MOSCOW - Russian cellular provider OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is not planning to return to the Crimean mobile market, MTS President Andrei Dubovskov told journalists.
“No, we’re not planning on it. There’s an operator working in Crimea. We don’t have any relations with it,” he said, referring to LLC K-Telecom.
On Aug. 7, 2014 the network of MTS Ukraine completely stopped work on the territory of Crimea. The company began to gradually shut down its networks on the peninsula after the Aug. 4 launch of Russia’s LLC K-Telecom, which is operating at frequencies previously belonging to the Ukrainian subsidiary of MTS.
Later MTS Ukraine resumed offering services to Crimean subscribers on the basis of one-sided technical roaming on K-Telecom’s network. From Oct. 1, the operator has transferred services for its subscribers in Crimea to the 3Mob roaming network, the mobile subsidiary of Rinat Akhmetov’s Ukrtelecom.
MTS Ukraine reported on Oct. 31 that it was shutting down its management office and two branches in Ukraine. The company also sold its property in Crimea for 17.7 million euro (with VAT) to two private investors.
