Telecom

Mobile Business

Mass Market

In 2022, we actively developed and marketed favorable data plans, in which each customer could choose a set of standard telecom services, as well as a wide range of ecosystem digital products, best suitable for them.

Expansion of the range of ecosystem services and deep study of our customers’ preferences in integration with Big Data allow us to perform the transition from traditional price competition in telecom products to the creation of offers for consumer segments. This helps increase customer loyalty and emotional attachment to the brand, as well as improve customer experience.

In July 2022, a unique subscription was launched — MTS Access. Now the subscriber can pay a fee once a month and use the connection, not counting minutes and gigabytes, as well as receive smart protection from spam calls — “Defender” from MTS.

The launch of convergent services is a part of the MTS ecosystem development program. Convergent products are one of the key tools to retain subscribers and increase their loyalty. Combining the capabilities of fixed-line and mobile communications, the MTS designs and continues to develop convergent services. MTS intends to significantly increase the number of convergent subscribers. All MTS data plan is a bundle of services in three telecommunication areas: home internet + TV + mobile communications. The Company is the only operator in Russia, which, in addition to standard telephony, internet, cable or IPTV, also allows connection to satellite TV services. The development of convergent products is one of the main drivers of fixed-line communication sales growth, which allows MTS to maintain the rates of subscriber base growth for fixed-line communication services outstripping the market.

In 2022, MTS launched a number of operator mechanics with leading vendors of subscriber equipment and partners of the non-telecom sector. Such unique offers became available to consumers as:

• when buying a set of “smartphone with an MTS SIM card”, the consumer received a discount on communication in the form of bonus rubles;
• when buying a set of “smartphone with an MTS SIM card”, the consumer received a second phone as a gift;
• when buying a smartphone from a certain vendor, the consumer received as a gift communication services and accessories for a set amount;
• partnership programs. When fulfilling the conditions of the promotion (for example, when buying a promotional product or when reaching a certain amount of the bill) and concluding a subscription agreement with MTS, the consumer received a unique promo code to activate a discount on communication services.

Retail Distribution

The MTS retail chain remains the main channel for attracting MTS subscribers. More than 40% of SIM card sales are carried out through MTS retail outlets. MTS own network demonstrates high rates in the number and quality of SIM card connections.

At MTS offices, subscribers receive a full range of services provided by the operator, including services involving broadband access to the internet and television. Being points of contact with the MTS ecosystem, MTS outlets allow increasing cross-sales. Any new service released by the Company automatically becomes available for sale in the retail chain office. Furthermore, we offer the customers an extensive list of financial services, such as: consumer lending, money transfers, credit repayment, life insurance (voluntary medical insurance), product insurance and MTS Money cards.

Our own sales channel enables us to more effectively manage the number and quality of activations, as well as to maintain our level of service.

Network Development

MTS continues to develop and modernize the network to ensure a consistent level of coverage and high quality mobile Internet. In 2022, more than 12,000 4G BSs were commissioned, +11% of the network. The main increase occurred in large regions of Russia: Krasnodar Krai and Moscow are the leaders.

In order to maintain and expand the quality of the network, MTS is increasing the number of regions in which it is redistributing the frequency spectrum to LTE technology (more than 30 regions by the end of 2022).

Innovative Projects

MTS develops advanced digital solutions based on the current LTE network, including in hard-to-reach locations.

In Antarctica, in 2022, a significant expansion of the three sites built since 2019 was carried out.

MTS continues to develop the Private LTE (pLTE) area. The largest pLTE network in the Russian Federation in terms of the number of sites and users with an area of 98 km2 has been implemented in Mezhdurechye. In 2022, 14 base stations were built and commissioned. Major projects have been implemented in the Lipetsk, Belgorod, Murmansk Regions and the Republic of Karelia. The total number of BSs launched in 2022 for pLTE network is more than 20.

Fixed-Line Business

B2C Fixed-Line Business

The share of broadband Internet access penetration in the telecom market in 2022 increased slightly to 62% (earlier in 2021–61%) on average in the Russian Federation. The subscriber base grew by only 0.3% (earlier in 2021–0.8%) — the growth rate slowed down in 2021 after a surge in connections in 2020 caused by “self-isolation”. The fixed broadband market in the country is saturated, a small increase in penetration can be achieved at the expense of large cities (penetration of more than 70–80%), as well as coverage of the private sector in the suburbs of large cities.

In the current situation, the B2C segment turned out to be less susceptible to negative factors: by the end of 2022, there was an outstripping revenue growth (by 4.7%, while the subscriber base grew by only 0.3%). The outstripping revenue growth in the B2C segment is associated with an increase in prices for the service from federal and regional providers: in 2022, a number of operators, which had not changed prices for several years before, carried out tariff indexing.

