Moscow, November 5, 2003. OAO Mobile TeleSystems, the biggest cellular telecoms operator in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, has celebrated its tens years in business. Sistema JSFC, which that stood at the spring source of the telecommunications business in Russia, is a shareholder of MTS, which it has been developing in partnership with Deutsche Telecom since 1995. A company that offers quality services to its customers and develops new markets, MTS integrates advanced world experience in the industry into its business and improves its business management standards, for which it has won the reputation of a telecommunications leader of European magnitude. With a helping hand from its subsidiaries, the company provides its services to upward of 15 million subscribers. The 76 regions in Russia and many regions in Belarus and Ukraine, where MTS and its subsidiaries hold licenses to provide GSM standard services, have a total population of nearly 186.3 million. Speaking at a celebration party to mark the MTS’s tenth anniversary, Sistema JSFC President Yevgeny Novitsky said, “MTS is a young, aggressive and advanced company, and this speaks much for its success in the cellular market. I wish MTS every success in its dynamic advance into the future, strength to fortify its leading positions in the cellular market, and higher stock quotations, now and always.” MTS Time Line 1993 Registration of the Mobile TeleSystems Company MTS takes out a license to provide GSM standard services in the Moscow region 1994 First calls are made in the experimental GSM network of the Mobile TeleSystems Company The MTS cellular telecommunications network is opened officially in Moscow By year-end, MTS has a thousand GS standard cellular telecommunications subscribers 1996 The number of MTS subscribers reaches 5,000 1998 The number of MTS subscribers reaches 100,000. 2000 MTS shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange The number of MTS subscribers exceeds one million 2001 MTS puts its network in St. Petersburg into commercial operation 2002 A Russian-Belarussian MTS joint venture is launched in Belarus MTS becomes the biggest cellular telecommunications operator in Eastern Europe, with more than five million subscribers 2003 MTS enters the Ukrainian market by purchasing the controlling stake in the local UMC Company In May, the number of the company’s subscribers goes over 10 million In November, the number of MTS subscribers tops 15 million.