OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2011. Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS” or “the Company” – NYSE: MBT), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, announces it has been named as one of the BRANDZ™ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, a ranking published by the Financial Times and Millward Brown Optimor, a leading global market research and consulting firm. In 2011, MTS’s brand is yet again ranked as the most valuable Russian brand. It stands at the 80th position with a brand value of USD 10.9 billion.

The value of the MTS brand in this global ranking grows for the fourth year in a row. In 2008, when MTS was the first Russian company to enter the BRANDZ™, its brand was valued at USD 8.1 billion. In 2009, the value of the brand increased to USD 9.2 billion, and in 2010 it rose to USD 9.7billion.

Mikhail Gerchuk, MTS Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, commented, “We are pleased that our success in building the brand is again recognized in one of the most respected global rankings. The increase in the brand value comes on the back of our strategy aimed at offering our subscribers innovative services and best customer service. Our customers are increasingly making decisions to buy MTS products based on the strength of our brand. We are confident that this strategy will ensure further growth of the MTS’ brand value.”

According to the Millward Brown Optimor research, the weight of the MTS brand in making decisions to purchase MTS products and services rose from 32.0% in 2010 to 37.9% in 2011. By this indicator reflecting the power of the brand MTS belongs to top-20 global brands.

In December 2010 the MTS brand with a brand value of USD 7.753 billion brand was ranked as the most valuable Russian brand by InterBrand, a world’s leading brand consultancy.