OREANDA-NEWS. February 20, 2009. The mobile cellular subscribers of the largest cellular communication operator in Turkmenistan – Rossiyskie Mobilnye TeleSistemy (MTS) have reached the 1 million mark. This remarkable event that coincides with the national holiday – Flag Day can be characterized as very symbolical taking account of the Russian company’s plans to expand on the very promising Turkmen market.

The personnel of the company and their guests including Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Turkmenistan Igor Blatov attended the ceremony of awarding the millionth subscriber at the MTS head office in Turkmenistan.

According to the MTS Turkmenistan office in Ashgabat which is affiliated with Mobilnye TeleSistemy JCS, MTS Turkmenistan demonstrates the record growth of mobile cellular subscribers – since the beginning of 2009 over 135,000 MTS subscribers have been registered.

Under the programme aimed at improving the quality of telecommunication services and expanding the range of coverage MTS conducted the activities. Thus, the company put 467 base stations in operation in Turkmenistan last year that enabled to provide the high quality services to people residing in the remote areas. 36 base stations were put into operation particularly in the Dashoguz, Balkan and Lebap Velayat in January 2009.

GPRS/EDGE technology employed by MTS allows its subscribers have a wireless access to the internet. As is known MTS launched this large-scale project last year on the instructions of the President of Turkmenistan who pays much attention to developing the communication and telecommunication sector and in particular applying high technologies to provide the people of Turkmenistan with an access to the internet. Since the beginning of the current year MTS has considerably extended geographically. MTS Turkmenistan provides the services within the roaming networks of 189 cellular communication operators in 89 countries worldwide including the favourable roaming tariffs in the countries of the Commonwealth where the affiliated branches of the largest cellular communication operator in Russia and the CIS operate.