MTS Plans to Sever Partnerships with Minor Content Providers

MOSCOW, July 26 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia?s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) plans to cancel partnership agreements with most minor content providers, MTS' spokesman Kirill Alyavdin said, Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday.

"Currently we have hundreds of content providers and we are unable to pay enough attention to each of them," Alyavdin said, adding that content quality was a hot issue at the moment. MTS plans to cut the number of its direct content partners to 70 and to officially publish a list of providers, Alyavdin said.

Other providers may offer their content to MTS' subscribers indirectly through the providers on the list, Alyavdin said, adding that MTS had already made a preliminary list containing about 20 providers, the daily reported.

Several sources suggested that Russian second and third largest mobile operators, VimpelCom and MegaFon, also planned to cut the number of direct content providers, the daily reported. The two companies' officials denied the rumor.

According to iKS-Consulting, revenues of Russian content providers amounted to U.S. $300 million in 2005 and are expected to increase to $420 million in 2006. Market experts earlier said that the content quality was low and people who ordered content often did not receive it at all, received poor-quality content, or received content that was not compatible with their mobile handset models.

End"

Posted to the site on 26th July 2006