25.4.09

Sistema rebrands Rainbow to MTS


Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), a joint venture between Russia’s Sistema and the Shyam Group, launched its mobile telephony services under ‘MTS’ brand by rebranding the existing Rainbow. SSTL, which holds licences for 22 circles, will be rolling out its CDMA services across the circles by mid-2010. “We have earmarked an investment of $5 billion in the next four-to-five years for a pan-India presence and have already launched services in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala circles. Network services will be extended in Kolkata and Bihar by July this year,” said Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO, SSTL. While the Indian telecom market is dominated by the GSM players, SSTL believes that the future belongs to CDMA technology. Even though the government targets to achieve 500 million users by 2010, penetration is very low compared to other countries. Besides the opportunity that the lower teledensity presents, the telecom market is going to be driven by content and mobile wireless broadband, said Rozanov. “We are at a good position to cater to this non-voice market given strengths of CDMA technology in terms of transferring high speed data.” Rozanov added. SSTL currently has a subscriber base of 5 lakh with Rajasthan contributing almost 93%. Rozanov said the company intends to increase its network coverage in Rajasthan to over 900 towns and 13,000 villages from the current presence in 600 towns and 12,000 villages. MTS, which provides mobile services in six other nations, has a subscriber base of about 100 million globally.

No comments: