Information technologies in MTS
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History
2024
Investment in the construction of data centers 20 billion rubles
On September 25, 2024, it became known that MTS intends to significantly expand the infrastructure of data centers (data centers). Within three years, 20 billion rubles will be allocated for these purposes .
According to Forbes, MTS President Vyacheslav Nikolaev told about a large project. According to him, the initiative provides for the construction of at least five new data centers, as well as a significant increase in the capacity of three existing sites. Based on these data centers, the company intends to provide various cloud services, the demand for which is constantly growing. According to Nikolaev, the cloud business is one of the most important and underestimated.
 | The size of the cloud services market in Russia is incomparable with the size of telecommunications, and therefore seems limited. I really believe in MTS Web Services, I believe that it will quickly catch up with our telecommunications business, "said the President of MTS. |  |
Nikolaev notes that as of September 2024, MTS has 15 data centers at its disposal, including two mega-data centers in the Moscow region. Their total capacity is 4,600 racks. After the implementation of the new project, the number of racks will increase to 7100-7600. The company is building modular data centers that can be expanded by installing additional units.
The head of MTS also says that the classic business of the data center is a colocation service, that is, the placement of client servers on the site with connection to power supply systems and high-speed communication channels. However, Nikolaev emphasizes, in terms of the return on investment, such a model is comparable to the real estate market, if you do not provide services on the basis of these data centers. According to him, in the case of the deployment of cloud services, the payback period for the construction of a data center is "not at all the same as real estate."[1]
Opening of a master's degree in AI at the Higher School of Economics
PJSC, MTS a digital ecosystem, opens a master's degree in " artificial intelligence Research and Entrepreneurship in Artificial Intelligence" in. Higher School of Economics The purpose of the program is to train specialists in the field of AI and the application of new technologies in business. MTS announced this on May 17, 2024.
The goal of the program is to train specialists who will create innovative products using machine and deep learning methods. The program will include large language models, generative neural networks, and computer vision and natural language recognition tools. Funding from MTS fully covers the cost of training. Acceptance of documents for the program will last from June 19 to July 25, 2024.
| | The teaching staff of the master's degree will consist of leading specialists from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science and MTS employees. Master's experts will share real practical cases in the field of AI, the principles of the models, talk about the possibilities and nuances of their use, point out the risks associated with incorrect or poor-quality data processing. Thanks to a combination of technical and entrepreneurial skills, program graduates will be able to successfully implement their ideas and achieve high results both in the scientific and commercial spheres, - commented Pavel Voronin, First Vice President for MTS Technologies. | |
| | Artificial intelligence tools affect almost everything industries economies and are drivers of digital development. countries The launch of the joint master's program of HSE and MTS is an excellent opportunity to get a demanded profession and create your own business. A year ago we opened the basic department of MTS at the Faculty of Computer, and sciences the creation of a master's degree is a logical continuation of our fruitful cooperation. We are grateful to MTS for its support in unlocking the potential of our students and working together on current projects in the field of artificial intelligence, "commented Leonid Gokhberg, First Vice-Rector of the Higher School of Economics. | |
Using drones to monitor base stations
In early May 2024, it became known that MTS is starting to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor the state of base stations of cellular communications. Prior to that, none of the Russian telecom operators used drones to monitor their infrastructure.
The MTS documentation refers to the acquisition of a drone (DJI Matrice 300 RTK or similar) with auxiliary equipment. The purpose is to inspect the condition of antenna supports and other vertical infrastructure facilities. In accordance with the technical requirements, the drone must function at temperatures from minus 20 to plus 40 degrees Celsius and at wind speeds up to 12 m/s. The list of necessary equipment includes a satellite navigation receiver///, GPSGLONASSBeiDouGalileo a camera with a wide-angle lens, a thermal imager, as well as a set of infrared sensors. The required flight time on one charge of the battery pack is at least 55 minutes.