The growth of the pay-TV market in Russia in 2022 almost stopped: the subscriber base remained at the level of 46.5 million, the penetration of the service was 82.6%. The withdrawal of many foreign TV channels from the Russian market and the blocking of foreign satellites had a negative impact. The market volume grew by only 0.7% and amounted to RUB 107.7 billion.

By the end of 2022, MTS continues to maintain leadership in the telecom market of the Russian Federation in terms of the growth rate of the base: the base is growing by 5.3% for broadband Internet subscribers and by 4.1% for pay-TV subscribers compared to 2021. Fixed-line business revenue also continues to grow steadily by 8.6% in 2022. In conditions of saturation of the market, MTS provides growth by two main factors: due to the increasing penetration of converged products into the database of broadband Internet subscribers (an increase of 4.8% in 2022), as well as by attracting new and migrating existing subscribers to higher-speed tariff plans. At the same time, MTS continues to develop the quality of services on its own network in a number of new cities, and in 2022 MTS expanded its presence in the market through partnerships with local providers.

Fixed-Line Network

In 2022, MTS continued to implement a large-scale program of modernization and construction of fixed-line networks:

• more than 500 thousand households were built;
• more than 900 thousand households were upgraded;
• the number of cities with a 1Gb network has increased to 133, taking into account Moscow and cities in the Moscow region.

Two FVNO projects are protected in the cities of Omsk and Khabarovsk (more than 480 thousand households):

• launched into commerce with mono broadband /mono convergent (without TV) in Omsk;
• launched into commerce with mono/DP/convergent services in Khabarovsk.

Convergent

The Company continues to develop a line of converged subscriptions. In 2022, segment offers All MTS Game were launched — an offer for gamers, including mobile communications, home Internet at speeds up to 1 GB /s, as well as a subscription to gaming services, All MTS Gulfstream — including, in addition to basic telecom products, a subscription to a security system.

In 2022, MTS expanded footprint of the partnership scheme for providing convergent subscriptions, within which convergent services are offered in settlements where MTS does not have its own fixed-line network. Within this product, the subscriber gets the opportunity to take advantage of all the benefits of a convergent paying for all mobile and fixed-line services using a single personal account, while remaining a subscriber of his/her home communications service provider. At year-end 2022, this scheme was implemented in 10 regions of the Russian Federation. In addition, the sale of services under the FVNO scheme was launched in two regions of the Russian Federation, including with a federal partner, which makes it possible to quickly scale the project to other regions in the future.

In 2022, taking into account the volume of the upgraded fixed network capacity, the tariff line for all products including home Internet services was revised. In most regions, within the framework of all tariff plans and subscriptions, the minimum Internet access speed was increased to 200 Mbit/s, as well as the geography of tariffs with high-speed parameters of home Internet up to 1 GB/s was expanded.

B2B/G

B2B

In 2022, MTS continues to grow by double digits. Revenue growth by 2021 was 11.4%. The main contribution to revenue growth was made by A2P, Digital advertising, Cloud, Video surveillance. In 2022, MTS became the leader in the М2М market. Growth in the income of basic products should also be noted.

В2G

In the coming years, MTS aims to increase revenue growth in the B2G segment by strengthening participation in national programs and federal government projects, as well as the development of a line of digital products,  the supply of B2B equipment and increasing the focus of regional teams in terms of selling Webinar Group products to government customers.

B2B Products

Mobile Business

In the face of unfavorable economic conditions, realizing the key role of communications for business, MTS has consistently increased the filling of Smart Business tariffs. For a subscription fee, the tariff includes unlimited calls to MTS RF, messengers, navigation, social networks, videos, minutes and Internet traffic packages. Unused traffic balances are saved and transferred to the next month. In order for employees not to be distracted from work tasks, the basic set of services includes intelligent protection from spam calls “Defender”. For remote work, it is possible to distribute Internet traffic to other devices and 80 GB cloud data storage. For interaction with foreign partners — free incoming calls and a special price for Internet in other countries, as well as free calls abroad. Free service “In touch with minus” allows retaining access to messengers and navigation for five days with a negative balance.

In working with corporate clients, MTS has always had an emphasis on personal service and a flexible approach to each client. In 2022, some companies were forced to temporarily suspend their activities, and MTS provided support to customers and gave them the opportunity to block services free of charge for the required period. Also during the year, MTS offered customers the opportunity to double the packages of minutes and gigabytes without increasing the subscription fee as part of the “Double Benefit” campaign. In the period from September to December, it was possible to connect corporate mobile communications with a 30% discount for six months as part of the “Time of Profitable Solutions” campaign.

