MTS files a lawsuit against Turkmenistan over licence suspension

Russia’s OAO Mobile TeleSystems has sued the Turkmen authorities and two local state-run operators after the country’s Ministry of Communications suspended its local licenses without giving an explanation.

MTS brought the legal action against the ministry to the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in connection with a number of breaches by the ministry of [a] trilateral agreement.

MTS, its Turkmen unit Barash Communications Technologies Inc. and the Turkmen authorities signed the agreement in 2005 and had been extending it annually until this year.

According to MTS’s local unit, the Russian company, MTS has also sued Altyn Asyr and TurkmenTelecom, local state-run operators, following their alleged termination of the interconnection agreements.

According to MTS previous reports, Barash Communications had received a notice from the local government saying the company’s licenses would be suspended on Tuesday.

According to MTS, the unit contributed 1.9% of MTS’s revenue for the first nine months of the year and 2.7% of the operator’s adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or Oibda, for the same period.

Teclo Vimpelcom’s Uzbek revenues in Q3 up 7.4%

Central Asian telco VimpelCom’s net operating revenues in Uzbekistan in the third quarter of 2010 comprised of US$$53.8 million, exceeding the index for the second quarter by 4.7 per cent and the results of the last year by 7.4 per cent.

VimpelCom Ltd, a leading international provider of telecommunications services, announced its operating and financial results for the quarter ended September 30.

Net operating revenues in Uzbekistan in the third quarter of 2010 comprised $53.8 million by adding 4.7 per cent from the second quarter ($51.4 million). The growth of mobile connection revenues made up 5.1 per cent ($51.4 million versus $48.9 million in the second quarter).

Adjusted OIBDA (Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization) in Uzbekistan grew 9 per cent versus the second quarter (from $20.1 million to $21.9 million). At the same time operational margins increased by 1.6 per cent.

The number of mobile subscriptions in Uzbekistan as of end of September 2010 made up 4,398,000 persons, providing the increase of the number of subscription agreements in the third quarter 2010 by over 400,000 (up 10 per cent).

VimpelCom does not provide any information on the market share to avoid its use by competitor mobile operators to calculate the subscribers outflow and it results in variant reading of reports and mis-representativeness of final indexes.

Capital expenditures for the CIS markets increased substantially both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter to support the network expansion, which is mainly focused on increasing mobile penetration and investments in fixed networks.

Capex in CIS made up $78.3 million (adding 10.9 per cent since the previous quarter) and were mainly extended for the development of 3G network in Uzbekistan (the launch of 3G networks in five cities of Ferghana valley in the end of August).

Mobile TeleSystems Announces Financial Results for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2010

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, today announces its unaudited US GAAP financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2010.

Key Financial Highlights of Q3 2010

- Consolidated revenues up 10.8% y-o-y to $2,911 million

- Consolidated OIBDA up 8.2% y-o-y to $1,309 million with a

45.0% OIBDA margin

- Consolidated net income attributable to the Group of $475

million

- Free cash-flowincreased in Q3 2010 and reached $2.4

billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2010

Key Corporate and Industry Highlights

- Acquisition of a 95% stake in Metro-Telecom for RUB 339.35

million ($11.01 million)

- Acquisition of Multiregion, one of the leading groups of

broadband and cable TV providers in Russia, for $123.5 million

- Decrease in the interest rates on Gazprombank’s RUB 6.46

billion facility and on Sberbank’s RUB 53 billion facilities

- Completion of a series of transactions involving the sale by

the Comstar group of companies to Rostelecom of the 25%+1 share in the

charter capital of Svyazinvest for RUB 26 billion

- Successful completion of voluntary tender offer to the

Comstar shareholders resulting in the acquisition of 37,614,087

ordinary Comstar shares, or approximately 9.0% of Comstar’s issued

share capital

- LTE launch in Uzbekistan – first commercial network in the CIS

- Outlook upgrade of the S&P credit rating from Stable to

Positive

- Affirmation of the Fitch credit rating at BB+/Outlook Stable

- Voluntarily repayment of the second tranche of the

syndicated loan in the amount of $161.5 million; the loan was

originally signed in April 2006 and carried a 5-year maturity

- Redemption of the $400 million Eurobond in October 2010

- Placement of the series 07 and series 08 ruble-denominated

bonds totaling RUB 25 billion

- Transfer of MTS ordinary share to the “A1″ listing on the

Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX)

- Completion of 3G deployment throughout markets of operation

with 3G launch in Turkmenistan

- Signing of a non-binding indicative offer to acquire for RUB

11.59 billion ($379.01 million) Sistema-Telecom, whose primary

assets include the distinctive ‘egg’ trademarks used by MTS and its

subsidiaries

Commentary

Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS, commented, “For the period, we delivered strong sequential and annual growth in all of our markets of operation. During the quarter we improved Group’s revenue 10.8%% year over year to $2.9 billion dollars. We attribute this growth to the positive seasonal dynamics, subscriber additions and a general increase in usage in our core markets.”

