Russian Mobile Content News
Weekly Newsletter

Bercut branded its VAS platform EXPERA
Bercut, a St. Petersburg based IT solution provider, has registered a trade mark for its VAS platform EXPERA. The product is to be offered to mobile and fixed telecom operators and service providers. EXPERA's service control point (SCP) is responsible for billing and providing intellectual services.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/sub/content/news/017320.htm

Nikita Mobile received telematics license
Nikita Mobile is one the first Russian content providers received a telematics license from the Federal Agency on Communications Surveillance. In 2005 the company was awarded by the Russian Consumer Protection Found for "active participation in development of a civilized consumer market in Russia."
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/news/article/017349.htm

Tele2 & Teleforum joint content promo action
Teleforum holding, one of the leading Russian mobile phone dealers, and a mobile operator Tele2 started a joint action in St. Petersburg: new Tele2 customers subscribed in the Teleforum offices before December 15 will receive as a bonus a free subscription to the operator's infotainment services.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/news/article/017355.htm

IRIVER says about music digital market trends
A press conference organized by IRIVER company revealed the following: audio cassettes, kept 63% of the Russian music digital market in 2003 (40% in 2005), are replaced by CDs (37% market share in 2003, 57% in 2005) and by MP3 discs (0.4% in 2003, 7% in 2005). Sales volume of "hard copies" is gradually declining (6% annual decline in 2006). as a result of competition with the digital content distribution over the Internet and mobile phones. Piracy in the Russian music digital market is still very high (over 50%).
Source: http://www.Mp3Locator.Ru

Nikita Mobile & Coca-Cola joint promo action
The promo action participants who send a SMS with a secret PIN-code to Nikita's service number 8884 are applicable to win three snow-mobiles, 80 white Teddy bears and thousands of other gifts. The secret code can be found on a scratch card received with a two Coca-Cola bottle purchase.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/sub/content/news/017348.htm

i-Free's Jamango community service is one year old
Started in Russia in November 2004 and launched in Ukraine six months later, Jamango community product was released in Kazakhstan in November 2005. By December 2005 Jamango has gained over 1.5 mln subscribers, including almost 0.5 mln active users. About 4,000 new users are registered daily. An average duration of Jamango subscription is six months. According to i-Free, the product developer and operator, by the end of 2005 Jamango will start serving in Germany, Spain, India, Singapore and Indonesia. The product is available in Russian, English and German.
Source: http://company.i-free.ru/eng/

Inform-Mobile feels comfortable in tight competition
According to Dmitry Timostchenko, COO of a VAS provider Inform-Mobile, the company feels comfortable in the tight competition conditions. Recently celebrated five year anniversary, Inform-Mobile operates in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In contrast to competitors SMS Media Solutions and i-Free, Inform-Mobile does not intend to disclose financial results.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/news/article/017377.htm

Russian trail in new IVR services in Belarus
New IVR (Interactive Voice Response) services Gudok.info and Gudok.chat are launched for MTS subscribers in Belarus. The technology and content for Webcom Telecom (Gudok brand) were supplied by a Russian content provider Mobilnye Otvety. Gudok.info & Gudok.chat are advertised on local TV. However, for many Russian content providers IVR services bring comparatively tiny revenues.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/sub/content/news/017380.htm

Nikita Mobile to promote Primadonna serial's music
A content provider Nikita Mobile has received exclusive rights to promote music from a recently launched TV soap Primadonna. The serial has 400 minutes of original music written by Alexander Shulgin, including original 20 songs.
Source: http://www.procontent.ru/?page=news&id=542

VimpelCom & Samsung launching similar to i-mode service
Intuition project, based on i-mode ideology, but not i-mode project per se, was launched by VimpelCom (brand BeeLine) on December 01. The service is realized on Samsung SGH-E530 mobile phones designed for women. The phones are equipped with a special button to provide easy access to the Intuition services. The services are available to BeeLine subscribers only. The phones with Intuition SIM card have presetted WAP, GPRS and MMS. VimpelCom's competitor MTS launched i-mode services on Nec phones on September 15, 2005.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/news/article/017400.htm

PC game producer Akella entering mobile content market
Akella Mobile, a subsidiary of the PC game developer Akella, has received a telematics license from the Federal Agency on Communications Surveillance. According to Dmitry Archipov, Akella's VP, the company intends to develop and distribute mobile games. Akella also have agreements with the world's major rights owners on mobile content distribution.
Source: http://www.mforum.ru/news/article/017422.htm

Print MMS service from Megafon
The North-West division of Megafon has launched the Print MMS service aimed to print out photo pictures from mobile phone in photoshops. The service is organized in cooperation with a content provider Info-Soft and a photoshop network Bright World. The user can send a picture to a specified short number to pick up the print in a Bright World photoshop. The MMS cost is $0.90. VimpelCom launched a similar service ZoomZoom in 2004.
Source: http://www.procontent.ru/?page=news&id=553

CDMA450 operator SkyLink focusing on mobile content
According to the II Russian CDMA450 Congress reports, CDMA450 standard in Russia is reaching 280,000 users by the end of 2005. SkyLink with a 250,000 subscribers (as by October 2005) has ARPU of about $60. (According to PrimeConsult, in 3Q 2005 GSM operators' ARPU: Megafon - $10.9, MTS - $8.9, VimpelCom - $7.8.) SkyLink strategy is focused on providing content services. SkyPoint service portal provides users with access to e-mail & voice mail, fax & voice messages, SMS, to any format data files (tables, text documents, graphics), and also to multimedia files (audio, photo, video). Nevertheless, SkyLink services became quite popular among mobile users for a high speed & relatively cheap Internet access and for a competitive unlimited voice traffic monthly subscription.
Source: http://www.CNews.ru

Voxtel BD40 phone with preinstalled mobile content
A mobile phone producer Voxtel and a content provider Nikita Mobile released to the Russian market a cellular phone Voxtel BD40 with preinstalled licensed mobile content on $50. The phones have presetted WAP and GPRS for the three Russian major GSM operators: Megafon, MTS, VimpelCom.
Source: http://www.Helpix.ru

Vodafone struggling for its brand name in Russia
According to Vedomosti business newspaper, the world giant Vodafone is going to bring in court a Russian company named Vodafone Telecom to struggle for the Vodafone trade mark which was registered by the Russian company on the territory of Russia in 2001. So far Vodafone has no operations in Russia. In January 2004 a rumor that Vodafone intended to buy a control stake in MTS has raised MTS capitalization 15% for a week. That time Sistema, MTS' major shareholder, denied any negotiations with Vodafone. But in February 2004 Arun Sarin, Vodafone Group's CEO, said the company was planning to spend $18 bln on mobile operator acquisitions in the Eastern Europe and Russia. On November 28, 2005, Bobby Leach, head of Vodafone Group media relations, assured Vedomosti that Vodafone had no plans to work in the Russian market.
Source: http://www.vedomosti.ru

Samsung & i-Free provide solution for VimpelCom
Samsung Electronics and i-Free, Samsung's exclusive partner for content services in Russia, have teamed up to develop a technology solution for a new BeeLine (VimpelCom's brand) product Intuition. The collaboration between Samsung and BeeLine was crowned by a Java operator's menu for a new brand-name BeeLine phone, providing users with one-touch button access to the operator's infotainment services.
Source: http://company.i-free.ru/eng/

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