Russian and CIS mobile operator MTS announced that its MTS Turkmenistan subsidiary was forced to suspend its services on 29 September. The previous day, a five-year agreement between the Turkmenistan government and the MTS Group on sharing profits from MTS Turkmenistan expired. National operator Turkmentelecom has switched off the zonal DLD/ILD connection and internet services for the mobile operator.
MTS is currently negotiating the receipt of frequency permits with the national regulators, as well as the allocation of other resources necessary to provide telecommunications services.
MTS Turkmenistan’s licence to supply telecoms services is valid until 26 July 2018. Its subscriber base totalled 1.7 million at the end of the second quarter of this year. In 2016, MTS Turkmenistan’s revenue amounted to TMT 260.2 million and OIBDA was TMT 93.7 million. It accounted for 1.15 percent of MTs Group turnover and for 1.06 percent of group OIBDA.
