Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd which operates its telecom services in India as MTS, will be discontinuing all its investments in its voice business until the spectrum auction commences in the country, and focus on its data services, reports The Economic Times. Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO of Sistema Shyam Teleservices, however informed that the existing customers will not face any issues at present, and that the company will take a decision on its voice services once the 2G spectrum auction concludes. MTS was one of the 22 telcos whose licenses were revoked when the Indian Supreme Court cancelled 122 licenses in February 2012, giving its verdict in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. Following the cancellation, Russian conglomerate Sistema had claimed that its investments were protected by Indo-Russian Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), and had asked the Indian government to honor the treaty to protect its $3.1 billion investment in Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (SSTL), the telecom joint venture with the Shyam Group. The company had also requested the government to settle the 2G dispute in six months i.e. by August 2012 and had filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court against the cancellation of its telecom licences on May 4, 2012. Speaking to ET, Vsevolod Rozanov stated that the company was suffering a loss of $1.5 million every day and that their investors were slowly losing patience due to lack of clarity in the company's future in India, which necessitated this action. He added that CDMA operations require significant CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the…
