Media coverage

Cynthia Gordon, chief marketing officer of MTS, talks about managing the direction and strategy of one of the largest carriers in Russia and the CIS.

Video interview with Michael Hecker, VP, Strategy and Corporate Development, MTS taken at NYSE Euronext First Global Investment Conference in Tokyo on September 9, 2008.

Vodafone's strategic partnership with Russian operator MTS has broken new ground in terms of its scale compared with the operator's other European partner agreements. As well as giving Vodafone access to a huge number of subscribers in both Russia and CIS countries, the agreement is more comprehensive than other deals.

MTS sees fast 3G networks as the best means of supplying connectivity in CIS countries, where fixed-line penetration is relatively low and there is underinvestment in infrastructure. "The mobile internet will be significant for future capacity requirements," says Evgeny Moskalev, director, convergence block, MTS. "We are building an NGN and in May, launched 3G services in Russia."

Vodafone yesterday took its brand to Russia for the first time by unveiling a partnership agreement with MTS, the country's largest mobile phone operator, writes Andrew Parker. Mikhail Shamolin, MTS chief executive, said the agreement with Vodafone would "give our customers the most innovative products and services from around the world".

Russian company "Mobile TeleSystems" (MTS), which launched a mobile Internet service in Turkmenistan this year, has connected 20 Turkmen secondary schools to Internet, said Dmitriy Shumov, head of MTS-Turkmenistan. He also noted that this year the company sent 20 Turkmen students for higher studies to the St. Petersburg University of Telecommunications.

Mikhail Shamolin is symbolic of a new generation of business executives from the emerging markets. The 38-year-old chief executive of Russia's largest mobile phone company cut his teeth at McKinsey before joining MTS in 2005. While at the management consultancy he helped Aeroflot, the state airline, develop the overnight London-Moscow flight he uses so often in his new role.

Mikhail Shamolin, president and chief executive of MTS, the Russian mobile operator, tells Richard Milne that there is a lot more psychology and panic involved in the current situation than the real economic underlying factors demand. Mr. Shamolin says that the crisis is serious both in Russia and around the world but he argues that once people regain a bit of confidence, it will soon be over.

Before this year, Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) (NYSE: MBT - message board) was mainly known by those people with an interest in the Russian mobile market. But as the competition intensified and the operator cast its eyes outside its domestic market, MTS instigated a campaign to bolster its reputation in its existing markets (Russia and five CIS states) and raise its brand awareness in international markets. (See Russia's MTS On M&A Trail.) To help achieve those goals, it hired Cynthia Gordon, a marketing manager with broad industry experience, to put into action a strategy which included ramping up network availability and service quality.

Brand Finance looks at the top 25 global telecoms brands. The figures demonstrate what effect the brand itself has on the bottom line of the business in terms of financial value. Each brand is also given a rating to express its economic worth. MTS is featured as the only telecom brand from the CIS in the rakings, the 23rd most valuable telecom brand with a Brand Value of $2.79 bn and Brand Ranking of AA-.