Focusing on market trends and customer convenience, MTS always develops relevant offers for different segments. The MTS Team tariff was launched for small and medium-sized businesses in 2022. A team of up to six people can be connected to a common package of minutes, gigabytes, SMS to spend traffic more efficiently. The client can independently configure the tariff content and traffic limits for each employee in his Personal Account.

Fixed-Line Business

In 2022, MTS increased the number of active corporate subscribers of fixed Internet access by 3.8% to the results of 2021, the increase in annual revenue for Internet access services amounted to 9.4%. The largest increase in subscribers was provided in the regions (excluding Moscow and the Moscow region) and amounted to 8% year-on-year with revenue growth of 16%.

The figures do not include revenue and subscribers of the SSF project completed in 2021.

In 2022, MTS continued to develop its network in the regions in order to provide services to B2B customers, including 11 major infrastructure projects implemented in the regions: Omsk Region, Republic of Tatarstan, Republic of Mordovia, Ulyanovsk Region, Irkutsk Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Ivanovo Region, Republic of Karelia, increased fixed-line network capacity in the port of Ust-Luga (Leningrad Region), a FOCL was built to the airports of Novy Urengoy and Norilsk.

In the capital region, together with the Moscow Department of Education, a project has been implemented to organize the largest public Wi-Fi zone of the capital on the territory of VDNKH, which allows connecting up to a thousand users to each access point at the same time. The network covers the entire territory of the central alley of the exhibition and provides communication to more than 50 thousand users at the same time. MTS has provided public Wi-Fi access for students of the largest universities in Moscow, in 2022, more than 900 new access points were connected in two HSE dormitories as part of the project.

Intelligent Communication Networks

At the beginning of the year, the High Season — High Sales campaign was active: number 8-800 and 100 minutes for RUB 299 per month. This offer helped small businesses increase sales during a period of high business activity and seasonal demand for goods and services around the holidays and sales period.

Auto Attendant

Virtual multichannel telephony services based on “Auto Attendant” (federal and city numbers) and “Free 8800 call” (8-800 format numbers) proved to be essential for remote work. The services allow deploy telephony at the company without wires and special equipment, since PBX functionality is organized on the side of MTS virtual platform.

In 2022, the technical resources of the virtual platform were significantly strengthened, which made it possible to improve the quality and stability of work and services.

Contribution of MTT JSC

In 2022, MTT developed the MTS Exolve platform for B2B and B2D segments. This strategic product is a CPaaS solution that will allow external IT products and applications to receive the full range of communications from emails and messaging to telecom and video communications seamlessly and from a “single window”. The product market is growing at double-digit rates every year, it is expected that the platform will become a growth driver in the Russian segment and the CIS.

Based on the results of the successful use of Voicebox voice robots in e-commerce, delivery, EdTech, Fintech, MedTech, MTT became the winner of the “ComNews Awards. The best solutions for the digital economy” in the nomination “The best voice robot platform for business 2022”.

For the first time, the service “Adaptive Synthesis” appeared on the market in Voicebox, which allows synthesizing speech indistinguishable from human speech in a few hours (previously it took 1–1.5 months). To increase the contact in Voicebox, the Carousel service has been launched, thanks to which the reachability to subscribers improves by 15–20%.

B2B/G solutions beyond traditional telecom

Business in the Markets of Operation

Armenia

MTS Armenia CJSC (MTS Armenia) is a 100% subsidiary of MTS PJSC and the largest of the three mobile operators working in the Armenian market.

Under the Viva-MTS trademark, the company provides mobile and fixed telephony services, as well as offers cloud and financial services (payments and transfers are carried out by the Mobidram CJSC subsidiary) for its subscribers.

MTS Armenia retains the leadership in the mobile communications market of Armenia by the number of subscribers and revenue.

MTS Armenia’s own retail chain is the main channel for attracting subscribers with 79 sales and service offices, covering all regions and key cities of Armenia.

MTS Armenia completed 2022 with a market share of 58.45% by subscribers, the market share by revenue in 2022 was 57.25%. The market share of subscribers of bundled data plans reached 86% (+4 p.p. year-on-year) and the share of subscribers using data transfer in Q4 2022 amounts to 79%. The average volume of calls per one MTS Armenia subscriber in Q4 2022 amounted to 641 minutes per month and the use of data transfer amounted to 8.8 Gb per month (+31% year-on-year).

MTS Armenia continues to confidently lead the Loyalty Index (NPS) in the market.

In 2022, the market recovery continued, but the main event in the Armenian economy was an unplanned tourist flow from Russia, which led to an increase in new activations compared to 2021. In 2022, MTS in Armenia managed to stop the decline in roaming revenues. The low dollar exchange rate negatively affected the income from the interconnect. In order to minimize the risks from exchange rate fluctuations, at the end of September, the Central Bank of Armenia adopted a number of amendments, and a ban on the use of electronic wallets without attaching bank cards was also adopted, which made it more difficult to attract new fintech clients.

