir Evtushenkov, the main owner of Sistema, told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the plans.Sistema which holds majority of shares in Russian operators MTS, SkyLink and Comstar, has recently launched a mobile operator in India.

Telenor asks US court to block Alfa lawsuit (Norway)

  • June 24th, 2008
  • 2:38 pm

Norwegian telecom group Telenor asked a US federal court to halt a lawsuit brought against it in Russia by a company controlled by Russia’s Alfa Group.

A Reuters report said the multi-billion lawsuit was filed in a Siberian court by Farimex Products, a fellow shareholder in Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom. Telenor has called it groundless and asked the US Federal District Court in New York to block it.

“Farimex is controlled by Alfa and its claim is just another one of Alfa’s collusive lawsuits,” Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said, quoted by the Reuters report.

British Virgin Islands-based Farimex claims Telenor harmed Vimpelcom by preventing it from purchasing Ukrainian mobile group Kyivstar and delaying Vimpelcom’s purchase of Ukrainian Radio Systems.

   

VimpelCom to buy remaining 49% of Corbina Telecom for €262m (Russia)

  • June 5th, 2008
  • 2:42 pm

Russian mobile phone operator OAO Vimpel Communications has agreed to acquire the remaining 49% stake in Corbina Telecom from Inure Enterprises for about $404 million (€262 million).

Vimpel Communications said its wholly-owned indirect subsidiary, OOO EDN Sovintel, already owns 51% of Corbina Telecom.

The company said that the purchase of the minority stake in Corbina Telecom is a logical step in the execution of its strategy to build an integrated Russian telecoms operator.

   
 

3G for MTS

  • May 29th, 2008
  • 2:10 pm

Speaking at the launch of 3G services in St Petersburg yesterday, Russia’s largest mobile operator, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), announced plans to spend up to USD1.6 billion over the next five years on its W-CDMA network. It has invested 5% of that sum so far. MTS is also planning to launch commercial 3G services to Uzbekistan in the first quarter of 2009 and in Armenia before the end of next year. It also has plans to launch 3G in Belarus, but has not given a timetable for the rollout.

   

 
 

MTS grows on higher subs and traffic

  • May 21st, 2008
  • 2:38 pm

Russia’s largest cellular operator, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), has reported first-quarter net profits of USD610 million, up from USD449 million in the year-ago period. The results beat an average forecast of USD532.1 million from a Dow Jones poll of analysts. MTS says strong subscriber growth and increased traffic helped push sales up by 37% to USD2.38 billion. The firm added 2.5 million subscribers in its domestic market in the first three months of this year, taking its customer base to just under 60 million.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virgin takes WiMAX to Russia

  • May 13th, 2008
  • 3:25 pm

UK-based Virgin Group is preparing to announce a WiMAX wireless broadband partnership in Russia. A report from Russian Business says that Virgin is setting up a venture with local wireless ISP Trivon, in which Virgin has a stake. WiMAX networks will be deployed in 30 Russian cities, the report suggests.

   

 

 

Mobile advertising company talks agencies’ language

  • May 7th, 2008
  • 2:00 pm

Russian mobile advertising company Gigafone has plans to move into Europe and south east Asia. The company claims it has proved its business model with Russian operators, including MTS.

“Our approach is different because we are looking to serving huge volumes of adverts through voice and SMS, whereas others tend to focus on specific, fragmented areas such as video ads or WAP. We’re after the mass market, which is what advertising agencies want, not a few hundred or even a few thousand, targeted impressions,” said Alan  Harper, company spokesperson and advisor in Europe (former head of Vodafone strategy).

Extensive interviews over the last year with a number of advertising agencies confirm this view. It is a breakthrough to hear a telecoms company implementing what advertising agencies (and their clients, the brands) want instead of trying to impose their view of how mobile advertising should  be – targeted and relevant.

The adverts are served along with the CLI information on incoming phone calls or with text messages. Harper says brands such as Nissan, British American Tobacco (in Russia tobacco advertising is still legal, unlike in Western Europe), Nissan, Intel and Unilver have advertised through Gigafone.

According to the company, users can opt in and out at will. Depending on the advertising campaign, consumers might enjoy reduced tariffs or free minutes or messages in return for opting in or they might be given discount vouchers by the brand advertising.

Harper said that some targeting was carried out by the platform; “We ask for basic information when a user joins and we can work with carriers to use their CRM information, although often this isn’t the right sort of information for targetting.”

He added, “We have plans to expand into Europe and Asia, including India. We are currently talking to four operators in four different south east Asian countries. Although European operators have more customers, their decision making process tends to be much slower, so initially we’ll be concentrating more on Asia by teaming up with ad agencies.”

This should be of considerable interest to mobile advertising companies everywhere, from Celltick (which itself has had considerable success in Asia and Russia with its idle screen deployments) to the likes of JumpTap and Medio Systems which serve ads (as well as other results) in response to searches on mobile.

   

 

TeliaSonera posts 12% profit increase

  • April 28th, 2008
  • 2:14 pm

TeliaSonera posted a 12% increase in first-quarter net profit, driven by higher sales and strong contributions from its operations in Russia and Turkey, an Associated Press report said.

Net profit rose to 4.47 billion kronor (480 million euro; $752 million), from 3.98 billion kronor a year ago, beating analysts’ expectations of 4.08 billion kronor (euro438 million; $686 million), the report said.

Sales in the quarter rose 7% to 24.4 billion kronor (euro2.62 billion; $4.10 billion), from 22.72 billion kronor, topping expectations of 23.97 billion kronor (euro2.57 billion; $4.03 billion).

The Stockholm-based company reiterated previous guidance that net sales are expected to show stable growth in the financial year 2008 from the previous year, the report said.

   

 

Telenor sued……. again

  • April 19th, 2008
  • 9:20 am

Norwegian telecoms group Telenor’s Russian unit is being sued for USD3.8 billion in a Siberian court by a minority shareholder in Russian mobile network operator Vimpelcom. It follows a nearly identical claim for USD1 billion made by Eco Telecom, part of Russia’s Alfa Group, in March. A Telenor news release said ‘The lawsuit’s claims against Telenor are that Telenor harmed Vimpelcom by preventing Vimpelcom from purchasing [Ukranian mobile operator] Kyivstar and delaying Vimpelcom’s purchase of [another GSM operator] Ukrainian Radio Systems’. The latest suit was filed by Farimex Products, a British Virgin Islands company, but court records did not reveal who owns the company. Farimex only owns shares worth USD800,000 making it hard to see how it can justify claiming USD3.8 billion in damages.

In August 2007 Telenor won an arbitration case in a New York court, which ordered Alfa Group to either sell its 43.5% share in Kyivstar or reduce stakes in certain other competing operators. Alfa chose to comply with the latter option by reducing its minority stake in Turkey’s Turkcell (the majority owner of Ukrainian cellco Astelit), and agreeing to sell its entire stake in WiMAX operator Ukrainian High Technologies (aka Alternet). Telenor owns 56.5% of Kyivstar, and holds 33.6% of the common stock of Vimpelcom, which is 37% owned by Alfa through its telecoms arm Altimo.