Paul Myners, a former commercial secretary to the UK Treasury, is to join the board of directors of Russian mobile phone company MegaFon. The matter will be discussed at a general meeting of the company. Lord Paul Myners, who was made a life peer and entitled to a seat in the House of Lords in …
MobiDengi, a major Russian electronic payment service provider, has teamed up with MasterCard to launch ‘MasterCard*Card2Day,’ a pre-paid virtual card that enables online purchases worldwide. The card is available to any subscriber of Russia’s three main mobile operators: Beeline (a brand of Vimpelcom), Megafon, and MTS. A convenient feature of the MasterCard*Card2Day card is that …
MobiDengi and MasterCard make virtual payment card available to Russian mobile subscribers Read More
Russia’s MTS and Channel One have joined forces with Disney to create an interactive TV service aimed at children. According to MTS, it is integrated into the series ‘After School’ and combines the capabilities of mobile internet and TV.
Last month, Yandex.Dengi (Yandex.Money), the electronic currency division of the Russian search giant Yandex, started testing a smartphone-based bank card payment terminal in Moscow taxis, in partnership with SellbyCell, a specialized solution provider. This new payment method, named ‘Yandex Kassa,’ is available to any Visa or MasterCard card holders, and does not require users to …
Russian Internet, telecom and bank giants experiment with Square-like payment systems Read More
Vimpelcom will sell several of its emerging market businesses in Africa and Asia as part of a rationalization of its global telecoms operations. The group intends to focus on more mature markets such as Russia and Italy, which make up about 70% of its business, the Financial Times reported on Monday. However, Vimpelcom will retain …
The Russian telecommunications market is growing fuelled by investments of mobile operators and broadband internet access services expansion. It is now expected to cross the value of €31 bn in 2012. Further 3G-LTE development is outstripping WiMAX and CDMA. According to the latest report by PMR, a market research company, the value of the telecommunication …
Mobile internet to trigger the Russian telecoms market Read More
In what has been presented as a world first, Scartel, the Russian WiMAX and LTE operator operating under the Yota brand, announced last week it has implemented LTE Advanced technology in eleven of its LTE base stations in Moscow. LTE Advanced is a major enhancement of the LTE standard. The Russian operator claims it will …
Yota launches world’s first LTE Advanced network in Moscow Read More
Goldman Sachs announced on Tuesday that it has pulled out of a role as lead bank on an initial public offering by Megafon, one of Russia’s top mobile operators, scheduled for Nov. 1 simultaneously on the London and Moscow stock exchanges. According to the Financial Times, the Goldman’s decision followed recent statements by Megafon’s main …
Goldman Sachs walks away from Megafon’s imminent IPO Read More
NFC technology enabled 4.5 billion rubles, or about $138 million, worth of payments in Russia in the first six months of this year, reported i-Free, a developer and publisher of mobile applications and games, in an exchange with Russian news agency RIA Novosti. Svetlana Kostochka, the head of i-Free’s innovation marketing department, explained she expects …
NFC on the move in Russia; compatible phones and payment systems to fuel traction Read More
Russia’s M2M service market grew a hefty 63% year-to-year by June 2012, from an estimated 1.84 to 3 million SIM card enabled connections, MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator and retailer, has found in a special study. Sharing its results with Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Valeria Kuzmenko, a spokesperson for MTS, said the company, …
M2M market up 63% in one year with 3 million SIM card enabled connections Read More
On Monday, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced via Twitter that Megafon, one of Russia’s leading mobile operators, has officially filed a request to acquire a 50% stake in Euroset, the country’s largest mobile phone retailer. The terms of the deal have already been defined, the Russian media reported, with oligarch Alexander Mamut yielding his …
Megafon could acquire leading mobile phone retailer Euroset Read More
MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator and retailer, has announced plans to bring special, radio-enabled wrist straps to the Russian market by the end of this year. The electronic bracelets will help users obtain unaided health checkups and obtain professional medical advice remotely. This telemedicine-supporting device, called ‘Opeka,’ has been designed by a private-public partnership …
MTS engages in telemedicine; SIM chip powered straps to safeguard health Read More
