June 26, 2008, Moscow: COMSTAR – United TeleSystems JSC (COMSTAR-UTS, LSE: CMST), the leading supplier of integrated telecommunication solutions in Russia and the CIS, and OOO Crystal Point that makes a part of Platezhnye Tekhnologyi holding have developed a joint solution for mobile banking, mobile commerce and remote control of no-bank services Check-In-Phone that provide for outsourcing of baking information and personal data processing based on COMSTAR-OTS smart platform.

With this new solution, the customer gets prompt, convenient and reliable remote access to services of its banks as well as service companies that operate on the financial and other market segments (insurance and air traffic companies, stores, health and fitness clubs, etc.) via contact center of COMSTAR-OTS, Internet and mobile phone. Check-In-Phone system enables significant reduction in customer service time. It ensures a brand new level of information security, as compared to other similar solutions, as human factor influence is minimized.

When addressing the contact center, a customer of a bank or a company using Check-In-Phone system undergoes an obligatory identity check system, following which a call center employee makes required operations at a caller’s request without handling his/her personal data and other security information. When communication with an operator is finished, when it comes to, say, money transfer of purchase/sales of shares, the caller gets a confirmation of his/her request, and if everything is correct, he/she accepts, and in case of an error – rejects an operation. A risk of an unauthorized access to customer’s confidential information and personal data is nearly excluded thanks to verification of one-time passwords in the OOO Crystal-Point data processing center (Platezhnye Tekhnologyi holding) and their processing operations based on COMSTAR smart platform.

Thus, Check-In-Phone is a secure and reliable solution for implementation of the widest range of up-to-date remote services. In case of banks, this may be money transfer operations from one account to another and payment of any services from a bank account, acquisition of data on demand balance, credit indebtedness, etc. For air traffic companies, stores and clubs, these are payments via mobile phones, loyalty programs, including those that ensure allowances, expenditure and transfer of bonus scores from one customer to another one, miles, etc. COMSTAR-OTS together with OOO Crystal-Point (Platezhnye Tekhnologyi holding) ensures a possibility to upload insurance policies to customers’ mobile phones.

"One may say that with a launch of Check-In-Phone project, COMSTAR-OTS enters a promising market of mobile commerce, as our smart platform is a safe transport system for their payments and data, - says Roman Akatov, sales director of COMSTAR-United TeleSystems. - In using this solution, banks and companies get a unique chance to simulate efficient patterns of interactive co-operation with their customers, while services consumers themselves get a good way to manage these services on-line irrespective of their location, time of day and day of week".

“Presently, our joint project with COMSTAR-OTS has nearly no similar projects on the infocommunication system market. The main peculiarity of the solution being offered is that it enables a significant increase in a security level and efficient management of risks in handling confidential information, - says Evgeny Soloviev, director of OOO Crystal Point. - A three-stage double-factor authentication algorithm based on MasterCard Mobile Authentication standard ensures reliable customer's identity check, which, in its turn, allows issuing banks to apply Check-In-Phone in e-commerce transactions secured by 3D Secure protocol.