Integration of convergent solutions in cooperation with local partners is developing rapidly. MTS Armenia’s strategy is aimed at creating a new partnership ecosystem that helps develop new business models and identify new sources of income.

The share of revenue from non-traditional voice and data services compared to digital services has increased due to digital products such as mobile applications for financial management, entertainment, education and healthy lifestyle. One of the successful projects is cooperation with Yandex, which consists in providing the Yandex Plus package to those who activate the + Premium package. Yandex Plus offers a 10% discount on Yandex Go taxi and the use of the KinoPoisk and Yandex Music applications.

Compared to the previous year, in 2022, the consumption of cloud services increased by 50%, the consumption of B2B services — by 12%, and the consumption of mobile services within the B2B segment increased by 23%.

Cloud infrastructure #CloudMTS includes IT services, including colocation, virtual infrastructure and back-up solutions based on modern software and hardware technologies.

The Company provides fixed-line VoIP, fixed-line broadband Internet and data transmission services, as well as services for the provision of international communication channels.

MTS 2G communication covers 69.4% of the territory of Armenia, where 99.3% of the country’s population lives. MTS 3G communication covers 71.3% of the territory of Armenia, where 99.8% of the country’s population lives. The MTS 4G-LTE network is available on 69.4% of the territory of Armenia for 99.3% of the country’s residents.

In 2022, MTS Armenia continued work on expanding the LTE network. At the end of 2022, the subsidiary’s network consisted of more than 2,314 base stations with 4G/LTE support, 219 of which were launched in the past year.

In addition, MTS Armenia has deployed 13 base stations in hard-to-reach places and in mountainous areas, where energy is supplied through a photovoltaic solar system. In places where there is no centralized electricity supply, MTS Armenia mainly uses a hybrid method of providing electricity.

Belarus

Mobile TeleSystems JLLC (MTS Belarus) was established in 2002 by the Russian MTS PJSC (49%) and the Belarusian Beltelecom RUE. The company operates under the MTS brand and is the largest mobile communications operator in the Republic of Belarus. Its main competitors are BeST CJSC (‘life’ trademark) and A1 UE (Unitary Enterprise).

In Belarus, MTS provides mobile communication services of GSM 900/1800, UMTS 900/2100 and 4G standards (including 2600/800), home Internet and TV services, offers cloud services and products for business and financial services in partnership (MTS Money).

MTS Belarus is the leader in the mobile communications market of Belarus with the largest market share in terms of the number of subscribers and revenue.

MTS Belarus’ own retail chain together with single-brand stores of the partners is the main channel to attract subscribers. The network of sales and service offices in December 2022 consisted of 91 own offices and 237 single-brand partner showrooms, allowing to connect subscribers and provide service operations in all regions and key cities of Belarus.

MTS 2G communication covers 98.0% of the territory of Belarus, where 99.9% of the country’s population lives. MTS 3G communication covers 96.7% of the territory of Belarus, where 99.9% of the country’s population lives. MTS 4G-LTE communication covers 59.8% of the territory of Belarus, where 95.7% of the country’s population lives. In 2022, MTS Belarus continued to expand access and provide new 4G network opportunities to the residents of Belarus through developing coverage in the 800 MHz LTE band. The new band made it possible to provide high-speed communication to wider areas, including the suburbs, remote villages, highways in the Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk and Minsk Regions of the country.

MTS Belarus retained its leading position and a significant market lead over its competitors and terminated 2022 with a market share by subscribers in Q4 of 47.2% (+0.1 p.p. year-on-year), in terms of mobile business revenue — 51.0% (0 p.p. year-on-year), revenue — 53.0% (+1.1 p.p. year-on-year). The share of subscribers of V&D data plans reached 64.5% (+0.9 p.p. year-on-year) and the share of subscribers using data transmission reached 70.3% (+1.6 p.p. year-on-year). The average volume of calls in terms of one subscriber of MTS Belarus in 2022 amounted to 557 minutes per month (–5.3% year-on-year), the use of data transmission in 2022 amounted to 18 gigabytes per month (+12.6% year-on-year) .

The company is leading in terms of the net promoter score (NPS) in the telecommunications market of Belarus. According to internal marketing research of MTS, Belarus is the leader in satisfaction with the quality of mobile Internet and perception of reputation/image.

In 2022, MTS continued to expand access to 4G network services throughout Belarus together with the infrastructure operator beCloud. In particular, in 2022, the LTE network in Belarus increased by 506 new base stations: 290 in the 800 MHz band, 185 in the 1800 MHz band and 31 in the 2600 MHz band. At the same time, the total number of base stations operating in the LTE network amounted to 5129 pcs. by the end of 2022.

