MTS India Partners with IBM

IBM to build green data centres, targets 20% energy savings for the company

BANGALORE, India, June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today
announced that it has entered into an IT services agreement with MTS India,
the mobile telephony services brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited
(SSTL), a joint venture company between Sistema (LSE: SSA) of Russia and Shyam
Group of India. As part of the agreement, IBM will design and build two green
data centres -- one each in Chennai and Gurgaon. The move is integral to
supporting SSTL's pan India expansion plans for offering telephony services.
The green data centres will help SSTL achieve 20% energy savings.

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Speaking on the need to adopt energy-efficient IT infrastructure in an
enterprise, Mr. Vsevolod Rozanov, President and CEO, Sistema Shyam
TeleServices Ltd. said, "As a global telecom player with ambitious expansion
plans for the Indian market, we are aware of the advantage of adopting
energy-efficient operational measures and in the process will work proactively
to reduce global energy emissions. We are glad to partner with a technology
leader like IBM in making our IT infrastructure -- Green Friendly."

The data centre solution being deployed by IBM provides the facility to scale
power and cooling automatically depending on the load. IBM will also build a
Network Operations Centre (NOC) to help the SSTL team monitor and manage
applications and network in a 24/7 environment. SSTL is currently in an
expansion phase with plans to launch Pan-India telecom services in the coming
months. The scalability and dynamic nature of the solution being provided by
IBM will ensure that SSTL's expansion plan are well-supported by a robust,
resilient and Green IT infrastructure.

Shanker Annaswamy, Managing Director of IBM India Pvt. Ltd. said, "IBM's
association with Shyam Sistema TeleServices Ltd is aimed at helping our client
take advantage of leading IT infrastructure solutions and assets that IBM has
built especially for telecom companies. Moreover, SSTL's adoption of green
and energy-efficient technologies can help them optimize their resources while
serving their growing customer base across India."

The Chennai site will serve as the main data centre for SSTL, while the data
centre in Gurgaon will serve as the disaster recovery site. IBM has deployed
cooling solution at these data centres, which will result in substantial
operational savings for SSTL.

SSTL is already providing telecom services in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
and has acquired licenses and spectrum to provide mobile telephony services in
all the 22 circles across the country under its MTS brand name, recognized as
one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands in the world.

About Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited
Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL) is a joint venture company between Sistema
{LSE: SSA} of Russia and Shyam Group of India. Sistema is the majority share
holder in this joint venture with a 74% equity stake, along with the Shyam
Group, holding a 23.5% stake and the rest 2.5% being public partake.
Headquartered in Gurgaon, India, SSTL has licenses and spectrum to provide
mobile telephony services in all the 22 circles across the country. Presently,
SSTL offers its services in the Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu as well as the Kerala
circles. In a recent development, SSTL tied up with Mobile TeleSystems OJSC of
Russia to bring the globally acclaimed telecom brand -- MTS -- to India. MTS
intends to create sound value proposition for the subscriber with some strong
marketing programmes and innovative schemes.

For more information visit: http://www.mtsindia.in

About IBM
For more information, visit: www.ibm.com/services

Media Contacts:
Goldie Srivastava Shalini Wadhwa
IBM India Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd
+91-9880309691 +91 9711209768
gsrivast@in.ibm.com shalini.wadhwa@mtsindia.in

SOURCE IBM

Media, Goldie Srivastava of IBM India, +91-9880309691, gsrivast@in.ibm.com; or
Shalini Wadhwa, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd, +91-9711209768,
shalini.wadhwa@mtsindia.in