"Avant-Guard" tariff plan has superceded "Youth" tariff, which becomes obsolete as of November 1, 2001. "Youth" tariff plan was MTS’ most popular tariff with federal numbers for a long time. From now on youngsters, who need mobile communications not only during the day, but also in the morning, in the evening and at night, will be able to enjoy MTS’ new competitive offer, now available round-the-clock. The per minute call cost to fixed line phones under "Avant-Guard" tariff plan is now 18¹ cents during the day, 16¹ cents in the morning and in the evening, and only 8¹ cents at night. The periods; with reduced rates have also been extended - the evening period by two hours and the night period by one hour. This means that "evening" time now starts at 7pm and "night" lasts till 7am for MTS subscribers using this tariff plan.

Mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls within the MTS network have also become cheaper. Under "Avant-Guard" tariff the cost of such outgoing call is 12¹, 10¹ and 4¹ cents, depending on the time of the call, that means discounts from 33% to 50%. Hence, MTS subscribers can now save on making calls not only to MTS subscribers in Moscow, but also to MTS subscribers, who live in the Tula, Kaluga, Pskov, Ryazan, Vladimir, Smolensk, Tver, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov regions and Komi Republic. The cost reduction, available on the "Oblast" tariff zone, has been preserved in the new tariff. When MTS subscribers leave Moscow for the Moscow region, Vladimir, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga or Pskov regions, they will pay only 12¹, 11¹ and 6¹ cents per minute depending on the time of the call for calls to Moscow fixed line phones. The subscription fee for "Avant-Guard" tariff is 5¹ USD.

The other new tariff plan "Elite" has evolved from the "Favorite" plan, which used to be the most popular tariff for business people. It has now been revamped. "Elite" is of great interest to subscribers, who travel, talk a lot, do not stay at home, and lead busy working and social lives. MTS subscriber with a prestige Moscow direct number will now pay only 24¹ cents during the day, 20¹ - in the evening and 12¹ cents at night. Calls made during public holidays and weekends will be charged only 20¹ cents at daytime (from 6:00 to 00:00) and 12¹ cents at night (from 00:00 to 6:00). While calling from mobile to mobile the cost is even lower: 16¹, 13¹ ? 6¹ cents accordingly. The subscription fee is 14¹ USD.

Both tariffs feature per second charging after the first minute of the call. Subscription fee for both "Avant-Guard" and "Elite" covers practically all the prime services: international access, national and international roaming (it covers within the MTS network 600 cities in Russia and 93 countries worldwide), call forwarding, call waiting, voice mail, and sending and receiving SMS messages. Additionally under both tariff plans the cost of the "Itemized invoice" service has been significantly reduced: the cost of a single invoice is down to 1¹ USD, the cost of a monthly invoice is down to 50¹ cents.

Commenting on the launch of the new tariffs, MTS’ Marketing Director Igor Timofeev said: "Since MTS launched its "hit" tariff plans "Youth" and "Favourite" over 18 months ago, the mobile communications market has changed significantly. We, ourselves, have also changed. Our results are impressive: an unprecedented subscriber growth, successful cooperation with the leading providers of equipment and communications channels. We have succeeded in optimizing our costs and are now focusing on helping our subscribers to cut costs. MTS now offers round-the-clock unique mobile services to all the people who constantly need mobile communications.

This is true not only for very low per minute cost and the flexibility of services provided by the new tariffs, but also for reduced costs, now available within MTS’ pan-Russian network coverage zone. When a user subscribes to MTS network, he (she) becomes a subscriber of the pan-Russian network that links practically all the regions of the European part of Russia as well as the largest regions of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. Thus, MTS subscriber receives benefits, which are not offered by any other GSM operator in Russia".

Other MTS marketing initiatives are also coming into force as of November 1, 2001. MTS now offers free incoming calls made from MTS phones to phones of MTS subscribers who use the "Active" tariff plan.

In the near future corporate users will also be able to cut costs of making calls.