In 2022, MTS Belarus actively developed the cloud area, the revenue from which doubled compared to 2021. MTS Belarus provides a set of services in demand on the market: Iaas, Saas, Paas, Pams and object storage. In 2023, the company intends to enter the market with information security products, which will significantly expand the market for Cloud services.

Also, MTS Belarus continued to expand its network coverage for the Internet of Things in Belarus last year. Minsk, regional centers and cities with a population exceeding 50,000 people are provided with NB-IoT communication. In the future, the systematic expansion of the NB-IoT network coverage area by MTS Belarus in district centers will go on.

Fintech

Fintech vertical includes Bank, mobile commerce, investments, factoring and a credit broker

• The strategic focus is on the retail lending segment and everyday banking services.
• The number of active users of Bank’s payment and digital services is almost 12 million, of which 3.5 million are Bank customers.
• The share of sales of basic products (consumer loans and credit cards) through digital channels already exceeds 80%.

Continued Portfolio Growth

Retail

Vectors of strategic development

MWS (MTS Web Services)

The strategic focus of MWS is to become the leading private provider of digital infrastructure and cloud solutions in Russia.

Media

MTS Media produces and distributes original and licensed VOD and TV content via cable/IPTV, satellite TV and OTT platforms.

Quality and Customer Experience and Service Improvement

In 2022, MTS actively developed tools for the company’s employees and self-service for customers. We continue this trend with an even greater emphasis on ecosystem, omnichannel and seamless customer experience:

• we created an ecosystem seamless service at all points of contact between the client and the Company;
• we launched a remote process of obtaining the missing information and documents from the client;
• we launched the development of the “MTS Unified Ecosystem Client Card”. This employee’s workplace will be a convenient and intuitive tool for customer service of the MTS ecosystem;
• we implemented speech and text analytics tools for customer service. The introduction of this tool allowed to increase the share of analyzed dialogues to 20% (previously it was less than 1%). Operator tNPS has grown by an average of 3 p.p. At the beginning of 2023, it is planned to expand the share of analyzed dialogues to 100%;
• we improved operator tools for safe remote work of employees. At the moment, about 50% of employees work completely remotely;
• we started transferring SMS traffic from the Company to the client to the Omnichannel service, developed in the Company and guaranteeing delivery of a message to the customer numbers of other operators. This made it possible to reduce the proportion of repeated requests to the contact center and MTS stores;
• we continued to actively develop our knowledge base — the Knowledge Management System (KMS). More than 20 thousand employees monthly use the KMS for quality customer service, taking advantage of parametric scenarios and updated search;
• we continued to develop customer service in MTS stores. We have launched a pilot for passport-free service in stores using biometric personal data of customers for authentication. At the beginning of 2023, we will conduct a pilot on speech analytics in MTS stores;
• Together with the MTS Artificial Intelligence Center, a voice bot was launched in 2022 in the pilot regions of mobile and fixed-line businesses. In 2023, we plan to replicate the voice bot for the entire client service. At the same time, the voice bot will be a real assistant to the Contact Center operator, passing the client’s question to the operator;
• we carried out active development of Smarty Chatbot, which solves a number of issues and performs customer service without transferring to the chat operator;
• we implemented notification of clients about the status and deadlines for resolving previously registered applications/incidents/claims. Granting bonuses to customers affected by network failures has been automated.
• In 2023, together with the Artificial Intelligence Center, we plan to transfer the chatbot to the updated NLP platform, which will reduce the TimeToMarket of introducing new service scenarios and increase customer satisfaction of the ecosystem;
• we continued to actively develop the tool for technical equipment diagnostics of fixed-line customers of the Russian Federation (Inetcore). Inetcore has become a tool for conducting diagnostics not only by a Customer service center employee, but also directly by the Client. We have set up integration with key self-service services: IVR, voice and chat bots. Now the Russian Federation fixed-line customer has the opportunity to diagnose and solve technical issues independently, without a contact center operator, using self-service systems.

Thus, in 2022, we continued the trend to improve the quality of service in the MTS customer service, which in turn leads to the implementation of the company’s strategy CLV 2.0.

In 2022, we revised the scheme of working with product teams and developed a process of interaction to create a CJM (Customer Journey Map). As a result of the innovations, new CJMs were developed together with product teams, while the CJM development period was halved

47 audits of customer journeys were conducted, thanks to which the use of most products became easier, interfaces became clearer, and customer satisfaction increased

We continued to improve the clarity of write-offs: expanded the coverage of informing about changes in tariff conditions, became more transparent to inform about events on write-offs.