Alexey Kornya, MTS Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said, “We have been very successful in our efforts aimed at optimizing our debt portfolio. We reached an agreement to lower interest rates on our Sberbank facilities in the total amount of 53 billion rubles. In line with our preference for ruble denominated debt, we voluntarily repaid the second – and last – tranche of our outstanding syndicated loan in the amount of $161.5 million; the loan was originally signed in April 2006 and carried a 5-year maturity. At the end of the period, non-ruble debt accounted for roughly 37% of our debt portfolio, but this should decrease by the end of the year.”

Mr. Kornya added, “In October we completed the redemption of a $400 million Eurobond. Just recently, we tapped local debt markets placing series-07 and series-08 ruble-denominated bonds – a 5-year 15 billion RUB issue with a coupon of 8.15% and a 7-year 10 billion RUB issue with a coupon of 8.7%. This makes us the first Russian corporate to solicit 7-year money from the market, which is a strong statement on our financial position given the volatility we are now seeing in global capital markets.”

Continued Mr. Shamolin, “As you are aware, we are moving forward with the acquisition of Comstar that creates the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS. As a part of the process, we launched a voluntary tender offer (VTO) to Comstar shareholders for up to 9.0% of Comstar’s issued share capital. The VTO was successful, which allowed us to increase our ownership stake in Comstar to 70.97% of Comstar’s issued share capital (or 73.33% excluding treasury shares). The merger process is expected to be completed by mid-April 2011 subject to the shareholders’ approval of the transaction and certain regulatory steps. We will seek the approval from the shareholders of both MTS and Comstar at Extraordinary General Meetings on December 23, 2010.”

He continued, “Earlier this week we signed a non-binding indicative offer to acquire 100% of Sistema Telecom LLC. As you may recall, in 2006 Sistema introduced the umbrella brand to link its telecommunications assets in the eyes of their customers. In the years since, however, the market has undergone significant changes that saw ownership of many of these key assets shift to MTS. Today, we are truly operating under a unified brand to all of our customers and are continuously extending our brand to different services. Given the prospects we see in our market, we feel it is only logical to acquire full control of our logos and trademarks to ensure that all shareholders benefit equally in the brand’s further development as we continue to implement our “3i” strategy.”

This press release provides a summary of some of the key financial and operating indicators for the period ended September 30, 2010. For full disclosure materials, please visit http://www.mtsgsm.com/resources/reports/.

Learn more about MTS. Visit the official blog of the Investor Relations Department at http://www.mtsgsm.com/blog/

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS”) is the leading telecommunications group in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, offering mobile and fixed voice, broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services in one of the world’s fastest growing regions. Including its subsidiaries, the Group services over 105.2 million mobile subscribers in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus, a region that boasts a total population of more than 230 million. Since June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT). Additional information about the MTS Group can be found at http://www.mtsgsm.com.

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of MTS, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “will,” “could,” “may” or “might,” and the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not undertake or intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. We refer you to the documents MTS files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company’s most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned “Risk Factors” that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the severity and duration of current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; the impact of Russian, U.S. and other foreign government programs to restore liquidity and stimulate national and global economies, our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so, strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions and our success in integrating acquired businesses, including Comstar-UTS, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, our competitive environment, dependence on new service development and tariff structures, rapid technological and market change, acquisition strategy, risks associated with telecommunications infrastructure, governmental regulation of the telecommunications industries and other risks associated with operating in Russia and the CIS, volatility of stock price, financial risk management and future growth subject to risks.

T-Mobile USA Reports Third Quarter 2010 Results

T-Mobile USA, Inc. today reported third quarter of 2010 results. In the third quarter of 2010, T-Mobile USA reported service revenues of $4.71 billion compared to $4.73 billion in the third quarter of 2009, and OIBDA of $1.32 billion compared to $1.56 billion reported in the third quarter of 2009.

Net customer additions were 137,000 in the third quarter of 2010 compared to 77,000 net customer losses in the third quarter of 2009. Additionally, the number of customers using smartphones continued to increase significantly during the quarter, driving blended data ARPU growth.

“The revenue trend in the third quarter showed continued improvement. Lower OIBDA was a direct result of the efforts to grow smartphone customers and higher investment in T-Mobile’s 4G network. These early investments will enable us to provide great customer experiences and allow us to scale our cost structure effectively as more customers utilize data services,” said Philipp Humm, CEO and President, T-Mobile USA.

T-Mobile USA reports rise in net income in Q1

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: T-Mobile USA reported that its net income for the first three months of 2010 has been USD362 million, compared to USD322 million in the same period of 2009 while the operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) of USD1.39 billion, compared to USD1.38 billion reported in the first quarter of 2009.

The revenues of the company fell from USD5.4 billion to USD5.28 billion and total customers declined by 77,000 in the first three months, compared to 415,000 net customers last year. The customer number dropped from 33.8 million at the start of the year to 33.7 million customers.

21% of the total customer base was of prepaid users, increasing from 19% last year. ARPU went down from USD48 in the first quarter of 2009 to USD4.