According to the Vedomosti newspaper, the cost of the aforementioned DJI Matrice 300 RTK drone at the beginning of May 2024 exceeds 1.1 million rubles. Maintenance costs of antenna mast facilities and base stations for PIDs constitute a significant part of operating costs. It is assumed that in the future the use of drones will reduce the cost and simplify the implementation of such work.
However, Tele2 says that as of 2024, drones in terms of monitoring the state of networks are not able to perform the range of tasks that ordinary specialists solve. In particular, drones cannot assess the condition of bolted connections and anti-corrosion coating, check the verticality of the antenna-mast structure according to a certified method or the condition of the cables of the light fence of the mast. However, UAVs can be used to inventory equipment.[2]
MTS opened a school of solution architecture
MTS PJSC, a digital ecosystem, announces the launch of the School of Architects within the framework of the center for the development and training of IT specialists of MTS Theta. At the first stage, the course will be held by company employees who plan to start solving architectural problems. They will study the design of high-load and Cloud-native systems, the features of secure development applications, master architectural decision-making approaches and other skills. Read more here.
2023
MTS begins placement of digital bonds for individuals
The MTS ecosystem on September 11, 2023 will begin placing the first issue of bonds for individuals exclusively on the Finservy platform. The bonds will be aimed at selling digital products in the MTS ecosystem. Read more here.
MTS stopped getting rid of broken office equipment
In 2022, as part of the development of the circular economy, MTS actively introduced technologies that increase the service life of IT equipment. This is stated in the annual report of MTS, published in May 2023. The company explained to TAdviser that in this case we are talking about office equipment inside the MTS circuit.
| | In 2022, as part of the program for the development of the cyclical economy, we revised the previously existing approach, when the failed equipment was sold through MTS Torgi without repair, and scaled our project for the repair and restoration of equipment by specialized units within the company or by specialized partners, - they say in MTS. | |
After repair, IT equipment is returned for use by MTS employees. This approach helps increase the life of office IT equipment.
MTS Torgi is an electronic trading platform for trading used IT and telecom equipment, which was launched in early 2019. It is open, among other things, to sellers from the outside.
One of the key competitors of MTS, VimpelCom (operates on the market under the beeline brand), put a similar practice on the stream in 2021, according to the company's ESG report for this reporting period. It has launched the Rehabilitation project, which repairs most of the equipment in-house and transfers equipment with more severe defects to partner company Superwave.
In 2022, this project acquired particular relevance as Russia "continues to lack electronic components, destabilizes supply chains, suspends the import of a large number of foreign brands," follows from the VimpelCom ESG report.
MTS began consistently introducing the principles of circular economy into the group's business processes in 2020 by launching the Life Cycle Laboratory project. The project is based on an integrated approach, including the collection and transfer of solid municipal waste for disposal and processing, a responsible attitude to electronic waste, service equipment, office furniture and other types of waste, making appropriate changes to business processes and conducting an information campaign to actively involve employees in the project.
At the end of 2022, for example, together with subsidiaries, MTS sent 1.5 tons of used cells and batteries, 1.1 tons of phones and over 45 tons of other small electronic equipment for processing and disposal, the annual report says.
| | MTS has concluded agreements for the transfer of these types of waste for disposal with specialized organizations that have all the necessary licenses for the management of these types of waste. The entire process of collection, temporary accumulation and transfer fully complies with the requirements of environmental legislation, the company told TAdviser. | |
Plan to invest up to 1 billion rubles in dynamic retargeting technologies
The MTS ecosystem on April 21, 2023 announced plans to invest up to 1 billion rubles in dynamic retargeting technologies by 2026. As part of its own AdTech vertical, the company plans to create an analogue of advertising products from companies that left Russia, which allowed e-com players to make individual commodity recommendations to their customers.
Dynamic retargeting is an advertising tool that allows online retailers and marketplaces to display personalized advertisements based on purchasing behavior. The product is built on big data and trained ML models, which, analyzing the past actions of the buyer, can generate relevant commodity recommendations for it. MTS began creating the product in 2022. One of the drivers was the departure of foreign companies that provided dynamic retargeting technologies on the Russian market.
