Motorola, MTS sign major upgrade for greater Moscow area

Mobile Telesystems, the largest mobile operator in Russia and CIS, has awarded an equipment upgrade and services contract to Motorola, Inc. to improve the quality, capacity and performance of its Moscow macro region network, MTS’ largest geographic region.

This contract will allow MTS to further improve its voice and data quality, and help to reduce operating and capital expenses by introducing new features, improving network usage capacity and optimizing network architecture and topology.

The project includes base station upgrades in the Moscow macro region and the deployment of EDGE (1) on all segments of the macro region’s network (2), which will allow MTS to double the number of potential data service subscribers and increase the speed of data transfer.

Voice and data quality on the MTS network is expected to be improved by optimizing performance, capacity, and deploying new hardware and software functionality, such as AMR voice codec which is designed to improve voice quality while using the same amount of network resources.  Comprehensive network optimization, performed using Motorola’s Intelligent Design and Growth Planning service, will allow MTS to deliver increased quality of service and soon offer its subscribers new services and applications while expanding the coverage of its existing services.

This project is expected to help MTS significantly reduce operating and capital expenses which will help to drive shareholder value.

“World-leading telecoms companies use advanced high-tech solutions to increase their competitive abilities.  MTS’ strategy puts a special emphasis on equipment upgrades which are viewed as a long term investment into the company’s successful future,” says Sergey Aslanyan, CTO and CIO, MTS Group.

Mobile TeleSystems (“MTS”) is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company services over 68.53 million subscribers. The 87 regions of Russia, as well as such countries as Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, in which MTS and its associates and subsidiaries are licensed to provide GSM services, have a total population of over 230 million. Since June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT).

EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) is an evolution of GPRS technology offering higher bandwidth and throughput, up to 384 Kbps. EDGE-based services are similar to those enabled by GPRS. EDGE does not require any extra settings and is selected automatically by a supporting mobile phone when available.

Currently EDGE services are available to users in Moscow, Samara, Oryol, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions.