Novosibirsk, Russian Federation — April 17, 2002 — OJSC “Mobile TeleSystems” (NYSE:MBT), Russia’s leading GSM 900/1800 mobile operator, and CJSC “Siberian Cellular Systems — 900”, MTS’s subsidiary in the Siberian federal region, announce today signing up the 150 thousandth active subscriber to the MTS network in Novosibirsk.
This event is the evidence of MTS aggressive regional expansion in all regions integrated into its unified infrastructure. As of December 31, 2001 the MTS subscriber base in Novosibirsk accounted for 115,000 users compared to 31,000 customers at the end of the year 2000. Commenting on the event, General Director of CJSC “SCS-900” Dmitry Levin said: “In the first place this acquisition demonstrates MTS successful marketing initiatives and its constant concentration on providing subscribers with high quality communications and up-to-date services. I am delighted that the inhabitants of Novosibirsk valued our efforts and made MTS their choice. But I am confident more interesting and significant achievements are in the future”. During 2001 MTS upgraded its network equipment by launching a switch with the numbering capacity of up to 500,000 subscribers, substantially enhanced the coverage zone that includes now Novosibirsk with its outskirts, federal motor routes and a number of regional inhabited localities. The strong demand for non-voice services saw its further development in new offers from the company. Subscribers can now enjoy a large range of additional services, some of which are unique. For example, the service “Mobile Instant Messenger” (access to the Internet service ICQ directly from a mobile handset), can be used in two ways: on the basis of SIM-Toolkit or SMS-service. The popular service “GSM-text” enables to send SMS-messages to a mobile phone through an operator. MTS tariff policy in Novosibirsk is aimed at meeting needs of all targeted customer groups: 4 in 6 tariff plans are offered in two options — with per-minute and per-second charge. While charging per-minute, the call cost per minute becomes considerably cheaper.
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For further information contact:
MTS Public Relations Expert
Kirill Lubnin
tel: +7 (095) 737-45-30
e-mail: lkm@mts.ru
CJSC “Siberian Cellular Systems — 900”
Press-secretary
Anton Kaltygin
tel: +7 (3832) 14-10-24
e-mail: ak@scs-900.ru |
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (NYSE: MBT) is Russia’s leading GSM 900/1800 mobile cellular operator. MTS has GSM 900/1800 licenses to provide mobile cellular telephony services in 46 regions of the Russian Federation, covering 86 million people or 56% of the country’s population. MTS network has operations in 29 regions, which cover more than 63,2 million people or 43,2% of the population of the Russian Federation. Additional information about MTS can be found on MTS’s website at https://www.mtsgsm.com CJSC “Siberian Cellular Systems — 900” (“SCS-900”) — the largest GSM 900/1800 cellular operator in Siberia and Far East, MTS’s subsidiary in the Siberian federal region, provides mobile services in Novosibirsk and its region and is the coordinating operator in the West-Siberian region. For more details on the Company, visit www.nsk.mts.ru
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. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statement to conform them to actual results. 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 F-1. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned “Risk Factors,” that could cause the ctual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, 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, risks associated with operating in Russia, volatility of stock price, financial risk management, and future growth subject to risks. |
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