Within the framework of the digital project for product development, MTS identifies 2 key stages. The first is the creation of a co-purchase model, which, based on data analysis, will form the most relevant commodity recommendations. For April 2023, the development of the model is completed, MTS conducts test pilots with several players in the e-commerce market. The second stage is the development and training of a model that, based on impersonal data, allows you to build a portrait of buying behavior on the Internet.
| | 2022 opened a window of opportunity for players in the advertising technology market. They left Russia, and who Google Criteo RTB House were suppliers of dynamic retargeting technologies for e-com and marketplaces. This was the main trigger for us to create our own technology for displaying personalized advertisements based on user behavior. Commodity recommendations are one of the most important e-commerce tools, and the ability to highlight products that will attract the attention of the buyer significantly affects revenue. retailers The MTS AdTech team faces a very ambitious task - to replace the products that the companies have been working on for about 10 years in a much shorter time. We are confident in our own abilities: we also have Big Data a technology team that can work with these data, server capacities, ML models financial and investments, - commented the director of advertising technologies at MTS. Elena Melnikova | |
Start using Internet behavior technology when creating commercials and communicating with subscribers
In early March 2023, MTS spoke about the use of Internet of Behavior (IoB) technology when creating commercials and communicating with subscribers. IoB analyzes user data in terms of psychology and potentially allows them to influence their actions.
As Mikhail Stepnov, director of AdTech Big Data at MTS, explained to RBC, in IoB the user's behavior is interpreted together by psychologists and data-scientist (specialists in processing, analyzing and storing large amounts of data. - RBC). The former will have to develop a methodology for how to determine human reactions, and the latter will have to create a model so that the computer can conduct analysis, he noted.
One of the projects that MTS implements in this area is the assessment of the effectiveness of commercials. At the first stage, they collected information about existing videos: when they came out, how many and on which venues they "spun," whether any famous personalities appeared in them. Then these videos showed the focus group, and in the process the camera followed their emotions, pulse, respiratory rate and other psychological reactions. Then, based on the collected data, a model was created for the analysis of data-scientist.
| | The task is to understand how effective a specific video was and how much. So that then we can give hints to the creators of future videos, which character or thing should be added to them, so that this causes certain emotions from the audience and increases the sales of the advertised product, "Stepnov explained. | |
In the next stage, the company plans to create personalized advertising for a specific person. And thanks to IoB, each user will see the product as it best encourages them to make a purchase.
In addition, the technology of "Internet behavior" will be able to be used to personalize communication with customers, for example, feedback pages, MTS group companies, to strengthen the recommendation model of the Kion online cinema, etc.[3]
2022
MTS joined the National Inclusive Agreement
On October 26, 2022, MTS PJSC announced the signing of the National Inclusive Agreement, having adopted obligations to develop inclusive programs and create a barrier-free environment. As part of joining the agreement, MTS Group will strengthen the introduction and adaptation of digital DE&I projects in the territories of presence, and the company will also create a single online center for technological assistance to people with disabilities.
As part of the implementation of the MTS National Inclusive Agreement:
- expand educational and educational programs aimed at overcoming digital inequality;
- will strengthen integration IT-solutions to obtain; distance education
- prolong support for social entrepreneurship;
- scales HR projects for inclusive employment,
- will continue to create an accessible and barrier-free environment not only in the offices and branches of the MTS Group, but also within the framework of organizing tourist routes available to people with limited mobility.
