IR Blog

Today, we have released our subscriber numbers for the month of July 2010. Below is a table outlining the dynamics of our customer base.

Subscribers (mln)	Jul 31, 2010	Jun 30, 2010	Growth Subs	Growth %	Jul 31, 2009	Growth Subs	Growth %
Total consolidated subscribers, eop	99.21	98.82	0.39	0.4%	95.65	3.56	3.7%
Russia	69.30	69.42	(0.12)	(0.2%)	67.93	1.37	2.0%
Ukraine	17.71	17.52	0.19	1.1%	17.79	(0.08)	(0.5%)
Uzbekistan	7.81	7.59	0.22	2.8%	6.55	1.25	19.1%
Turkmenistan	2.24	2.17	0.08	3.6%	1.33	0.92	69.2%
Armenia	2.15	2.13	0.03	1.3%	2.04	0.11	5.4%
MTS Belarus1	4.60	4.58	0.02	0.4%	4.50	0.09	2.0%

Subscriber data for Russian mobile operators is compiled by Advanced Communications and Media, a management consulting and research agency specializing in telecommunications and media. You can view their July subscriber report here.

¹ MTS owns a 49% stake in Mobile TeleSystems LLC, a mobile operator in Belarus, which is not consolidated.

We are pleased to announce that this past Monday we became the first company to launch the BlackBerry® solution in Armenia. The move was made possible through a partnership with Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS), a Dubai based solutions and service provider and a strategic channel partner of Research In Motion (RIM). Coupled with the speeds offered by our 3G network, which is now operational in 50 towns and cities across Armenia, our customers will be able to fully satisfy their mobile and information needs by using the BlackBerry® solution.

We will offer the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES) for corporate customers and the BlackBerry® Internet Service (BIS) for smaller businesses and individual users. The initial portfolio of handsets will consist of three models – BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700, BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 and BlackBerry® Storm 2™ 9520.

Today, we have released our subscriber numbers for the month of June 2010. Below is a table outlining the dynamics of our customer base.

Subscribers (mln)	Jun 30, 2010	May 31, 2010	Growth Subs	Growth %	Jun 30, 2009	Growth Subs	Growth %
Total consolidated subscribers, eop	98.82	98.98	(0.16)	(0.2%)	95.03	3.79	4.0%
Russia	69.42	69.85	(0.43)	(0.6%)	67.42	2.00	3.0%
Ukraine	17.52	17.44	0.08	0.4%	17.78	(0.26)	(1.5%)
Uzbekistan	7.59	7.48	0.12	1.5%	6.53	1.06	16.3%
Turkmenistan	2.17	2.10	0.06	3.1%	1.25	0.91	72.8%
Armenia	2.13	2.11	0.01	0.5%	2.05	0.08	3.9%
MTS Belarus1	4.58	4.56	0.02	0.3%	4.48	0.09	2.1%

Subscriber data for Russian mobile operators is compiled by Advanced Communications and Media, a management consulting and research agency specializing in telecommunications and media. You can view their June subscriber report here.

¹ MTS owns a 49% stake in Mobile TeleSystems LLC, a mobile operator in Belarus, which is not consolidated.

We are proud to share two articles in the Financial Times published this week, reporting on MTS and our content portal, Omlet.ru. We have talked about Omlet.ru in this blog before and it has recently received Meffys award.

During our trip to New York to celebrate the 10th anniversary of listing on the NYSE, Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS, met with the Financial Times journalists. Mikhail talked about content distribution in Russia, how we can overcome the piracy grip, and why MTS has a window of opportunity to carve a strong position in the potentially lucrative content market.

Here are the articles:

Financial Times, Russian Omlet mushrooms with legal downloads

Financial Times, Russia’s MTS in talks to boost web content

Last week we have celebrated the 10th anniversary of listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). MTS’ management went to New York to ring the NYSE closing bell and meet with partners of the Company based in the city. Click here to watch the video of the closing bell.

This anniversary offered us the opportunity to reflect on the progress MTS has made during the past ten years. In the year 2000, when we listed here in New York, we were a Moscow-based operator servicing just around 3 million mobile users. Ten years later, MTS has over 100 million customers across Russia and five neighboring countries. We have offered basic voice services back in 2000, and now we have expanded our offering to mobile and fixed voice and broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services. We have also been recognized among the strongest global brands in the BRANDZ survey published by the Financial Times that has listed MTS as the most valuable brand in Russia and among the top 100 globally (LINK), and we continue to be the premiere blue-chip Russian company.

