Global recognition

BRANDZ™ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands
BRANDZ™ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands is a ranking published by the Financial Times and Millward Brown, a leading global market research and consulting firm. In recognition of its leadership across the CIS and increasing global presence, MTS was the first and only Russian company to join the ranks of the most powerful brands in the world when it first entered the ranking back in 2008 in 89th place with a Brand Value of $8.1 billion. In 2011, the Company’s brand was recognized for the fourth year in a row reaching 80th position and a brand value of $10.9 billion
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BusinessWeek InfoTech 100
In May 2008, MTS was included in the InfoTech 100 ranking of the best-performing tech companies by BusinessWeek. MTS was ranked as the 14th company globally, based on four criteria: shareholder return, return on equity, total revenues, and revenue growth. MTS became the highest-ranked company from Russia, and above such companies as AT&T, LG and Microsoft.
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European Trusted Brands
The European Trusted Brands survey is conducted in 16 European countries in 14 different languages. From 2008 onwards MTS has been recognized each year by Reader’s Digest as the most Trusted Brand among mobile operators in Russia.
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World Communications Awards
In September 2008, MTS received three nominations for the World Communications Awards 2008. The Company made the shortlist in the “Best Brand,” “Best Mobile Operator” and “Best Project Management” award categories.
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GSMA Board
In April 2008, the CEO of MTS Mr. Mikhail Shamolin joined the Board of the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association for the mobile industry. GSMA's Board members include 25 operator representatives, the Chair of the Executive Management Committee – the body that manages the Association's ongoing activities in the area of products and services – and the GSMA CEO Rob Conway. Board members include executives of such leading global operators as China Mobile, AT&T, Orange, Telefonica O2 Europe, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Telenor Mobile. The Company continues to occupy a seat at the GSMA Board.
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GSMA Annual Global Mobile Awards
In January 2008, MTS became the first Russian company to receive a nomination in the 13th Annual Global Mobile Awards hosted by the GSM Association (“GSMA”). MTS was recognized for its WAP-portal – wap.kids.mts.ru – designed specifically for children in the “Best Mobile Infotainment Portal for News/Entertainment” category.

In February 2010, MTS won the Annual Global Mobile Award at the GSMA 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in the “Best Billing & Customer Care Solution” category for its “Your Individual Optimal Tariff Plan” service. MTS is the first mobile operator from Russia and the CIS to be recognized with one of the most prestigious awards in the telecommunications industry.
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Global Telecoms Business Rankings and Awards
In October 2010, former MTS President and CEO, Mikhail Shamolin was ranked the 26th most powerful telecommunications professional globally by Global Telecoms Business (“GTB”), a leading telecommunications trade magazine, in its annual “Power 100” list of leading industry executives . The 2010 ranking, determined by reader-submitted nominations, is an improvement from last year’s placing of Shamolin at #29. GTB acknowledged several milestone achievements at MTS over the past year as the cause.

In April 2010, two MTS executives were named among the 40 most important telecom leaders under the age of 40. Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of the Company, and Mikhail Gerchuk, Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, became the only executives from Russia and the CIS to make the “40 under 40” list by Global Telecoms Business magazine.

The Company and its partners have been awarded a number of GTB Innovation Awards for its products and services. In 2009, the MTS Catalogue service won in the “Best Consumer Mobile Service Innovation” category; in 2010, the Company won the “Consumer Bank-Card Innovation” category for the MTS-Pay service; in 2011, MTS won the “Navigation Service Innovation” category for the MTS Navigator service and the “Mobile Service and Billing Innovation” category for the MTS Mobile Portal interface.
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Summit Marketing Effectiveness Award
In September 2009, MTS has won the 2009 Summit Marketing Effectiveness Award for our customer segmentation. We were recognized in the Consumer Services category for the robust approach we took to deliver most suitable products and services across our footprint of 6 countries with a total population of over 230 million. We became the first company in our markets to be recognized for customer segmentation, a testament to the fact that we have implemented world class solution.

Corporate Governance
MTS is ranked as one of the most transparent companies in Russia by Standard & Poor’s. The ranking is based on the analysis of ownership structure and shareholders’ rights, financial and operational openness and composition and procedures of the Board of Directors and Management Committees.

Investor Relations
In 2006, 2007 and 2009, MTS was recognized as having the best Investor Relations department in the telecommunications sector in Russia. The award was based on the results of the Extel Survey – Focus Russia study, conducted jointly by Interfax and Thomson Financial.

MTS has been nominated for the numerous awards from IR Magazine CIS & Russia/ Europe in 2008, 2009 and 2010 in such categories as “Best Investor Relations by a Russian Company 2008” (1st place), “Best Investor Relations Website 2008” (1st place), “Best Investor Relations Officer - Large cap 2010” (2nd place), “Best Investor Relations by a CFO 2010” (1st place) as well as several others.
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In January 2010 MTS English-language corporate website was named the best in Russia in 2009 by H&H Webranking. H&H Webranking conducts surveys of capital market participants such as the financial analysts, investors, business journalists and jobseekers, in order to review such aspects as availability of information, ease of access and frequency of updates of corporate websites
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The Eurolawyer 2011 Award
At the 4th CIS-EU Legal Forum: Eurolawyer 2011, MTS was awarded The CIS Legal Department of the Year: Best Work in Obtaining Financing on Capital Markets. The award recognizes the contribution of the Company’s legal department in securing financing on the capital markets through credit agreements and issuance of bonds in 2010.
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Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards
MTS has won the 2010 Meffys Mobile Entertainment Award in the “Cross-Platform Technology” category for Omlet.ru content portal. Omlet.ru content portal was launched by MTS in the fall of 2009, offering a large selection of licensed movies, music and games for mobile and computer users. The portal was recognized by Meffys for its “dual delivery” system, whereby purchased content can be downloaded to both a mobile device and a computer. Previously, MTS won the 2009 Meffys Mobile Entertainment Award in the “Search & Discovery” category for the MTS Super Search product.
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ISO 9001:2008 Certificate of Conformity In December 2009 MTS became the only Russian telecommunications company to obtain the ISO 9001:2008 certificate of conformity for its Quality Management System that covers all of our locations in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The certification audit was conducted by SGS, the global leader in inspection, verification, testing and certification services
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Risk Management
In June 2010, MTS was recognized as the winner of the V International Competition "The Best Risk Management in Russia and CIS - 2010" organized by the Russian Risk Management Society ("RusRisk"). Mr. Igor Mikhaylov, the Head of Risk Management department at MTS, was awarded “European Risk Manager of the Year” at the StrategicRisk Awards 2011 in London and the "Best risk manager of Russia and CIS" at RusRisk Awards 2011 in Moscow.