MTS digital solutions will become the basis for creating a single online center for comprehensive technological assistance to citizens with disabilities, including cognitive features and restrictions on vision, hearing, speech, motor skills.
| | It is important for us to form an inclusive culture both within the company and in society ― MTS conducts a number of targeted programs to directly attract employees of "unpopular" age groups to work, the company also has special HR initiatives to train, adapt managers and teams to work with inclusive target audiences. These initiatives have already shown results: more than 70% of our employees are in favor of hiring age-related candidates and people with disabilities, in 2022 alone, 420 candidates with disabilities underwent training programs and internships. We have a lot of work ahead within the framework of openly declared obligations, and this motivates us even more, ― said Ekaterina Frolova, director of employer brand development and internal communications at MTS. | |
| | One of the major digital Russian companies, MTS, has joined the inclusive business community of the Open for All project. I am sure that the digital expertise of the MTS Group will make it possible to qualitatively speed up the process of creating a barrier-free environment, since the company announced its intentions to implement primarily inclusive-technological projects and services, ― commented Alexander Pirozhenko, director of the Quality of Life division of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. | |
Former top manager of Kaspersky Lab Evgenia Naumova became director of cybersecurity at MTS
On July 29, 2022, the Russian company MTS, which provides digital, media and telecommunications services, announced to TAdviser the appointment of Evgenia Naumova, former executive vice president for corporate business at Kaspersky Lab, to the post of director for cybersecurity. This position did not previously exist in the company. Read more here.
MTS to double IT staff by the end of the year
On July 20, 2022, MTS announced the attraction of more than 5 thousand. IT specialists in the company's technology stacks until the end of 2022. A budget of more than 3 billion rubles has been allocated to increase the wage fund, training and create a comfortable environment in the office of MTS Digital. Read more here.
Opening of the MTS StartUp Hub innovation laboratory in Novosibirsk
On MTS July 12, 2022, PJSC "" announced the opening Novosibirsk of the MTS StartUp Hub, a platform for the development of technological entrepreneurship, in the innovation laboratory. With its help, companies in the region will be able to develop digital products using the advantages of technology 5G and edge computing, receive expert and grant support from MTS and scale solutions.
Companies B2B and B2C segments from the field of cloud technologies, IoT, virtual and augmented reality, fintech, media, retail, entertainment, smart home at the stage of the finished product or MVP can become residents of MTS StartUp Hub in Novosibirsk. The most successful teams will receive a grant of up to half a million rubles to finalize solutions and will be able to scale them at the regional and federal levels.
The Innovation Lab is located in Academpark and consists of a co-working space and technology area provided by a 5G network and equipment to refine and pilot digital products, including 5G modules for embedding in devices, routers and smartphones.
| | During the active work of MTS StartUp Hub, we have accumulated significant experience in working with innovations, which regions can use to develop technological entrepreneurship and find growth points. The opening of a laboratory in Novosibirsk will allow startups to gain access to MTS technologies, equipment and expertise without leaving the region. The project will also make it possible to scale the business and create services that improve the daily life of people and accelerate the digital transformation of large enterprises, - commented Dmitry Kurin, MTS Director for Innovation and Investment. | |
The Innovation Laboratory has deployed a 5G NSA network, which includes a removed fragment of 5G Core, 5G RAN radio access networks and a fragment of a 10 Gb/s transport network. The remote node of the network core implements virtual network functions similar to those used on carrier networks.
MTS StartUp Hub is the center of MTS innovation and investment. The main areas of work are venture capital investments, commercial cooperation and an incubation program for technological solutions. The first MTS StartUp Hub innovation laboratory was opened in Moscow in 2019. As of July 2022, the revision of digital products is possible in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, as well as at the site of MTS partner in Kazakhstan Astana HUB.
2021
MTS begins to power cell towers in Russia with solar energy
At the end of July 2021, it became known that cell towers in Russia began to feed the sun. The implementation of this project was undertaken by MTS. Read more here.
MTS launches a cluster of AI technologies in the Novosibirsk region
In early June 2021, MTS and the government of the Novosibirsk region signed an agreement on the creation of a cluster of artificial intelligence technologies. The project is being launched to unite scientists from Novosibirsk State University and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specialists from the MTS Center for Artificial Intelligence (MTS AI), manufacturers of IT equipment, inventors and entrepreneurial teams. Read more here.