To make the occasion more memorable, we decided to bring a bit of Russia to the financial center of New York. We placed a huge banner inspired by the Soviet poster art on the façade of the NYSE and gave out Russian food to around 2,000 employees of the NYSE. Following the closing bell, MTS management and the CEO of NYSE Euronext hosted a cocktail reception at the NYSE to commemorate the anniversary.

More photos from the event can be viewed here.

Today we are issuing a report on mobile retail in Russia during Q2 2010, based on the estimates from our mobile retail network. You can download it here.

Highlights from the report:
- During the first half of 2010, the number of phones sold in Russia is set to increase by around 24% compared to the same period of 2009
- At the end of the first half of 2010, mobile handset market in Russia is expected to reach 63.9 bln rubles in sales
- The average price of mobile phones on the market during Q2 2010 was 4,303 rubles, approximately 74% of devices sold through our stores were below 5,000 rubles
- The market share of MTS retail network grew to 13.9% in Q2 2010, an increase of 6.9 percentage points compared with the second quarter of 2009 (in unit sales)
- MTS-branded handset MTS 236 was the most popular device sold through the MTS retail network, accounting for 13.2% of total units sold

Please download the compete report here:

 Mobile retail report Q2 2010

Today, we have released our subscriber numbers for the month of May 2010. Below is a table outlining the dynamics of our customer base.

Subscribers (mln)	May 31, 2010	Apr 30, 2010	Growth Subs	Growth %	May 31, 2009	Growth Subs	Growth %
Total consolidated subscribers, eop	98.98	98.65	0.33	0.3%	93.98	5.00	5.3%
Russia	69.85	69.73	0.12	0.2%	66.47	3.38	5.1%
Ukraine	17.44	17.37	0.07	0.4%	17.73	(0.29)	(1.6%)
Uzbekistan	7.48	7.43	0.05	0.7%	6.51	0.97	14.9%
Turkmenistan	2.10	2.01	0.09	4.7%	1.23	0.87	70.3%
Armenia	2.11	2.11	0.00	0.0%	2.04	0.08	3.7%
MTS Belarus1	4.56	4.57	0.00	(0.1%)	4.44	0.12	2.8%

Subscriber data for Russian mobile operators is compiled by Advanced Communications and Media, a management consulting and research agency specializing in telecommunications and media. You can view their May subscriber report here.

¹ MTS owns a 49% stake in Mobile TeleSystems LLC, a mobile operator in Belarus, which is not consolidated.

We have launched commercial 3G network in Belarus this week. The network is based on the HSPA+ technology, allowing up to 21 Mbit/s download and 11 Mbit/s upload speeds. The network is currently available in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and will be expanded to the major cities and regional centers of the country by the end of the year.

In addition, we have fulfilled our 3G license requirement for the commercial 3G network in Russia following the launch of the network in the last remaining federal subject, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. As of today, MTS has commercial 3G networks in all Russian federal subjects.

Today, we have released our subscriber numbers for the month of April 2010. Below is a table outlining the dynamics of our customer base.

Subscribers (mln)	Apr 30, 2010	Mar 31, 2010	Growth Subs	Growth %	Apr 30, 2009	Growth Subs	Growth %
Total consolidated subscribers, eop	98.65	97.81	0.84	0.9%	93.03	5.62	6.0%
Russia	69.73	69.08	0.64	0.9%	65.68	4.05	6.2%
Ukraine	17.37	17.35	0.02	0.1%	17.82	(0.45)	(2.5%)
Uzbekistan	7.43	7.38	0.05	0.7%	6.30	1.12	17.8%
Turkmenistan	2.01	1.90	0.11	5.8%	1.18	0.83	70.7%
Armenia	2.11	2.11	0.01	0.3%	2.06	0.06	2.9%
MTS Belarus1	4.57	4.57	0.00	(0.1%)	4.41	0.16	3.6%

Subscriber data for Russian mobile operators is compiled by Advanced Communications and Media, a management consulting and research agency specializing in telecommunications and media. You can view their April subscriber report here.

¹ MTS owns a 49% stake in Mobile TeleSystems LLC, a mobile operator in Belarus, which is not consolidated.

    

Last week we signed an agreement to create a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) using MTS’ network with the X5 Retail Group N.V., Russia’s largest retailer in terms of sales. X5 will offer its customers special tariffs that they can subscribe to at the Perekrestok and Karusel stores in Moscow and the Moscow region. It is expected that the launch will take place by the end of summer 2010. This is the second project that MTS has concluded as part of its efforts to expand its distribution channels. Previously, in May 2009, MTS partnered with Auchan, one of the world’s largest food retailers, enabling the company to offer its A-Mobile tariff plan through its stores in Russia.