Russia's MTS to Present Development Strategy in June

MOSCOW, May 10 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia?s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) plans to present its development strategy in June, MTS' Acting President Leonid Melamed told a news conference Wednesday.

Melamed said that the strategy is to be considered by the company's managing committee in the coming days and later it would be considered by the board of directors.

The Russian market is currently switching from extensive to intensive development, Melamed said, adding that MTS' task is to develop business not through attracting new subscribers but through increasing subscribers' loyalty.

MTS plans to introduce a new line of tariff plans for subscribers following the launch of a new logo, Melamed said, adding that the first tariff plan would be launched within 14 days. Sistema Telecom, telecommunications arm of AFK Sistema, on Wednesday introduced a single logo for five Sistema-controlled companies, including MTS. Sistema owns about 53% in the mobile operator.

MTS may also switch to ruble-denominated tariffs from U.S. dollar-denominated tariffs in September-October, Melamed said, adding that the decision would be made based on inflation and ruble/dollar exchange rate moves.

MTS' key rivals VimpelCom and MegaFon introduced ruble-denominated tariffs earlier this year.

Melamed also said that MTS plans to introduce the single logo for its Ukraine's subsidiary, UMC, but the final decision is to be made in July.

MTS' stock underperformance led to the resignation of MTS' former president Vasily Sidorov in April. Sistema's top managers have set a task before the new managers, including Melamed, to boost the company's capitalization to U.S. $20 billion. MTS' capitalization stood at about $14 billion as of Tuesday.

MTS' total subscriber base stood at 64.175 million users as of April 30, according to Advanced Communications & Media (AC&M).

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Posted to the site on 10th May 2006