We have improved the scheme of notifying the client on debt: optimized the number of SMS messages, changed the texts to more concise and understandable, and implemented PUSH-informing

An important area for improving the customer experience was the introduction of the Customer Journey function of experts in product teams. This made it possible to build high-quality customer paths in products, to compose and prioritize tasks taking into account customer pains.

To increase the expertise of the company’s employees in the field of customer experience, a training course “How to improve customer experience with CJM” was launched. The course helps create products that fully meet the expectations of customers.

In 2022, we successfully launched and are using an updated automated testing system for tariff plans and services. Using the new system, we managed to more than triplicate the amount of processes tested at peak performance, and continue to increase the number of products tested. We successfully use and continue to develop a monitoring system that helps to identify failures in the operation of tariff plans and services for unhindered use by our customers. We also continued the development of the alpha and beta testing portal, thanks to which we receive high-quality feedback from users and, taking into account their opinion, ensure high quality products.

In 2022, the coverage of products by the digital satisfaction survey (tNPS) was increased by 89%, which made it possible to better understand the needs of the client and use this knowledge to improve the user experience. New technological metrics reflecting the availability of products, systems and software have been introduced, which has served as the development of an integrated approach to assessing the quality of products. The concept of product differentiation based on criticality classes has been developed. Due to this, it was possible to build a high-quality monitoring and observability system that ensures the stable operation of ecosystem products. In 2022, together with the product teams, we focused on customer feedback analytics, as a result of which we managed to increase the tNPS satisfaction rate: +10 p.p. KION, +6 p.p. MTS Business Personal Account — and reduce the level of claims by 23 and 19%, respectively.

The Closed Loop project develops, within which the customers are additionally contacted based on the results of satisfaction surveys to help resolve their issues. This project helps adjust the existing business processes to raise customer satisfaction with interacting with the company and its products.

We expanded the areas of the “Closed Loop” to users of My MTS and MTS Business. In 2023, we will continue scaling the project to customers of the ecosystem’s digital products.

Artificial intelligence systems have begun to be introduced into the survey system in order to increase the comfort of customers when taking surveys. Customers will be able to communicate with a voice bot that understands speech and captures customer evaluation and feedback.

The unification and scaling of satisfaction surveys on new verticals of the ecosystem has begun: MTT, Zelenaya Tochka, IT-GRAD and CloudMTS. This will allow us to assess the current level of satisfaction and develop measures for its growth.

Big Data

As part of the work on strategic products, the Big Data Center has achieved noticeable results in the area of the development of the MTS Recommendation Platform: individual developments of recommendation algorithms were combined into universal libraries and modules, which positively affected the quality of recommendations received in MTS products.

During 2022, prototypes of three of the five modules of the Recommendation Platform were implemented and introduced in certain communication channels with a statistically significant increase in product metrics of the following products:

• KION (up to 12% growth of total viewing time);
• MTS Bank (CTR growth up to 18%);
• Ticketland (CTR growth from 9.5 to 32%);
• “Lines” (read books in recommendations – growth up to 45%).

The platform’s recommendations are seen monthly by about 20% of the active MTS base (6–7 million people).

As part of the development of scoring, quality indicators were achieved at the level of market leaders, which was due to the generalization of previous developments and the creation of a prototype of the MTS Scoring Platform and the transfer of scoring processes to it. The connection time of a new client to the scoring service has been significantly reduced (from 24 to 3 hours), and the service availability indicators have been improved. With the use of the Scoring Platform, the provision of new anti-fraud scoring services in the market began to counter fraudulent schemes in online products (marketplaces, bulletin boards, financial and sharing services, etc.).

In 2022, due to the introduction of auto look alike and the segmentation platform for the MTS Marketer product, the functionality of building segments on MTS Big Data has been significantly expanded and improved. Dynamic retargeting based on recommendation systems has been launched to increase efficiency. Generative banners and SMS have been piloted to increase conversion due to personalized images and text. We automated and improved the selection of the optimal CPC (cost per click) rate using the dynamic retraining method – Reinforcement Learning.

#FinTech

Targeted promotion using Big Data has been expanded for the Fintech area, including new products (investments, deposits). An mpv-tool for automating the assembly of segments was also implemented. Improved payment recommendations in the banking application due to the transition to the platform solution of the Recommendation Platform.

Risk scoring models migrated to an internal platform solution in 2022, reducing development time by three times.

#Telecom

Telecom has expanded the use of Big Data in its products and processes. We have increased the effectiveness of attracting users due to ML models based on big data. We have implemented connection quality control tools, reducing the number of fraud in sales. We provided users with tools based on Big Data technologies for automatic scoring and formation of construction programs. We also increased by 5 p.p. the accuracy of predicting the profitability of locations through the use of external data.

New external sources have been added for the Defender service to mark up spammers’ search models. An NLP model has been implemented to increase coverage and speed up spam detection.

