MTS, the largest operator in Russia, has announced it will cut the number of its direct content partners to 70, claiming the rest can still offer content via those partners it still does business with. “Currently we have hundreds of content providers and we are unable to pay enough attention to each of them,” Alyavdin said, adding that content quality was a hot issue at the moment.” It’s rumored that the other large Russian operators, VimpelCom and MegaFon, will follow suit, but they have denied it. “According to iKS-Consulting, revenues of Russian content providers amounted to U.S. $300 million in 2005 and are expected to increase to $420 million in 2006.”
Also, MTS announced it has suspended all activities in its i-mode service until September. “MTS has halted its advertising campaign and shut down its Web site dedicated to i-mode”, although it will continue supporting the service for its current customers…around 100,000 (out of a total of 48 million users). “MTS did not disclose the amount of its investments in the service. Analysts surveyed by the daily estimated investments at about U.S. $20 million, while monthly revenue from the service’s subscribers stood at about $150,000.” It blamed the lack of success on “uninteresting” i-mode handsets and is in talks with DoCoMo about the issue.
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