Friday, July 13, 2012 -
MTS Uzbekistan, the Uzbek unit of a leading Russian mobile telecoms firm, said Friday it is closing its head office of sales and service in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.
Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) attributed the closure to technical reasons, according to a notice posted on their web site.
“Due to technical works, the Tashkent office of sales and service ?1, located at Tashkent city … will be temporarily closed,” the notice said.
The company did not say how long the office would remain shuttered.
The notice said that the company’s sales and service office ?2 in Tashkent will remain open as usual.
On Monday, MTS told subscribers the Uzbek State Inspection of Communication (SCI) ordered it to turn off the signal of more than 200 base stations.
MTS Uzbekistan has around 3,000 base stations in the country, but warned customers to expect interruptions and impaired mobile phone service in some areas as a result.
The state communications agency said MTS was operating those base stations without having renewed their licenses.
An MTS spokesperson suggested the Uzbek authority was not behaving unethically.
Last year, Turkmenistan forced the Russian firm to completely shut down operations for several months by canceling its contract to operate in the country.