#GEO services

Operation of GEO services and tools has undergone a deep modernization, both in terms of speeding up the work of interfaces, and in terms of improving the accuracy and quality of GEO data processing, which will allow in 2023 to gain a greater competitive advantage in the GEO analytics market.

Artificial Intelligence

MTS Artificial Intelligence Center Limited Liability Company (MTS AI LLC, MTS AI) is a subsidiary of MTS and the competence center of the MTS ecosystem in the field of artificial intelligence. Founded in 2017. MTS AI specialists develop solutions based on neural networks, computer vision, natural language processing and synthesis for MTS ecosystem companies, as well as for external customers.

MTS AI LLC combines its own expert opinion with the world’s leading developments in the AI field so that the company’s solutions are in demand not only in the Russian market, but also in the global one.

By the end of 2022, MTS AI has implemented more than 20 projects for the MTS ecosystem. They include: skipping titles and screensavers, automatically increasing the video resolution, as well as generating series covers for the KION online cinema. The company’s specialists have developed AI functions for the MVP business decision support system Smart Rollout. Artificial intelligence based on 500 parameters determines areas with similar business behavior, tests hypotheses about the potential profitability of investments in the development of the network. For another project, MTS AI developers tested a neural network for marking an audio signal and recognizing audio events in an audio stream.

In July 2022, MTS AI presented the TenVision cloud video surveillance and analytics platform. On its basis, a video surveillance and analytics platform was created for the MTS Video Surveillance for Business product. In addition, MTS AI provided Gulfstream with a video surveillance system for working with the video stream and archive, as well as camera software.

On the basis of the Audiogram speech synthesis and recognition platform, an experiment was launched on voicing books using AI for the MTS Lines project. By the end of 2023, it is planned to prepare 5,000 works in this format. At the moment, 1562 works have been voiced using Audiogram, and work is being done to prepare the first books for listening by the end users of the service.

In 2022, 36 startups of various stages from pre-seed to late B passed the MTS AI acceleration programs. Companies that have undergone acceleration have collectively raised $9 million in investments, 70% of which have achieved significant changes in technology, product, and revenue.

In the period from January to April 2022, the first MTS AI acceleration program was held. Its graduates were 12 startups from 10 countries of the world. 60% of companies raised investments during the accelerator period.

In August-September 2022, MTS AI launched the WinChina program for individual preparation of startups to enter the Chinese market, and also selected early-stage startups with a strong technological component for subsequent pitching to the US-Chinese venture fund. MTS AI experts have received more than 200 applications from DeepTech companies from seven countries. In the fall of 2022, preparations began for the launch of an accelerator for the search and testing of Metaverse technologies, MTS became the customer of the project. MTS AI organized a seminar on the topic of metaverses with three speakers at the Head of Tencent Cloud technologies level for the management of the company. MTS AI analysts have also prepared an 88-page report on significant cases and applications of Metaverse technologies in seven countries around the world.

MTS AI combines its own expert opinion with the world’s leading developments in the AI field so that the company’s solutions are in demand not only in the Russian market, but also in the global one.

Developing New Services/Apps, Partnerships

Service/Applications

Fog Play

At the end of 2022, MTS launched a new solution in the beta version, free from the problems of classic Cloud Gaming, the Fog Play product, which allows owners of gaming PCs to rent them out to other players. The HELIOS technology developed by the company allows the user to play the most modern and popular games directly in the browser. After the launch of the product, more than 15 thousand players were registered in the beta version by the end of 2022.

AppBazar

In November 2022, MTS launched an application store for Russian and foreign developers in test mode. By the end of 2022, AppBazar hosted over 100 applications from more than 50 companies.

Thanks to this product, developers can monetize applications as before, through a one-time sale of applications, in-app purchases or subscriptions. AppBazar users can be confident in the security of applications. Each application and its updates undergo three stages of verification: for viruses (Kaspersky), for performance with different manufacturers and architectures of Android smartphones, and for the security of the contents of the application or game.

MTS Launcher

By the end of 2022, the total number of product installations for convenient user interaction with a smartphone and quick access to its main MTS Launcher functions in all promotion channels exceeded 1.1 million units. The growth of DAU and MAU year-on-year was x10 and x5, respectively.

Monthly retention of product users increased by 13.5% year-on-year. By the end of 2022, the number of installations of ecosystem applications by users via MTS Launcher exceeded 170 thousand.

Lines

After the relaunch of the MTS Library in the fall of 2022 as “Lines”, the MAU indicator of the product increased 3.8 times compared to the data at the end of 2021. By the end of 2022, the product released original content in the amount of 52 titles of e-books and 142 units of audio content, of which it is possible to distinguish:

• 17 books for adults: top-fiction, non-fiction, love story, true crime);
• unique audio stories with top authors;
• Netflix film adaptations;
• we translated the book of the Nobel Laureate for the Russian audience.