MTS creates legal entity for IT division for benefits
In early April 2021, it became known that large Russian companies began to create individual legal entities for their IT divisions in order to take advantage of those introduced in January. In tax relief particular, "," VimpelCom MTS"," "" and "" resorted to business restructuring. Russian PostRosatomSber More. here
2020
Organization of remote work
Appointment of Alexander Hanin as Vice President for Artificial Intelligence
On October 23, 2020, MTS PJSC informed TAdviser that the Board of Directors approved the appointment of Alexander Hanin to the position of MTS Vice President for Artificial Intelligence and introduced a position in the MTS Management Board. Read more here.
Participation in the opening of the specialization "Technologies of conversational intelligence" at the "ITMO University"
On April 20, 2020, PJSC MTS"" ITMO University and announced the opening of the specialization "Technologies of Conversational Intelligence" within the master's program "System and Applied" software at the Faculty of computer Technology and Management. Admission to the program is already underway, training will begin in the fall of 2020. More. here
2019: Product Launch for Digital Employee Control
On December 5, 2019, it became known that MTS created an internal software product that is designed to accumulate all data on the communications of its employees. The product, dubbed "Snowflake," is an employee's digital profile and operates on the basis of Social Network Analysis, which can literally be translated as an analysis of social networks. Better here.
2018
Growth of IT staff up to 3 thousand people
In 2018, the number of IT specialists in MTS increased to 3.1 thousand people, told TAdviser in MTS in July 2019. The company clarified that this indicator includes only IT specialists on the staff of MTS itself and its subsidiary MTS IT and does not take into account the staff of NVision Group, which MTS acquired in 2015.
The annual report of MTS states that in 2018 the company hired more than 1 thousand new IT specialists who are working to develop existing and launch new products.
MTS told TAdviser that they hired mainly developers of various levels, DevOps engineers. Increased recruitment to Big Data and AI divisions also continues. The most popular programming languages in the company are.NET, Java,.NET Core, C++, Python.
Along with the expansion of the staff, MTS is transforming IT divisions: their work is being rebuilt according to a product-oriented model. The company is creating many product teams responsible for managing digital products and business lines. Agile teams of new directions are formed with a flexible organizational structure, a separate budget, maximum autonomy and speed of decision-making, freedom of action in investments and time-to-market. The goal of MTS is to reduce the time for launching products on the market by 10 times in three years.
In 2018, the first 9 product areas and 25 product teams were formed. MTS creates IT platforms for basic services - a single product catalog and monetization platform, a digital container for applications, a single platform for sales and omnichannel interaction.
All these changes take place within the framework of the MTS transformation strategy from a traditional telecommunications operator providing the basic level of services to a service company providing customers with the opportunity to use the digital ecosystem, which includes a wide range of products for customers in the mass and corporate segments. The basis for the development of new digital services and converged products is innovative technologies: modern high-speed data transmission networks, including 5G analytics big data and. artificial intelligence
Purchase of Avantage Data Center
On September 14, 2018, it became known that the mobile operator MTS purchased for 8.9 billion rubles. Data center "Avantage." The data center belongs to Avantage LLC - MTS bought 100% of this structure from a group of private investors. The value of the transaction included the amount of net debt.
The Avantage data center is located in the city of Lytkarino in the Moscow region. The total capacity of the data center reaches 20 MW, the area is 6.4 thousand square meters. m In 16 halls of the data center it is possible to accommodate 2240 racks with equipment. The fault tolerance of the center is certified according to the Uptime Institute Tier III Design standard. MTS plans to use Avantage in the CloudMTC project, as well as to provide services under the colocation scheme.
According to Andrey Ushatsky, MTS Vice President for Technology and IT, the acquisition should significantly increase the operator's computing power and expand the technological base for providing services to business. Ushatsky notes the general tendency of Russian business to move from building its own server facilities to using cloud capacities. Against this background, MTS seeks to increase its presence in the cloud market by buying and building data centers.
Avantage became the tenth MTS data center. In addition, the operator has three centers in, To Moscow two in, Nizhny Novgorod one in,, and To Samara. Novosibirsk Vladivostok Krasnodar
2016: MTS to invest hundreds of millions in artificial intelligence and chatbots
Operator Mobile Telesystems (MTS) has opened a development area responsible for the development of products based on artificial intelligence (AI) and the integration of AI technologies into the existing and developed services of[1]
A CNews source familiar with MTS plans says the company will invest hundreds of millions of rubles annually in artificial intelligence developments.
