IR Blog

FOX Business Network, interviewed Mikhail Shamolin, CEO and President of MTS, in Davos last week. Shamolin attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos, using the opportunity to meet with his peers to learn how others are managing through the global economic downturn and discuss trends and ideas shaping the telecom and entertainment industries. In the video below, Shamolin discusses the future of telecoms and the potential for growth in our core markets of Russia and the CIS.

Our English-language corporate website has recently been 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, so as to review such aspects as availability of information, ease of access and frequency of updates of corporate websites.
 
“Mobile TeleSystems took a huge step forward from last year’s 20th position. Climbing 20 positions in one year... to the company in Russia that best fulfils the demands from the international capital market is very impressive,” says Marcus Eriksson, head of H&H Webranking.

3G network in Moscow, as of January 15, 2010.

At the end of December 2009, we launched our commercial 3G network in Moscow, complementing our existing coverage in the Moscow region and throughout Russia. At the time of launch, our network consisted of 197 base stations, which allowed us to offer extensive coverage within the MKAD (the so-called beltway, or highway, that surrounds Moscow) to a population of over 10 million.  By the end of January, we will have installed up to 300 base stations to serve Russia's capital.  For the latest network map, click here.

We estimate that data traffic has already increased 2-3 times in areas where both 2G and 3G networks are available, compared to the traffic prior to the launch of 3G. Currently, we have a variety of special tariffs for 3G users, including unlimited ones.

We have set the tentative date for our Q4 and FY 2009 financial results on April 1, 2010. We will confirm the date closer to the event.

You can view the latest information on our upcoming events here.

MTS is pleased to announce that we launched the first MTS Comstar bundle offer – the STREAM Versatile Box product – through our retail stores in Moscow and Zelenograd, a Moscow suburb, in December 2009. This is one of the first steps of our previously announced Comstar integration plans following our acquisition of the company in October 2009.

President and CEO of MTS, Mikhail Shamolin, recently gave an interview on TheStreet.com. In the interview, Mr. Shamolin provides his views on the Company's stock performance vis-a-vis investors' perception of Russian companies as well as answers a few questions on the latest developments in the Russian telecommunications market.

Earlier this week 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.

 From left to right: Alexander Gamov – Director of the Quality Assurance Department at MTS, Peter Marriott – Vice-President of SGS SA, Konstantin Timoshechkin – Manager in charge of business development at SGS S.A. (Eastern Europe).

On Thursday, November 19, 2009, Dr. Michael Hecker gave an interview on Sky News. In the clip below, Dr. Hecker shares his thoughts on the current trends in the telecommunications industry including our recent acquisition of a controlling stake of Comstar-UTS by MTS.

Please watch below the video presenting our 3i strategy. We have shot this video over the last few months across various locations of MTS, including our retail stores, call centers and technical facilities. The video also includes interviews with the management of MTS: Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of the Company; Michael Hecker, Vice President for Strategy and Corporate Development; and Mikhail Gerchuk, Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.



Below we have also posted a longer version of the video that includes in-depth interviews and more details about some of our recent initiatives, including the launch of Omlet.ru content portal.

On November 13, we disclosed our financial results for the third quarter 2009. As always, we posted a wealth of information about the results on our website – the press release, the presentation and the Excel spreadsheet with summary financial information for 2004-2009. 

As was stated during the conference call, we had a good quarter with revenues for the Group growing 12% q-on-q to nearly $2.3 billion on the back of healthy subscriber additions, a seasonal increase in usage, rising data consumption and a growing contribution from our retail sales. The Group’s OIBDA increased 11% q-on-q to $1.1 billion with an overall margin of 46.9%. Less the effect of our retail investments, the margin improved from Q2 2009 to 50.7%.

Though we continue to see an impact from macroeconomic uncertainty, we realized growth q-on-q in our Russian operations of 10% to 56 billion rubles. In addition to the seasonal dynamics of our business, we are succeeding in driving our active subscriber base and realizing 50% year-over-year growth in both data content and traffic revenues. We also witnessed a greater contribution from handset sales, which exceeded 3.2 billion rubles or 5.7% of revenue.