Begun launches contextual ads on Android and iPhone apps
Begun, a leading Russian advertising network acquired by Google in 2008, announced earlier this week that its contextual ad service now operates on Android and iPhone mobile applications.
Mobile & Telecom
MTS launches mobile TV across Russia
London – MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator, has launched a commercial mobile TV service covering the entire country. Known simply as Mobile TV or MTS TV, it offers viewers eight Russian federal channels and over 100 channels from 17 countries and in 26 languages.
Rostelecom invests heavily in broadband Internet in Central Russia
Two investment proposals filed with the Russian government by national telecom operator Rostelecom have received support from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian daily Vedomosti reported. The proposals aim to modernize Rostelecom’s networks in Russia’s Central Federal District by 2013 in order to provide all the District’s 7 million households with landline and wireless Internet, telecom …
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Mobile retailer Svyaznoy to launch music portal
Russia’s second largest mobile phone retailer Svyaznoy, which operates some 2,300 outlets throughout Russia, will soon launch a website to sell music, ebooks and other multimedia content, Russian daily Vedomosti reported, citing Svyaznoy’s General Manager Denis Lyudkovsky. The future portal – still unnamed – will offer over 1 million music tracks, over 30,000 e-books, computer …
Panasonic, Philips and Samsung to embed MTS content service into their TV sets
Leading Russian mobile operator MTS recently signed cooperation agreements with several major producers of TV sets, including Panasonic, Philips and Samsung, to deliver content from Omlet.ru, an MTS subsidiary, to their TV sets. The news was reported last week by Russian newspaper RBC Daily from unnamed sources.
Russian mobile game Cut the Rope tops Android app market
Cut the Rope, a game developed by Russian firm ZeptoLab, topped the paid applications section of Android Market, the application store for Android-supported devices, just one week after its launch on July 1.
Operator consortium vague on LTE deployment, Scartel joint venture project fails to gain momentum
Soyuz LTE, the consortium of Russian telecom operators formed to investigate the conditions for the deployment of LTE and LTE Advanced infrastructure in Russia, submitted its report with conclusions to the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) on July 1 as planned. The consortium was requested by the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media …
Yandex invests in US mobile app startup
Refine.io, a startup offering to “create and share fully functional prototypes of mobile apps in about the same time as it takes to develop a wireframe,” received seed funding from Russia’s search engine giant Yandex under the Yandex.Factory program.
MTS files lawsuits against Nokia, SonyEricsson, Samsung and LG over customer service quality
Russian Phone Company (RPC), the retail wing of major mobile operator MTS, announced last week that it had filed a number of lawsuits against the world’s four major mobile handset makers. According to the lawsuits, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG are accused of systematically violating deadlines in contractual obligations for non-functional handsets. The four …
Nokia Siemens Networks to set up Smart Lab in Skolkovo
The Skolkovo Foundation confirmed last Friday a broad cooperation agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks, a leading global enabler of telecommunication services. Among other items, the deal included provisions for a Smart Lab on the premises of the innovation hub under construction near Moscow.
New law on payment systems favors mobile payments but tightens requirements for payment operators
New Federal legislation on payment systems was adopted by the Russian Duma on June 14 and signed into law by President Medvedev on June 27. The new law establishes the legal and organizational foundation for the country’s payment system and regulates the procedure for rendering payment services. The law recognizes four types of players who …
St. Petersburg high tech company to fund Russian and foreign startups
i-Free, a global Russian mobile, digital finance and micro payment company, announced last Thursday the launch of its own internal venture fund to invest in IT startups. The new fund will provide financing as well as training and mentor support for seed stage projects – even to projects with “non-obvious monetization schemes” – and early growth …
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