Rostelecom suffers 3.1% loss in revenue in 2009

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: As a result of a reduction in revenues from a number of traditional segments, 2009 revenue of Rostelecom suffered a loss of 3.1% ending at RUB61.224 billion (USD2.08 billion). Domestic long-distance (DLD) traffic decreased 10.2% year-on-year to 9.186 billion minutes for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009.

DLD and interconnection revenues slipped 11.8% to RUB26.063 billion and outgoing international long-distance traffic declined by 13.5% to 1.752 billion minutes. Representing a decrease of 5.9%, international long-distance revenues from Russian operators and end-customers amounted to RUB11.374 billion.

Increase in competition in the Russian long-distance market, weakened global macro-economic environment and continued migration of long-distance end-customer traffic from fixed line to mobile networks have been cited as some of the reasons behind the poor performance of the company.

With a year-on-year decrease of 15.5%, operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) went down to RUB12.089 billion. The operating profit for 2009 decreased by 25.9% year-on-year to RUB7.513 billion, while net profit slipped by 27.9% to RUB5, 101.6 million.

MTS Ukraine looses mobile subscribers, adds mobile broadband users

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A net loss of 550,000 mobile subscribers in 2009 has been announced by telecom operator MTS Ukraine going down 3.1% year-on-year to close at 17.56 million active customer accounts at the end of December.

At the same time, 140,000 subscribers have been the number of subscribers of the operator’s 450MHz CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A-based mobile broadband service ‘MTS Connect 3G’. The revenue of the company decreased by 4.9% year-on-year in local currency to UAH8.17 billion (USD1.02 billion).

2.3 % fall in the net profit to UAH681 million and 5.4% drop in the OIBDA to UAH3.68 billion has also been reported by the company.

Less than 1% decline in blended average monthly income per user (ARPU) in 2009 has been noted by the Russian-owned company. A slight increase in the ARPU over the same period of 2008 to UAH38.3 in the fourth quarter of the year has been noted. Mobile broadband ARPU in the twelve-month period was just above UAH100.

Russian MTS looses USD 26.1 million in Q4

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Net loss of USD 26.1 million for the fourth quarter has been reported by Russian and CIS mobile operator MTS because of one-time charges for its takeover of fixed-line operator Comstar-UTS.

The company made an investment of USD 368 million and another USD 86 million was taken for obsolete equipment and expenses related to the acquisition of Comstar and tax provisions. MTS finished 2009 with USD 2.5 billion in cash and its net debt increased to USD 5.59 billion. 10.1 percent decrease in the OIBDA going down to USD 1.19 billion has also been posted.

However, a rise in the subscriber base has been enjoyed which increased from 101.37 million in September 2009 to 102.36 million users at the end of the fourth quarter. For the future, the company has expressed its optimism regarding economic upturn predicting mid to high single-digit revenue growth in local currencies. Increased number of fixed and mobile subscribers accompanied by increased sale of handsets in its home market in Russia has been attributed as a reason behind the profitable future.

Telecom Argentina net profit rises 46%

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 15 percent year-on-year rise in the revenues has been reported by Telecom Argentina generating ARS 12.26 billion in 2009. With 46 percent rise in the net income for the period reached ARS 1.4 billion. The mobile revenues of the company rose 16 percent to ARS 8.06 billion while the fixed-line revenues increased 14 percent to ARS 4.1 billion.

17% improvement in OIBDA has also been noticed which reached ARS 3.9 billion. 1.9 million new customers has been gained by the company in the year 2009 for a total of 14.5 million and out of total, 69 percent are prepaid and 31 percent are postpaid.

Company’s Paraguay unit, Nucleo had 1.8 million customers at the end of the period, down 1 percent from a year earlier. 2 percent increase in the number of lines of the fixed division has been showed which reached up to 4.36 million and the number of ADSL customers rose 17 percent year-on-year to 1.2 million users at end-December.

With 1% rise, ARPU for fixed customers reached ARS 40 in 2009.

Megafon records 3.7% rise in revenues

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An increase of 3.7 percent in the revenues has been announced by Russian mobile operator Megafon, earning RUB 181.9 billion for 2009. OIBDA went down to RUB 88.2 billion, decreasing 0.1 percent, and the OIBDA margin dropped to 48.5 percent from 50.5 percent in 2008.

2.2 percent increase in the net profit has also been reported generating RUB 45.3 billion. RUB 33.5 billion in free cash flow last year has been generated and with 4.7 percent increase, the CAPEX closed at RUB 52.5 billion. OIBDA dropped 2.0 percent over the same period to RUB 23.1 billion while the fourth-quarter revenues were up 1.9 percent from the third quarter of 2009 to RUB 48.4 billion and the OIBDA margin fell to 47.7 percent from 49.6.

The number of subscribers increased by 16.3 percent, year-on-year, to reach the total of 50.74 million at the end of 2009. The MOU of the company rose 3.6 percent to 285 while ARPU was down 3.1 percent from Q3 to RUB 316. For 2010, Megafon has declared that it will continue with the expansion of its retail network and 3G services.