The average user uses the app 2.5 hours a week. At the same time, the product is actively used not only by MTS subscribers, but also by subscribers of other operators (22%).

Defender

In 2022, the MTS Defender product was launched, which helps subscribers to deal with annoying calls. Blocked calls are transferred to the bot, and the subscriber receives a text transcript in the My MTS application. By the end of 2022, the number of users of the service has grown to 7.2 million people (an increase of 84% year-on-year). The number of spam calls blocked by the product to MTS subscribers has increased.

In 2022, a widget for the Defender product was built into the My MTS application, where subscribers can get detailed information on blocked calls. If the caller left a voice message, the service transcribes the message into text and shows the text to users. The user also has the opportunity to independently add blocked numbers to the whitelist.

During the year, we expanded the user base of the product by integrating MTS Defender into the mass tariff plans of MTS Access and the MTS Smart Business line.

MTS Music

The service has been growing dynamically and gaining a user base throughout 2022. Thus, the DAU of the product has grown to 250 thousand (+100% year-on-year), and the 1M MAU of the service has grown by 60% year-on-year.
MTS Music has entered the top 3 Russian streaming services, as well as the top 5 audio services on the Russian market.
The indicator of time spent per user increased by 52% year-on-year. The total listening time in the service by the end of 2022 amounted to 3 million hours per month (an increase of 308% year-on-year).

GOGYM

MTS continues to develop a sharing service that provides the opportunity to train in various fitness clubs, visit studios and spas without a subscription. By the end of 2022, more than 400 partners were connected to the service, and the total geography of the service increased to 30 cities in Russia. Over the past year, the total number of trainings through the service has increased 12 times. GMV of the service has grown more than 10 times year-on-year. The total amount of time that users of the service spent in training has reached almost four years.

MTS Cashback

The number of registered users in the MTS Cashback program has tripled by the end of 2022. The number of 1M active MTS Cashback users in 2022 increased 2.8 times compared to the previous period. The total number of points received by customers at the end of the year was twice as high as in 2021.

My MTS

“My MTS” continues to act as a universal showcase of the ecosystem, which provides the client with easy access to the entire range of ecosystem products and services through the introduction of a Catalogue of offers where one can get acquainted with all ecosystem services (Premium subscription, MTS Cashback, telecom, bank, online store, etc.).

In 2022, calls appeared in the My MTS application — now you can call the MTS call center via the Internet (which is especially convenient for roaming customers) and get an exhaustive consultation without additional identification (you do not need to look for a passport, as when consulting a support number).

During 2022, the functionality of the My MTS application expanded, other products were added to the application in the form of modules: Defender, Search, MTS Pass. The main page of the application has been improved — an entrance to Cashback has appeared, which has increased the usability of the service for customers, it has become easier to track their score, as well as to see options where to spend the points without exiting the application.

The subscriber’s personal account on the site has now become an ecosystem.

The number of 1M active users of the My MTS reached 26.4 million users at year-end 2022 (growth by 1.3 million compared to 2021).

MTS Search

The usability of the application for customers has increased — MTS Search has become available in the subscriber’s personal account and in the My MTS application. The user can see where the loved ones are on the map without leaving My MTS. These features are currently available for smartphones running Android OS.

Partnerships

By the end of 2022, MTS continues to actively work together with the largest international and Russian companies, increasing the breadth and quality of product integrations every year.

In 2022, joint projects were launched with such leading companies in their industry as X5 Group, Lukoil, BelkaCar, Cofix,  etc.

The main work with partners in 2022 was based on four directions:

• creation of exclusive subscriptions for partners;
• inclusion of partner products in popular bundles of MTS;
• expansion of the MTS ecosystem program for partner products (MTS Cashback, MTS Pass);
• expansion of the ecosystem presence in partner services.

This, in 2022, RUB 3 billion of cashback in total was written off for purchases of MTS services and partners. RUB 50 billion was earned by product partners together with MTS over the past three years. Over the past year, more than 30 million MTS customers have used various partner services thanks to product integration. The total tNPS of MTS partners increased to 74% by the end of 2022.

Among the new partnerships for 2022, we can single out a partnership with Urent in terms of Premium subscription. Thus, by the end of 2022, MTS Premium users made 7% of all trips in the service for a month. The indicator could have been even higher if it had been possible to implement this partnership at the beginning of the 2022 season.

Good indicators are noted as a result of the integration of access to “Match! Premier” in MTS subscriptions and convergent offers, which positively affected the average number of hours of viewing per user, as well as the number of views inside KION.

Partner segmentation:

Success factors:

MTS Business Model