The first solutions that the division is working on are the development of platforms for creating chat bots, virtual assistants and the development of a telemedicine service using AI. MTS already has a chatbot that the company launched on Telegram.
Sandler Arkady became the head of the direction. Sandler has extensive experience in the Internet field. He was the founder of Simpo (created applications based on web technologies) and Keystaff Solutions (developed software for automating the work of human resources services). After the latter was absorbed by recruiting resource HeadHunter in 2006, Sandler took over as development director of Headhunter Group.
MTS plans that in total about 80 people will work in the new division of artificial intelligence. The company is looking for system architects, developers and other specialists.
2013: MTS saved 1.4 billion rubles due to unification of IT systems
In 2010-2012, MTS saved 1.4 billion rubles on operating costs due to the implementation of a strategy to unify IT systems, standardize solutions and centralize purchases within the group of companies, the operator said on March 25, 2013.
The main projects aimed at improving the group's business efficiency include a three-year contract for the purchase of an unlimited number of licenses for Oracle ERP business applications , financial and customer relationship management systems, budgeting, warehouse accounting, as well as the joint purchase of HP servers in partnership with foreign operators Vodafone and Verizon, the operator's representatives explained.
MTS told TAdviser that, for example, the agreements reached under the contract with HP allowed the group of companies to reduce the cost of purchasing and maintaining server equipment by more than a third. The company does not disclose specific savings under this contract.
Further savings of MTS due to the unification of IT systems will also amount to hundreds of millions of rubles annually. So, on March 25, 2013, the company announced the introduction of a new intelligent software and hardware complex Medio SCP for managing subscriber calculations, the developer of which is the Sitronics division - Sitronics Telecommunications Solutions. Investments in the project amounted to 600 million rubles, and the operator expects to recoup them in two years.
According to TAdviser in MTS, the previous subscriber settlement management system was based on Comverse RTB's Comverse Technology solution. According to MTS estimates, supporting the new solution will cost it 300 million rubles. per year is cheaper in comparison with the cost of supporting the previous one.
"We will be able to reduce operating costs due to savings in technical support - a complex of work to maintain the system's operability around the clock, work to resolve operational issues related to the continuity of platform operation, on planned software updates, and so on," MTS representative Dmitry Solodovnikov told TAdviser.
Earlier in March 2013, MTS also told TAdviser that they expect to save about $60 million in seven years by migrating the largest IT systems from Oracle SPARC servers to x86 servers. This project started in 2012, and the company expects to complete it in 2014.
2011: "Limitless" License Purchase Agreement with Oracle
In April 2011, it became known that MTS will spend about $70 million on Oracle licenses that allow using its business applications on an unlimited scale. IT-subsidiary Sitronics will implement and service them, as will MTS, controlled by AFK Sistema[2].
MTS, Citronix-IT and Oracle signed a three-year contract for the purchase and implementation of an unlimited number of licenses for Oracle software products in all MTS Group companies. Citronix-IT will accompany and serve the purchased Oracle programs, she said.
Irina Lanina, vice president of Sitronics, calls the scale of the transaction and the content of the product portfolio unprecedented for the Russian IT market. The amount of the contract is $60-80 million, the manager, close to one of the parties, knows. More than $70 million, clarifies the source on the other hand.
According to Kuzmenko, MTS buys licenses for almost all families of Oracle business programs - enterprise management systems (ERP), customer relations (CRM ), business efficiency, etc. The contract for an unlimited number of licenses will allow MTS not to depend on Oracle's pricing policy, she says. Thanks to the agreement, MTS will save about 20% of the IT procurement budget, a source close to it hopes.
The contract with MTS is one of the largest in the history of Russian Oracle and is second only to the contract with the state holding Svyazinvest.
IT passport of projects in MTS
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Notes
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