Support The Moscow Times!

Belarus Plans MTS Auction This Year

Mobile TeleSystems, which has a 49 percent stake in Belarus MTS, has reiterated its interest in buying the Belarussian government out of the pair's joint venture. Maxim Stulov

Belarus' State Property Committee has begun preparations for the auctioning off of the state's 51 percent stake in the joint venture it has with Russian cell phone giant Mobile TeleSystems.

The auction will be held before the end of the year, the committee told Interfax, and the starting price is still set at $1 billion.

"A final date for the auction of the state stake in MTS has not yet been determined, but a series of presentations will take place at the end of October, beginning of November," a committee spokesman said.

Russian parent company Mobile TeleSystems, which has a 49 percent stake in the venture, has reiterated its interest in buying Belarus out. "We are interested in this asset," MTS public relations director Yelena Kokhanovskaya said.

Belarus MTS had 5 million subscribers as of July 1, 2012.

Meanwhile, Mobile TeleSystems in Russia said Monday that it plans to double the share of mobile Internet users among its subscribers by 2014.

About 37 percent of MTS' customers used mobile data services as of the end of the second quarter, company spokeswoman Valeria Kuzmenko said.

Data services generated 7.8 billion rubles ($243 million) of the company's revenues from its mobile business in Russia in the second quarter, up by 35 percent. Rival operator MegaFon reported that its revenues from data services grew 27.5 percent to 7.9 billion rubles in the second quarter, while VimpelCom increased quarterly mobile data revenues by 35 percent to 5.6 billion rubles.

Smart phones accounted for 27 percent of the mobile phones sold in Russia in the second quarter, up from 18 percent a year earlier, MTS estimates.

Related articles:

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just 2. It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more