Etisalat has reportedly held meetings with the Turkmenistan government which could lead to it taking over the suspended mobile network that was operated by Russia’s MTS.

Late last year, MTS’s network in Turkmenistan was shut down by the government after it decided not to renew a 5-year agreement with the company. However, as MTS had around an 80% market share the shut-down has had a catastrophic impact on the local market, and the state-owned rival is not able
to cope with demand for accounts.

According to the Communication Ministry, officials from Etisalat have begun a working visit to Turkmenistan. The company’s executives met with government officials to discuss a potential telecom partnership.

 

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Sistema, MTS’ parent company has started work on protecting MTS’ interests in Turkmenistan, after the government suspended MTS’s license late last year.

Sistema is reportedly considering an appeal to the International Centre for Regulations of Disputes of Investors at the World Bank.

The company has sent official letters to the government of Turkmenistan, as well as the ambassadors of Turkmenistan in Russia, the UK and the US. The last two ambassadors were chosen as shares of MTS are listed in London and New York, and the Turkmenistan subsidiary is registered in the US.

 

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The Turkmenistan government has reportedly signed network expansion contracts with both Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks for an urgent upgrade of the state-owned mobile network, Altyn Asyr.

Phone services in the country have been crippled since the government refused to renew the operating license for the dominant mobile network, owned by Russia’s MTS, last December.

Details about the network contract for Altyn Asyr have not been released, although reports suggested it was for just 50,000 lines, possibly CDMA based.

According to reports, MTS had just fewer than 2.4 million subscribers at the end of September. Its market share is nearly 80%, so the shut-down is having a serious impact on mobile services in the country.

The military had to be called their earlier this week when hundreds of customers stormed Altyn Asyr offices after the company temporarily suspended distribution of SIM cards due to network congestion problems.

MTS has been operating in Turkmenistan under a trilateral agreement signed in November 2005 by BCTI, MTS and the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan, which expired on December 21, 2010.

As per the company, at all times had reasons to believe that the Agreement would be extended and had approached the Ministry of Communications within the required timeframe to formalize the extension.

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MTS has reported its Q4 results. As per the results, the company posted a 10% increase in its revenues from a year earlier to US$3.0 billion, helped by growing demand for smartphones.

Mobile service revenues rose 4.2% to US$2.28 billion, and handset and accessories revenue increased 130% to US$277 million.

Revenues from fixed-line operations rose 5.7% to US$441 million. The higher hardware sales as well as commercial efforts to guard market share put pressure on margins, and adjusted OIBDA fell 3.5% to US$1.16 billion. That excludes US$137.8 million in impairment charges due to the suspension of operations in Turkmenistan.

The net result improved to a profit of US$156 million versus a loss of US$23 million a year ago. MTS spent US$2.7 billion on capital equipment last year, equivalent to 23% of revenues, and stated that it expects a similar percentage this year as it doubles the number of 3G base stations and digitizes fixed-line networks in key cities such as Moscow.

Following its recent acquisition of Comstar, MTS stated that it will focus more on customer retention this year. Overall, the company expects 10% revenue growth in 2011 and a OIBDA margin of 42-43%. Margins are expected to remain under pressure in Q2, but improve from the second half, helped by new pricing strategies such as promoting on-net traffic.

 

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MTS has announced that it has consolidated a subscriber base of 104.11 million by the end of February, an increase of 6.5% year-on-year and 0.5% more than  in January.

In Russia, the subscriber base grew by 3.9% year-on-year and 0.5% month-on-month to 71.86 million. The number increased to 18.27 million in Ukraine, an increase of5.1% from a year earlier and 0.29% more than in January.

The subscribe base reached 9.11 million in Uzbekistan, which grew by 25% year-on-year and up by 1.1% month-on-month. The number totaled 2.39 million in Turkmenistan, or 31.2% more than February 2010 and a drop of 0.7% from the previous month. The subscriber base grew to 2.49 million in Armenia, an increase of 18.5%year-on-year and up by 0.1% month-on-month. In Belarus, MTS increased its base 4.3% year-on-year and by 0.2% from January.

 

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­The Turkmenistan government has hit back at Russia’s MTS following reports that the Russian mobile network is warning investors to avoid the country.

Late last year, MTS’s network in Turkmenistan was shut down by the government after it decided not to renew a 5-year agreement with the company.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan has claimed that MTS had charged “unreasonably high tariffs” and failed to reinvest sufficient levels of its profits back into the Turkmen network. The government, therefore, decided to terminate the operating license and states that it offered to buy the network assets from MTS.

MTS has been operating in Turkmenistan under a trilateral agreement signed in November 2005 by BCTI, MTS and the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan which expired on December 21, 2010.

The company stated that it always had reasons to believe that the Agreement would be extended and had approached the Ministry of Communications within the required timeframe to formalize the extension.

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.

MTS Turkmenistan has announced that its operating license has been suspended for a month. MTS Turkmenistan is the trading name for Barash Communications Technologies, Inc. (BCTI), a wholly owned subsidia­ry.

MTS has been operating in Turkmenistan under a trilateral agreement signed in November 2005 by BCTI, MTS and the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan, which expires on December 21, 2010, unless extended.

According to the company, at all times had reasons to believe that the Agreement would be extended and had approached the Ministry of Communications within the required timeframe to formalize the extension.

However, the Ministry of Communications failed to award the extension in accordance with the terms of the Agreement.

MTS management is taking active steps to clarify the situation but no explanation, including in relation to the alleged breaches by MTS has been given by either the Government of Turkmenistan or its Ministry of Communications. MTS added that it is currently considering all available options, including potential legal actions.

Russian mobile operator MTS in Turkmenistan has fully restored its activity in Ashgabat after nearly a week of disruptions.

According to MTS, in the morning Dec.2, due to reasons which don’t depend on the “MTS Turkmenistan”, the accident occurred at a switching platform which led to the loss of connection in Ashgabat. It will refund affected postpaid subscribers their subscription fee for the affected period, along with 100 free minutes for all subscribers as compensation.

MTS Turkmenistan also presented its sincere apologies for inconvenience, and expressed gratitude for the understanding of the situation.

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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.

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