MTS (, МТС, "Mobile TeleSystems"), headquartered in Moscow, is the largest mobile network operator in Russia, operating on GSM, UMTS and LTE standards. Apart from cellular network, the company also offers local telephone service, broadband, mobile television, cable television, satellite television and digital television.
As of Q1 2021, the company serves over 84.9 million subscribers in Russia, Armenia and Belarus.
Operations
Branding
In May 2006, MTS changed their logo as a part of rebranding campaign performed by their parent company, JSFC Sistema. The logo now has two red squares next to each other. The left one, common in form (but not colour) to all JSFC Sistema's telecom subsidiaries, contains a white egg which symbolises simplicity and genius, while the right square bears the name of the company: МТС (MTS). In 2010, MTS announced acquisition of Sistema Telecom, the owners of the MTS "egg" logo, for $380 million, thus becoming the sole owner of the logo.
In 2008, the MTS brand was included in the Top 100 World's Most Powerful Brands list by Financial Times/Millward Brown ranking, becoming the most valuable Russian brand. According to this ranking, in 2010 MTS brand was 72nd most valuable brand worldwide with the brand value of $9.7 billion. In 2010 MTS also became the most valuable Russian brand according to the Interbrand ranking.
MTS Russia
In 1994, a joint venture of Moscow City Telephone Network, T-Mobile and Siemens, which later MTS GSM became part of Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), offered Russia's MTS GSM first mobile phone service Мобильные ТелеСвязи
for the public in Moscow. In the same year in June, VimpelCom also started Beeline mobile phone service. MTS having started MTS in the Moscow license zone in 1994, MTS in 1997 received licenses for further areas and began expansion across Russia, later entering other countries of the CIS.
In 2009, MTS acquired several independent mobile retail chains, creating MTS monobrand retail network of 3300 stores — the second largest retail network in Russia. Also in 2009 MTS started marketing MTS-branded mobile handsets. Already in 2010 MTS became the 5th best selling handset brand in Russia, after Nokia, Samsung, LG and SonyEricsson.
In 2010, MTS announced acquisition of 62% of the stock of Comstar, the biggest Russian fixed internet and cable TV provider with 7.5 million of passed households. Comstar products were re-branded to MTS in 2010, forming the largest Russian mobile and fixed telecommunications brand. Until this purchase, MTS was presented at the fixed telephony market through its subsidiary Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS).
In November 2013, the company has launched the "Home phone MTS" in Ryazan, Oryol, Kirov, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg. The subscription fee for the wired telephone is 100 rubles. Per month, it includes unlimited calls to numbers of local fixed-line operators. The cost of calls to mobile numbers range from 1.1 rubles per minute depending on the region. Prior to that, in several cities such services are also provided by Comstar, a subsidiary of MTS.
During 2012–2013, MTS deployed FTTB network in nearly twenty new cities of the Far East, Siberia, Central, Volga and Ural federal districts. In 2012, MTS launched in all the cities where the DTV signal standard DVB-C, and in December 2013 a project to provide fixed telephony services to the mass market in the regions.
In 2013, Interregional TransitTelekom won a tender held by MTS to provide IPX services, and became one of the service providers for the company in the international telecommunications market. In November 2013 MTS began offering their Russian customers LTE roaming service, after such agreement were signed first with South Korean operator SK Telecom and then with Saudi Arabia and Great Britain. Along with the construction of the fixed network, the company launched in 2013 DVB-C digital television standard in Ulan-Ude, Blagoveshchensk, Ussuriisk and Nakhodka. In November 2013 MTS completely switched to digital TV by connecting new subscribers, ending the connection to analogue television.
In March 2019, MTS launched an interactive media platform for cyber athletes and gamers WASD.TV and a mechanism for selecting players from the Gambit League to professional e-sports teams.
On September 17, 2019, it was revealed that a storage device containing 1.7 terabytes of information related to MTS was exposed to the public internet in a data leak. In 2022, the company's revenue amounted to 392 billion rubles.